Following the 2-0 victory over Motherwell on Christmas Eve, defender Connor Goldson joined nine other players on the treatment table. Rangers manager Philippe Clement acknowledged that he is taking the club’s ever-expanding injury list “day by day.”
Goldson is doubtful for Wednesday’s game against Ross County at Ibrox after hobbling off with a groin injury with only a few minutes left at Fir Park. In addition to the forwards Danilo and Kemar Roofe, midfielders Nicolas Raskin, John Lundstram, Tom Lawrence, Ryan Jack, and Jose Cifuentes, and defenders Borna Barisic and Ben Davies, Clement is obviously frustrated by the amount of important players he is missing from the team.
Regarding the injury issue and the players’ likelihood of returning for the Staggies’ visit, Clement remarked, “Everyone is asking these questions.” “I need to talk about it even though I’m a little tired of it.” I dunno, we’ll see the next day, and then it’s just another game. We assess the players’ fitness and the state of the situation on a daily basis. I’m living day by day because it’s hard to plan ahead.
Clement said of Goldson in particular, “We will see tomorrow.” At the conclusion of the game, he felt something, but we’ll see tomorrow.
Clement was more satisfied with his team’s performance at Motherwell in the hazardous circumstances. Kieran Dowell gave Rangers the lead in the fourth minute of the rain- and wind-filled game, and Todd Cantwell doubled the lead on the 16th. After that, the hosts, who had lost their previous fifteen games, posed little threat as Rangers closed the gap on Celtic at the top of the Premiership to two points.
“We played a really good first half with good attacking football, considering the conditions we were in today,” Clement remarked. “Several good chances, two excellent goals.” The wind was even more intense in the second half, and the stadium was really turning due to its strength. Playing the positive quality that we wish to deliver was challenging. The other side always feels like they are in a game as long as there is a two-goal margin, so they battle and put a lot of balls in the box. We were very focused and skilled during the combat. They may not have had a single effort on goal from the Motherwell side. We played with excellent control, earning three well-earned points.
The fact that the system remains intact with two unfamiliar men in midfield while having nine injured players is what pleases me the most. You fail to notice the distinction. To complete the task at hand, the team is incredibly attentive and determined. We consistently win games by dominating, we maintain clean sheets, and everyone is aware of what we are doing.
Stuart Kettlewell, the manager of Motherwell, was disappointed with his team’s performance and said it was just another difficult day at work. “The game was defined in the first few minutes,” he claimed. Whatever you want to call it—fragility, soft underbelly, etc.—the first goal is more difficult to give up than to hold onto the ball and play it into a better location. The most annoying thing is that we found and fixed that before the game. In our perspective, it is quite naive.
“We know Cantwell is skilled in the box for the second goal, but I refer to it as emergency defending—putting your body in danger for your team. In the second half, we responded really well and produced some moments. I have faith in these athletes to make a difference. They can score quite a few points at this level, based on what I’ve seen. They may not have improved as football players, but I do believe that they have occasionally made poor decisions during games.
Kettlewell claimed that Cyriel Dessers had pulled forward Mika Biereth in the penalty box, but he was perplexed as to why his team was not given a penalty in the second half. Just prior to that incident, Brodie Spencer and Ridvan Yilmaz tangled, and a video assistant reviewed the play and determined that it was not a penalty kick. Kettlewell accepted this.
“It’s possible that the Brodie Spencer penalty claim was overblown because there was very little physical contact,” Kettlewell continued. But Dessers’ pull on Mika Biereth’s arm when he appears to be the favorite to get a touch in the back post—I’ve seen such calls awarded as penalties a lot, and Rangers have profited from a lot of those kinds of occurrences. Are we examining them? That one may or may not have been checked.
