The Ibrox manager understands the significance of defeating Aris on Thursday in the Europa League.
According to Philippe Clement, Rangers will “add stature” as a team in the new year when they have European football to look forward to.
The Ibrox team knows that a win at home will keep them in the Europa League past the group stage when they play Aris Limassol on Thursday night. Success on the Continent, in Clement’s opinion, will play a crucial role in helping the group of players he inherited from Michael Beale develop a winning mentality.
“Being in Europe after January is important for the club, for the players as well,” he stated. Everyone enjoys playing while watching these games throughout Europe. Having strong European results is also crucial for clubs because it raises their profile. I want those who are aspirational working here. My goal is to produce winners. And those who constantly want to win are, in my opinion, winners. Not one, not two competitions. They aspire to triumph in all they do, including their training.
Although Clement expressed his desire to address the “imbalance” in the team, he stated that he would need to take another month to thoroughly evaluate what has to be done in the January window. “How much time have I spent here now? Five weeks? I’m only halfway through my journey to actually make good decisions around that because January is still five weeks away at the very least,” he said. “A few players have trained two or three times in the last five weeks, and I haven’t even seen them on the pitch to play games yet.
“It is not realistic to make a clear judgement about the entire squad at this time. There is an imbalance in the squad, so naturally, we have ideas, have discussed it, and are looking at things as a club. We have a lot of players in some positions and not so many in others. These are the things to aim for in January; the performance of every player over the next five weeks will be highly intriguing.
