Philippe Clement travels to Prague with no recognised left-back ahead of Rangers' Europa League meeting with Sparta tomorrow evening. Not that the new manager is outwardly complaining. 

In keeping with the Belgian's composed demeanour in press appearances so far, Clement was in no mood to make excuses or lament the fact that his only fit option, Ridvan Yilmaz, was not included in the European squad by former manager Michael Beale with Borna Barisic and Dujon Sterling injured.

Instead, much like his overall approach in assuming this job mid-season, Clement will look for solutions as he takes charge of Rangers for the second time tomorrow evening. 

“There is no left-back in the squad, not a natural one," Clement said with a broad smile as if he'd been issued with a challenge rather than a problem. Ben Davies, a centre-back, or Adam Devine, a right-back, appear his most likely options.

“I’m not a coach that goes around in circles when there’s a problem. I like to find solutions so it will be another player who does not play in his normal position. He will have to fill that position and do a job for the team. You can keep on talking and being negative, but someone else needs to come in and do a job for the team.

"I expect everyone to attack together and to defend together. In this position you have different things to do, attacking and defending. So I want that mindset from my players, especially when someone has to step in in a different way from before."

Borna Barisic limped off early on at the weekend with an injury that Clement confirmed was minor. The man who replaced him against Hibs, Ridvan, is not eligible having been excluded from the European squad by Beale.

“We hope to get Borna back by the weekend or next week, so it’s not a big one," he added.

"But, of course, the timing is bad because Ridvan is not on this European list. That is a decision that was made before my time so I cannot do anything about it. It’s a white page, it’s a new story for all the players getting their chances.

READ MORE: What we learned from Philippe Clement's debut - 4-4-2, similar patterns and speed 

“I don’t look back to what happened a few weeks or months ago because it’s not important anymore. Those decisions are made, I don’t know what information or what ideas, it’s not important.

"I have a lot of things to do at the moment, it’s been a busy week and I am focused on the future of this team, not on the past.”

Clement's spell at Ibrox was announced in ideal terms on Saturday in a 4-0 win over Hibs that was, in the court of public opinion, Rangers' best performance of the season to date.

Situated in the Blue Room last week, the 49-year-old spoke about his lack of a "magic wand", stressing the reality that improvement will take time with such a heavy schedule of fixtures blockading time spent on the training pitch. The weekend's performance was an encouraging step but Clement knows wins are only important at Ibrox if achieved in succession. 

“We need to show a better level than on Saturday because this is a better team," he added.

“Sparta are really good on the ball with good quality players, good structure and a good coach also.

“So we need to have the whole team on their toes. I saw good signals over the last two days in training. Everybody is up for a great European evening and we know for those nights you have to be very focused, very concentrated and you need to take your moment.

"I want us to be a team that tries to be dominant every game, even against teams who are better than us. 

"We have qualities in the squad. Of course, it is the beginning of the story but I see players with a good focus - in training and in meetings also. When we explain which way we want to go, they try to do the right things on the pitch and off the pitch.

"I hope to create a story as fast as possible together, to make it as strong as possible. In the next two weeks we have six games, so it’s going to be hard and we will need the squad fit, need players fit, so we can make good rotation and in every second of the game we can be sharp."

Rangers last visited this venue in 2021 when Glen Kamara was targeted with boos after he was racially abused by Slavia Prague defender Ondrej Kudela the previous season.

Earlier in the day, Sparta manager Brian Priske, appealed to his own crowd, saying: "We all know what happened some years ago, so I think it’s important for sure to send the statement that players, staff, everybody is here to perform a really nice game, a really top game at our absolute highest."

Clement knows Priske and has a history with the Letna stadium himself - here in 2002, he qualified for the World Cup with Belgium.

"We’ve [Priske] known each other a really long time. He played for Genk, my old club, and after that, he came to Brugge, where we played together. We kept in touch in the years after. We had a good relationship at the club and afterwards when he became a coach. He came to Belgium with Antwerp, so I’ve known him a really long time.

"He’s a really, really nice person and he’s also a football addict, which makes for a good way to spend good evenings together. 

“Tomorrow is the type of evening that I love, all the vibe around these European games, travelling to different places and different stadiums.

“I also had a very good feeling earlier when I went onto the pitch. I just said to Todd [Cantwell], I had forgotten until I came into the stadium when I recognised it, it was here 20 years ago when we qualified for the 2002 World Cup with Belgium. So those things give you something special for nights like this."