Philippe Clement hit with instant Rangers shutdown as Kris Boyd asks if he's 'watching a different game'
Kris Boyd admitted that “sometimes you just think Philippe Clement watches a different game” after Rangers’ win over Hearts at Tynecastle.
Clement got the result - if not necessarily the performance - he needed after last Sunday’s Scottish Cup embarrassment against Queen’s Park. He was helped by a couple of own goals from Jame McCart and a Vaclav Cerny strike in the 3-1 win but they rode their luck at times with Jack Butland in inspired form.
Clement, whose side are still a whopping 13 points behind Celtic in the Scottish Premiership, said afterwards: “We demanded a reaction and the team wanted that and showed it clearly, even scoring after two minutes (John Souttar) with a tight offside. I didn’t see the images back. It was an open game, one everyone enjoyed to watch, but it’s a hard place to come to win, scoring three goals and it could have been more so very positive points in the mentality the team showed after last week’s unacceptable defeat.
“They had their goalkeeper to thank as well. It was a hard-fought game from both sides.
"It’s a team that haven’t lost in the last eight games so to come to win here was important and it’s about repeating this mentality every week.
“We talk about what the Rangers mentality should be and when the scenario goes against you to keep digging in and fight for it and they all did and got the reward. They should be the basic things and we’re still working on it.
“It was not our best game of the season. We played better games but to win here is the most important. When we played well and didn’t get the points nobody mentioned it so it was about digging in with all the team together, developing the team and getting the points.”
But Boyd, in the Sky Sports studio, said: “Sometimes you just think Philippe Clement watches a different game. Big clubs in other countries and Celtic in Scotland dominate games of football. They’ve got better players and spend more money on players and wages but I never see it from Rangers.
“There’s spells when they are on top and they could maybe score a few goals but then they will revert to what we see far too often.
"But at the same time, we were criticising Rangers for losing games when they played better than this. They definitely weren’t great but it’s over domestically. The league is done and they’re out of the two Cups.
“There’s no chance of getting back into the league. If you look at the majority of the fist half performance it didn’t look like a team who had just lost to Queen’s Park. They were so passive. Rangers have won 3-1 but it wasn’t a great performance.”
