Philippe Clement's Rangers vs Hibs press conference in full

How has your first week been?

Busy! But we expected that. It's not been a full week also. I's been a week analysing everything, getting to know everybody and their way of working, the way I want to implement things. I've been in a building where everybody wants to work together to do the right things. It's never perfect from the beginning - that's impossible. But I see the good intentions in the staff, with the players and in the last two days international players have come back which has been a difference. I look forward to tomorrow to see the little seeds we've planted this week, and to see how fast they grow.

What have you learned about your players?

I learned a lot but not for your eyes or ears. I see a lot of good things here but I see a lot of things that we can make better. We need to focus on that. To do the things that were not good before, to make them better. I saw good things in training, I know a game is different. That's another atmosphere compared to training sessions. I don't expect the perfect game tomorrow. I expect there will be things that go wrong but it's important how you react in those moments. The players are open to learning, I've seen that in the last couple of days, it's now continuing this story to make it better and better.

How much can you change in a week?

I hope [fans can see differences] but I am not Harry Potter with a magic stick who can change everything suddenly - it doesn't work that way. That's the tough balance coming in mid-season, it's not the first time it was the same for me at Genk and Monaco. At first, you need to analyse what could be better and what is good also, then make prioritisations. You look at what is the most important things now this week to get better. If I try to do everything at one moment I kill the players and you don't have anything. It needs to be step by step - that's the only way. I'm somebody who stays calm. I know the way to go but I want to go fast also. It depends on how fast players react, and understand. It can be that you need to explain some things only one time and other things ten times. They need to know why to do it and how to do it. Football is a sport of 10 million small details. I see a lot they already do in a good way and there are quite a lot we need to make better.

Important to establish a bond early on with fans?

Of course, I am looking forward to that but I know this will not be our best game of the season. It will not be a reflection of totally what I want. I hope to see things we've trained, that we see them in the best way but I am realistic also, I am not a naive person. One thing is really important I want to create much more of a bond between supporters the fans and the players again. It's a crucial thing for this club on both sides, for the players but also for the fans. Let's start with that tomorrow. 

An excitement ahead of tomorrow?

I like it, this is one of the reasons why I came here and not another place. I love the passion, I am a football addict, I love the atmosphere in the stadium but it's not the first time I've done it. My focus will be on the players, not on what the fans are thinking about me - that's not important. It's about the players, the pitch, winning games and playing better and better football with a dominant, aggressive style.

Can you tell us about your new assistant?

I have known him for a long time. We have a good relationship and he knows how I want to work. He is really loyal and really good at developing players. He had a good career, knows the details of the game and can make players better. He is somebody who is also really good at working with others. It's really important for assistants to work really well with the staff, I want to create a team around the team who are even better than the team themselves. 

Can you give us a squad update?

Todd Cantwell is back, Ryan Jack will be back but not playing 90 minutes. That's an important thing you guys need to know. I always work in a really good way with the medical staff. I am really on top of that so in the beginning all medical staff are surprised because I want to know all the details, discuss all the things, and work more individually with the players towards what they do in the week physically to make them ready for the games. I want to create the strongest physical team in the league so you need to align things, that's everywhere in the team. If they say they can't play 90 minutes I will take that into account. 

Is the injury situation something you need to improve?

Of course, all the players not available for 90 minutes at the moment is too much. You're not happy with that as a manager - you want all the players to be fit. It's one part of our job to keep everyone fit as much as possible. Things can happen in a contact sport but in all the places I worked there were always not many injuries and the availability was above 90 percent. That's one of the things we want to improve over the next couple of months.

How is Danilo?

Yeah he's adapting, it's his first moment with a mask which is always different. Every player reacts differently but you see he gets more confident with it every day.

Is he available this weekend?

Probably we will need him. We have too many offensive players missing at the moment.

Who is unavailable?

For the moment, Tom Lawrence, Rabbi Matondo, Kemar Roofe can't play 90 minutes, Todd Cantwell can't play 90 minutes. That's a lot of players who you can't play or need to change.

When will Todd be fully available?

We will see, he had a good week and has adapted well after the injury. Now it's step by step increasing his physical ability and robustness.

You want to make small changes, how do you build individual confidence?

It depends on the individual. I need to first put out a team that wins the game - that's clear. Of course, there needs to be more confidence but it has to do with having clear structure, and ideas about what we have to do with and without the ball. We've worked on that in the last couple of days but not much, it's two days now that all the players are back. That's not so much time to change the total style of playing football.

What will be your team's identity?

Like I said this week; dominant football, changing of positions, chances, with a clear structure to avoid the transitions.

Your attitude towards players being on social media?

To be honest, it's been a busy week. I didn't have time to look at social media - not even mine. Somebody is doing it for me. I check if he posts something, but I'm not looking at reactions or other things.

Generally, are you okay with players being on social media?

It's part of the world today. Of this generation. They need to know how to use it and what to do with it and not to be influenced by it. If you say there are problems with that, it's another point I can put on my list for the next couple of weeks.

Philippe, do you want to change training in relation to injuries?

Yes. I cannot go into too much detail but in the way we train, the length, and what you do. There are a lot of things we can do in a different way.

Has previous training affected the players' shape just now?

No I'm not saying that because I was not here. You can hear stories people tell, if you were not here to see it it's not important. What is is what's now and how we're going to improve that we have fewer injured players. The past is the past, this is a new story, I know really well how I want to work. More individually on the physical levels because that is the modern game, we're going to train collectively but within that, players will have more individual targets physically. I adapt to that in every training. It takes a lot of work for the staff so we are starting to organise all those things that can work in that way so we can build the strongest physical team like in previous clubs. It's a very important thing because football is a sport of 11 players moving together and it's a very important part of the way I want to see it. That players move at the same moment with the same ideas to create spaces for each other. It's a sport with individual athletes. It's our task to get the best of each individual. The potential of each individual is different. The things they need do to depend on their position. If you train the same way between a centre-back and a full-back, they need to do different things on the pitch. You need to give them more individual things also. It's my task to combine all those things together in one training. 

Have players been playing within themselves?

It's not [that I want them] to be risky and do stupid things, that's not what I want. To give shit lateral passes in our own half. It's not that, it's about being brave, playing forward, not thinking we'll keep the ball and I don't take a risk now, I don't lose the ball so nobody will boo at me. It's about giving the ball forward, making runs without the ball without being afraid that if I make this run I won't make it back in time. To do that we need to create first a structure for the team. We've made the first steps in that way, if we want to attack in a certain way what are the positions of everybody at the moment? We can develop this week by week.