Clement challenges Dujon Sterling to prove Rangers position
Philippe Clement’s side face Olympiacos tomorrow evening <i>(Image: Alan Harvey – SNS Group)</i>
Philippe Clement’s side face Olympiacos tomorrow evening (Image: Alan Harvey – SNS Group)
Here’s everything Rangers manager Philippe Clement had to say to the press ahead of a Europa League meeting with Olympiacos.
Philippe, can you just give us a run through the squad news? I think Tom Lawrence hasn’t travelled.
No, that’s correct. Tom got injured in the cup semi-final, like you saw. So he will be out for several weeks, 4-6 weeks. So, he will not be there the next couple of weeks.
How big a blow has that given Tom’s form this season and the goals he’s provided to the team?
Yeah, of course he’s been important. He took the role really well. This season he scored several really important goals, but not only that, also in the play, also defensive-wise. But it gives chances to other players to prove themselves. It’s like that in football. It’s part of football also. We don’t have many (injuries) for the moment, touch wood. We want to continue in that way – with all the squad to be available. He started the season really well. He has played a key role in the team and has helped both in the play and the goals he’s scored. And in general, the fact that he creates chances for the other players. But that’s football. We play with the team we have and we will keep the players available.’
You promised to be a very hostile reception for your players. How confident are you that the players can stand up to that?
No, I’m confident about that. Okay, we have a few guys who are less experienced, but we also have enough experienced players in the squad. They’re used to playing at Ibrox. That helps also. If you have a team who plays in a smaller stadium and come here, it’s different. In Malmo it was also a really good atmosphere. That’s what you want. European nights, there’s always some magic. It’s always something special. Different playing styles, different players that you don’t know really well. And in that way, for a player, it’s always nice to play in stadiums like this. Big stadiums with a lot of crowd. So I think everybody will embrace that and be happy with that.’
What do you make of Olympiacos?
We know what they did last season, of course, winning that trophy. It’s a big club. They won two times really deservedly against Malmo and Braga. So,we know it’s a really big test tomorrow. It’s a big game, but we’re looking forward to that and to impose ourselves and to go for a good result. And the other games also. There’s not one game that we’re going to throw away. We want to play against every opponent to get points. Otherwise it’s of no use to play this Europa League. This is the mentality we want to see in the squad. Whatever the opponent is, and they can have a lot of stars, we’re going to go to get the points. We have a lot of respect for Olympiacos. So for us it’s a really good test for our team.
Is Dujon Sterling ready for consistent minutes?
I’m not sure that he’s ready now for 90 minutes in games. So that he needs to prove the next weeks. He’s been struggling two months with not a big injury, but something that stopped him from really sprinting. He’s not been his normal self, like it was last season. Because of that he didn’t have the (fitness) level that he had before. That’s why he played less minutes. Working with the medical staff we found a solution how to solve it. It’s solved now. He feels better and that’s why he played better also. It’s normal that he will get more minutes if he plays better. Those are the rules in football, in the squad. It’s about proving yourself in the training and in the games when you come in that you’re ready. I hope we can get back the Dujon that we saw last season. Because in the beginning of the season he almost didn’t play. I was surprised when I came in the first weeks that he didn’t play.
Is the injury situation still frustrating?
No, we need to be realistic about that. I don’t think there’s one squad in the world where there are no injuries. That’s a utopia. In periods yes but last season we had in a lot of moments 12 players out. That’s never been the case this season. So there are changes made in staff, in the way of working, in a lot of things. And we start to see also the benefits of that. For example, John Souttar in his career never played so many minutes as he’s been doing now. Never. Before he always had injuries in those moments and there are other examples also in that way. So there are good steps made. We still have to make steps to make the team in general more robust. I’m happy to see some players back. Nico [Raskin] last season, he missed a lot of games. So we’re happy that we have several of those players back. Ridvan Yilmaz is also now training with the squad. Rabbi [Matondo] starts to train with the squad. The more players we have back, the better we will be with games every three days. Because it’s a lot of pressure on the bodies in that way to perform every time 200% every three days. We will need all of them.
How big a performance is it going to require tomorrow to get something out of this game?
Clearly more. Because they won also against Malmö. And they won against Braga and I rate Braga also highly and they won with 3-0. No, we need a really big performance from all the squad, all those starting and coming in but I feel also that they are very hungry to do that and going to this final gave also another part to the group. It’s now to confirm that in this game at a higher level against a better opponent, to raise our level again.
Rangers FC
Philippe Clement
Football
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