Rangers boss Philippe Clement praised his team’s character in battling back to defeat Hearts 2-1 at Ibrox and pleaded with them to never give up.
Lawrence Shankland of Hearts scored the game’s first goal, and Rangers found it difficult to stop their visitors from the capital. At the close of the half, captain James Tavernier also missed a penalty. As the frustration among the home supporters grew, Rangers were given another penalty on 89 minutes; Tavernier saved it this time, and three minutes into stoppage time, Danilo scored to light up Ibrox.
After Celtic’s 0-0 draw at Hibs on Saturday, the win closes the gap at the top of the tight Premiership to five points, and Clement claimed to have learned a lot about his players’ mindset from this triumph.
“I am feeling very happy because I have been communicating with the team for the past two days that I am still in an observation period,” Clement stated. “I am aware of their football prowess, as well as their personalities as a collective. If there is ever a time, and it always does, when things do not go as planned, I wonder how they would respond.
“It’s obvious that they responded the way I wanted. I discussed that with them. Our ability to persevere through all setbacks and to keep doing what we are doing because we are already making progress as a team must be our greatest asset in football. Of course, there are still a lot of details that need to be worked out, but if we consistently act with the correct mindset and respond appropriately afterward, we will be a very strong team. We demonstrated that as a team—not just with the starting eleven, but with the entire group, including the players who came in to add extra vigour.
Was it flawless? Nope. However, it serves as a reference game for me because of what they have witnessed—many positive things can occur if they never give up. Even the greatest teams in the world don’t win every game, so winning is not a given, but we will win a lot more than we have up to this point.”
With particular appreciation, Clement directed his attention to his captain Tavernier, who bounced back from an early penalty miss to score later from the spot and set up Danilo for the victory. The Belgian went on, “That is a big step forward for me and in that way Tav was an example today.” “You can stop accepting responsibility, lose confidence, and fall when you miss the penalty and receive the stick as a result. However, he took the second penalty, scored, and then assisted on the second goal. In my locker room, I want to see a lot of players that have that mindset. In my dressing room, I want everyone to have that mindset because that’s when we’re going to
When asked if the players were beginning to understand what he was saying, Clement said, “You have to ask them.” Today, I saw the team that I had hoped to see—one that never gave up. Additionally, as soon as we made adjustments, the players entered the game head-on and showed confidence in their abilities. The current situation is terrible. The first time someone attacks you, they score a goal. After that, you start to dominate. You miss a penalty, get balls on the touchline instead of in, and you have a lot of shots—I think you had 28 today. We had a pretty good lead—I believe we had 78% ball possession. Everything is present, but it is not entirely present. Halftime, I told them.
Clement emphasised the significance of closing the distance with Celtic. “Do you mean five points?” he asked. “I’m glad you informed me. I will reiterate what I said a few days ago for the next few months so that you are already aware of it. Alternatively, you can discuss it with your Belgian colleagues, who have been aware of it for a considerable amount of time. The next game is what I want my team to be focused on. Not a thing more. Not a thing more. To the greatest extent possible, we must concentrate on ourselves in order to win all three points throughout the season in every competition. It’s the only thing that matters. Next, at
