Rangers squad doubts about Philippe Clement expected after claims he has made about them
Rangers players will be starting to doubt manager Philippe Clement because of his inability to own up to mistakes, says Derek Ferguson.
The Belgian has come under increasing pressure at Ibrox thanks to a number of poor results, especially in the Scottish Premiership, and uninspiring football to go along with it.
But he has repeatedly increased the negative spotlight on himself with bizarre claims after bad games as he attempts to deflect attention away from failings, while insisting his players have been more impressive than they have.
The 2-1 defeat away to Jimmy Thelin's Aberdeen on 30 October left Rangers nine points adrift of their opponents, as well as Old Firm rivals Celtic, yet Clement claimed afterwards it had been one of his side's "better performances" of the season [Rangers Review, 30 October], to the disbelief of Gers supporters [Heart & Hand Podcast, 30 October].
Similarly, he responded to a nightmare 3-0 thrashing at Parkhead on 1 September, his fifth failure to win the derby in five, by pointing to the 6-0 victory over struggling Ross County a week earlier [BBC Sportsound via Daily Record, 2 September].
Ferguson believes this sort of behaviour reflects poorly on the Ibrox boss and doesn't think it will be lost on his players either if he keeps coming up with excuses that make no sense.
Rangers boss comments after Celtic and Aberdeen panned
Speaking exclusively to Ibrox News he said: "It's on him. You look at all the other managers, just talking about Scottish football, most of them are honest and up front.
"If they make mistakes they acknowledge it but what they do as well is they tinker a little bit, change the formation, they'll throw in somebody that's got a little bit more guile, a little bit more pace, a little bit more power or physicality.
"And I think that's where our manager has got to do better. Because he's got the players at his disposal. Is he getting the best out of them? At the moment, no. We're so up and down it's unbelievable.
"I think the players as well will be looking at him, and they'll be having slight doubts about him, which I think is totally natural.
"So those games [Kilmarnock and Aberdeen], I think the managers' got to take a bit of the blame, but I think he's got to be more honest and up front when he's talking in front of the media."
For more Rangers news, follow us on Facebook or join our brand new WhatsApp Channel for instant updates to be sent straight to your phone.