Philippe Clement insists Rangers injury crisis is NOTHING compared to last year as he makes bold claim
Philippe Clement insists his current Rangers injury crisis does not compare with the selection nightmare he faced last season.
The Ibrox boss had to deal with having more than an entire team of first-team stars crocked last term after replacing Michael Beale. The Big Belgian insisted the club would deal with that situation by overhauling their medical department. But the knocks continue to pile up and Clement will now lead his team to Dens Park for Thursday’s nights showdown with Dundee minus captain James Tavernier, keeper Jack Butland fellow key men John Souttar, Leon Balogun, Nana Kasanwirjo and John Souttar.
Stand-in skipper Nico Raskin is also out through suspension while Dujon Sterling - who limped off in Leith as Gers were held to a 3-3 draw by Hibs on Sunday - is also a major doubt for Dens Park. But Clement insists this year’s problems are not the same. “It's a totally different situation,” he stressed.. “So last season we had in big spells 10-12 players out.
“Now we have, how many? Four for sure. Okay, Jack also. That's an accident. It's not really an injury. It's a contact injury. Some of the others are also contact injuries. That's part of football. The difficult thing is it's all in one position, in that way. So that's for every club in the world a difficulty, you cannot predict that.
“You don't want to have seven centre-backs in your selection. That's not possible. So that's the case. Because for the rest, a lot of players are available and are back. So we've never been this season in a situation that we had 12 injuries at the same time. Never been this season. And the club worked also really hard to strengthen some departments.
“So there are really good steps made. So we cannot compare with the situation in the last season.”
Sterling will be assessed in the morning but Clement admits his team are up against it on the fitness front. He said: “Yeah, of course, there is no club in the world who is happy when there are so many centre-backs [out].
“It is the same position where you miss players. But it is about finding solutions and that is what we have been doing the last couple of weeks, like for example putting Ridvan at right full-back and doing a really good job there.
“We need to be creative in that way to have a good level with the defence and not concede the goals we did against Hibs from the set-pieces. That annoyed me a lot that we lost not with open play chances but set-pieces so that is what we addressed and I need to make choices around this game because it is also one of the strengths of Dundee.”
Asked if Balogun’s injury was more serious than first thought, he replied: “No but maybe in trying to get him back we get a little bit of reaction out of that.
“He will be back in the short term but it's not good enough to play tomorrow. So, no, it's not that it's a much bigger injury than it was. But he gets some irritation by trying to be ready for that.”
And on Souttar - who is set to be ruled out for “several weeks yet” - he added: “It is not longer than I first thought. Yes, I got a date. But like I said before also, I don't want to put a knife on the throat of my medical staff giving up with one date.
“And I said it to all you guys. That if that day the player is not there and they're doing a bad job, it doesn't work that way with getting players back.
“So, they will not be out for months. Tav will be for sure faster than John. I can speak in those terms.
“But I don't want to put that pressure on the medical staff, of course. I put pressure to get them back as fast as possible. And we're working all together in the club to do that.”
Gers head to Tayside hoping to arrest a dismal run of form on the road over the festive period. They've taken one point from a possible nine after slipping up against St Mirren, Motherwell and Hibs.
And Clement confessed it's not been good enough, saying: "It's a normal thing that you guys ask that one. Because it's true about points.
"It's not a story about one thing. It's a story about the season also. Different things. Like the Hibs game. I think the team played really well.
"And we scored three really good goals. So we had the domination.
"But you take two goals that are avoidable by winning the duels. And it's about duels. It's not about an organisation. It's about duels. And you get a penalty against. I see also at Ref Watch, for example, that people who played football all say this is not a penalty.
"Like my feeling is about that. So that's also something to take into consideration, of course, about the end result.
"I was not happy. And I told you guys about this like the St Mirren game and the Motherwell game, by starting well and then getting a goal against with an individual mistake.
"And then rushing things. In that way, we did much better against Hibs and we kept on playing.
"And a good example for that is for me the third goal when we were not rushing things and we waited for the right moment to do the right things around the 16 instead of putting these balls in the box like we've been doing.
"For sure against Motherwell it was too much the case and it was in the emotions of wanting to come back and the rush from the players to do it better and to win the game. So you need to find a balance in that way in the rush to force it to score.
"But to keep over you and keep on doing the way we attack. So, yeah. That's in the young team. Things that they need to learn about.
"That's decision-making and sticking to the plan and keep on going."
