Rangers blur line between delight and despair but this time Clement’s deflection tactics had a point – Keith Jackson
Our man says the Ibrox club’s fans don’t know if they are coming or going after more dropped points on the road
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND – JANUARY 05: Rangers Manager Philippe Clement looks dejected during a William Hill Premiership match between Hibernian and Rangers at Easter Road, on January 05, 2025, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)
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Often there can be a surprisingly thin line between delight and despair.
And right now it seems Rangers are determined to push the boundaries of both as they head into the second half of the season throwing points behind them almost every time they hit the road. Of course, they experienced the fine margins for themselves during last month’s Premier Sports Cup Final when they came within a penalty kick of lifting the first trophy of the season only to leave the national stadium empty handed and emotionally crushed.
What’s gone on over the course of the intervening weeks, however, hasn’t just narrowed that line. It’s rendered it completely blurred to such an extent that the club’s supporters can’t know with any certainty whether they’re coming or going now that 2025 is up and running.
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They made their way back across the M8 on Sunday afternoon with that familiar feeling in the pit of their stomach having seen their side fail to win another match away from home.
Rocky Bushiri celebrates scoring to make it 3-3
A 3-3 draw with Hibs means they have now registered only three wins from 10 games on their travels around the top flight this season, which does not just represent a truly woeful record but also carries with it a paltry points return of 12 from 30.
And this latest slip-up comes at a time when these same fans are still smarting over the five points dropped by the sports science department during back-to-back post Christmas away days at St Mirren and Motherwell. They’ve been around the block often enough over these last 12 or 13 years to recognise the point in any campaign when the wheels have officially come off another title race.
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They know that’s precisely what happened when manager Philippe Clement gave into the hair brained demands made of him by the nutty professors inside the medical lab at Auchenhowie. The unfathomable decisions made over that bizarre festive period mean Rangers were no longer realistic challengers for this season’s big prize even before Sunday’s dramatic plot twister of a contest in the Capital..
And yet, when things were at their most illogical, Clement has been left with no choice but to revert to some old school basics. If the number crunchers were not escorted off the premises with their laptops then perhaps they were reminded to stay in their lane. Because, even despite the end result of Sunday’s thriller, now that the manager has reverted to picking his best players as often as he possibly can, there is a very different look about his team.
They opened up Sunday looking almost identical to the side which romped to a three goal win over Celtic at Ibrox on January 2. And not just in the way they were going about picking Hibs apart but also in personnel. Astonishingly, it was the first time since the season began that Clement has sent out the same starting XI for back to back matches. And it showed.
The visitors stormed into a two goal lead inside the first 20 minutes and, had they been a little more clinical with the chances they created during that blistering assault, it could have been three, four or five. Also, the quality of the finishing from Hamza Igamane – who helped himself to the first two before going on to complete a hat-trick in the second half – will have given the Rangers support yet more reason to believe they have a serious striker on their hands.
If Igamane continues to improve at such a rapid rate then Clement will be entirely vindicated in his assertion that the Ibrox club would not have been able to afford him had they waited another 12 months to make their move in the market. Igamane looks like the goal getter and focal point Rangers have been crying out for ever since Cyriel Dessers was first paraded in the No.9 shirt.
Soon, rather than being unable to afford to buy him, they may very well be unable to turn down the kind of offers they receive. But that’s all for some point in the future and part of the bigger picture. In the here and now Rangers continue to wobble around in circles under Clement where the actual business of winning football matches is concerned.
The Belgian appeared to jab the finger of blame at match ref John Beaton and his helpers in the VAR bunker after twice seeing his side throw away the lead. It may have sounded like a deflectionary tactic given that he has made a habit of looking around for someone else to take the fall for him throughout this abysmal run of results away from home.
But – on this particular occasion – he probably had a point.
Hibs are awarded a penalty after Josh Campbell is fouled in the box by Rangers’ Ianis Hagi
When Beaton pointed to the spot he appeared not to realise that Josh Campbell had whipped the legs from under Ianis Hagi rather than the other way around as the pair clattered into one another inside Liam Kelly’s box.
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Yes, it was a key moment in the match given that it presented Martin Boyle with the chance to slot home his second goal of the day from the spot and the Australian obliged by smashing his effort into the roof of Kelly’s net to even up the scores at 2-2.
However, Igamane went one better less than 10 minutes later when he restored Rangers’ lead. And Clement and his players must spend more time analysing what they did over those frantic closing stages to allow Hibs to comeback once again, rather than focus on a split second decision which, in truth, could have gone either way.
Yes, the sport scientists must have been blowing a gasket as the data hit their inboxes. Rangers were running out of legs and fit bodies all over the pitch. But, it’s in these critical moments, when a manager and his biggest players are supposed to earn their corn.
There is as yet no algorithm or metric known to man which can quantify the desire of an athlete to triumph at all costs. Or to put a number on the power of their will to win and the ability of the mind to dictate to the body when it’s too fatigued to continue, rather than the other way around.
Clement’s Rangers continue to be found wanting in that department, regardless of what sums the boffins have come up with. Clement’s in-game management towards Sunday’s thrilling finale should also be placed under a microscope. Was he correct, for example, to re-arrange the heart of his midfield for the last 10 minutes – throwing on Connor Barron for an exhausted Vaclav Cerny but moving Mohamed Diomande to the right flank?
It may sound a bit like splitting hairs as, whether by accident or design, Clement got almost everything else right on the day. But if he wants to control the controllables and keep himself in a job for the long haul, then his time would be better spent examining the impact of his own decisions rather than sheltering himself behind those of others.
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