Philippe Clement Rangers deflection tactics don't wash as pundits pick apart Dundee remarks
Philippe Clement insisted Dundee were LUCKY to have claimed a point from sluggish Rangers. But the Ibrox boss has been accused of using deflection tactics to protest his under-performing players.
Gers lost more ground in the title race after slumping to a goalless draw at Dens Park, just days after their shock 3-2 defeat at Ross County. It leaves them three points adrift of leaders Celtic with five games to go, including a must-win trip to Parkhead next month. Clement raised eyebrows by claiming he was pleased by the reaction of his team after their Dingwall horror show but his comments didn't wash with Sky pundits Kris Boyd, James McFadden and Chris Sutton.
Asked by host Eilidh Barbour if he agreed with Clement's post-match verdict, ex-Gers striker Boyd said: "No I don't think in the terms of the chances created. I didn't really see any clear-cut. Rangers got into plenty of good positions in the pitch. Fabio Silva I touched on in the first-half, there was one in the second as well and he was sleeping. When you get into those positions as a forward player you've got to get on the move and make up the mind up of your winger.
"I said it at the weekend, Rangers can't depend on one player coming back and making a difference. It has to be better. You can't go to Ross County and get beat. You can't come here tonight and draw when you are in a title race. Listen, full credit to Ross County and Dundee but Rangers have got to be a lot better than they are.
"You are talking about big players stepping up. Cantwell, what has he done tonight again? Lawrence? You are looking for more. I think Sima - yes he is coming back from injury - but yo are looking for more. Kemar Roofe, again, he's not played football in a long time but Rangers never really created anything for him. He's a penalty box striker, if you get the ball in there he has shown he will score goals. Desseres came on and it didn't really work. From a forward point of view the substitutions were poor. Rangers have got problems at this moment in time."
Celtic legend Sutton wasn't having Clement's assessment either as he said: "I've been really impressed with Philippe Clement.. up until tonight. I don't know what game he was watching. To call Dundee lucky... they weren't lucky. He did say that Rangers lacked a spark. He said people shouldn't jump to conclusions... the conclusion is, in the huge couple of games, they haven't stepped up when they needed to.
"It's come to the business end of the season and they needed to build momentum and they are losing momentum at this moment in time and that is not a good look. Unfortunately for him, people look at the whole season and if they finish second, we know second is last in Glasgow. We saw the reaction from the Rangers fans at the end, they aren't happy. He's got this Rangers team back into a title race and then all of a sudden they are crumbling."
While McFadden suggested the Belgian was attempting to protect his players from the inevitable backlash that will follow after three games without a win in the league. McFadden added: "The more he spoke, the more I'm thinking that he's trying to protect his players. If he comes out now and says, 'Not good enough, didn't create enough, not enough tempo, we looked tired, we don't have enough energy...'
"You don't have the time to go and try to pick your players back up if you come out publicly and slate them and say it's not good enough and we're too far off in terms of the title. So straight away he goes on the defensive. You see him at the end deep in a conversation with his assistant manager.
"If he felt what he said in the press conference, 'That was unlucky, we created chances.' That was calculated from him to look after his players because if he goes for them now, they've got absolutely no chance of staying in the title. I don't know if it will work because it looks like a group of players who need to be told it's not good enough."