Today, following Rangers’ goalless draw with Aberdeen at Pittodrie due to an injury-time penalty given by referee Nick Walsh after he had watched a replay, Philippe Clement launched an ardent defence of video assistant refereeing.
After being urged to check his pitchside monitor by his Clydesdale House colleague Andrew Dallas, Walsh’s decision to rule that Stefan Gartenmann had fouled Connor Goldson inside his own area infuriated North-east club supporters.
James Tavernier, the captain of the Ibrox club, stepped up and converted from 12 yards to earn the visitors a 1-1 draw and a certain Premiership point, which infuriated Barry Robson and his players.
Clement, who has managed Rangers without a loss in eight games, accepted the ruling and stated that he thought the new technology made the game more equitable.
He responded, “I was asked this question about my opinion of VAR a few weeks ago.” It makes the game more honest, which is why I like it.
Of course, mistakes and imprecise decisions still happen occasionally. After games, there are a lot of opinions. People react and become supporters of one team over another.
However, if you’re being objective, all you can say is that VAR makes the game more honest than it was when I played. Thus, I approve of that. It is obviously a penalty. There is a penalty if you pull a shirt like that. That is not how you should use your hands.
Rangers could have cut Celtic’s lead in the Premiership to six points if they had prevailed; they still have a game to play.
Clement countered, saying, “We ought to have won this game. Our chances were the best. It was one of those days when everything doesn’t go as planned.
That’s because the other team’s excellent goalie missed two clear opportunities and struck the crossbar twice. But at last, we scored, and I believe that everyone can clearly see that it was a penalty. Connor has a really tight shirt.
We lose two points in the end, but the key takeaway is that we played poorly for the first fifteen minutes. That’s what I told the team.
“We didn’t start the game with enough skill. After fifteen minutes, we took the lead, created opportunities, and displayed the best football play. That’s when we started winning the duels. So, we must spend 90 minutes getting to that level.
“If you have the expected goals we had today, we should have scored more goals,” Clement continued. A significant number of goals are anticipated in an away game against a formidable and skilled opponent.
Acclaim is due to Aberdeen. When you come up against them, they will undoubtedly defend in small areas with a lot of fervour and numbers.
Making all these opportunities is therefore difficult. Hence, the team performed admirably in that regard. After that, centimetres are involved. We struck the crossbar twice. We had a couple more excellent opportunities, so that could have been two goals.
Ryan Jack, a midfielder for Rangers, missed the Aberdeen match because of an undisclosed injury. Jack represented Scotland against Norway during the international break.
Clement acknowledged that if the player wants to extend his career, he may need to decide whether to continue playing for his country. The player is in the running for a spot in the Euro 2024 finals.
When asked if the former Aberdeen player would be available for Thursday night’s Europa League matchup in Govan against Aris Limassol, Clement replied, “We don’t know yet.” I’m not sure if he’ll be ready for Thursday night, but I don’t think it will be something for a long time—more like a short while. It will, in my opinion, be tense.
Should Jack decide to continue playing for Scotland, we can consider that. As a player, I’ve also experienced the feeling that your body is becoming increasingly incapable of handling both because you never get a break.
In the coming weeks, we’ll determine whether or not we really need to have this conversation. However,
