Philippe Clement has spoken to the media after the win over Hearts. Here is every word he had to say.

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What was your take on that performance today?

That in the first half I saw a lot of good things. I saw, again, a really good goal, comparable with the goal we scored in Olympiacos, with finding the right spaces and from the back until the front, making good combination play, making good runs and scoring a good goal. We missed then in the first half to score the second goal and to kill the belief of the opponent. What we wanted to do in the second half, you come out and after I think 30 seconds or one minute you make a mistake and you get a ball against the post in that moment. And after that it went up and down with more downs than ups in our game and we were too sloppy on the ball and not making the right choices like we did in the first half. And that way Hearts came more in the game without really creating good opportunities. But they stay in the game because it's only one goal difference.

Were you getting increasingly more frustrated as the game went on?

Yeah, because we do good things in the first half in the last couple of weeks and I see things that I don't want to see that need to be better to control the game, to manage the game and also to score the second goal. You have also the opportunities, several good opportunities, to score the second goal also. So we need to take those. Of course we also hit the crossbar, that was a good attack but we should have done that faster in the game and then you have a different kind of game the last half hour. Also at the end, if in the last minute of the game you get a free kick on the opponent's half and you end with that free kick, a ball for your goalkeeper and then a throw-in for the opponent, then we lack management of the game. But it's a young squad, they still need to learn a lot of things. They are really hungry, full of desire to learn, to become better. They are becoming better, they showed also this week a lot of good things. But those things we need to work on again. They recognise these moments, football is about that, managing also a game in a good way.

There seemed to be quite an anxiety in the stadium today, did you sense that?

I don't think it was in the first half. I think in the first half there was a really good atmosphere with the fans really positive behind the team. We make the fans nervous by making wrong choices, it's more like that. Because they also see it's only one goal difference and one bad ball that drops wrong or you make one mistake and Hearts is back in the game. In that way it's about us doing things better with the ball in these moments.

What did you make of the reaction to Conor Barron's substitution?

Yeah, but I understand fans are fans and they don't know all the facts. They see Connor also and he deserves that as one of the symbols of this new squad, this new team. I spoke also with a lot of praise about him the last couple of weeks in that way. But it's also my job to manage him in a good way, that he doesn't get injuries, that he doesn't get overuse. He was tired after a massive week with a lot of distance that he ran, a lot of duels that he did, long travel, everything. We could put Dujon in the midfield to win the duels and then to go forward out of that. I understand that fans don't understand every detail about that. They want to see they're the best players of the last couple of weeks, all the time on the pitch. But it's also my job to see that they can stay on the pitch. I think the fans would be more disappointed if he was injured at the end.

Philippe, the front line isn't the quickest and Hearts were able to push up and it seemed that they just didn't quite have the pace on the break today to get in behind them. Is that something that can be changed with the likes of Rabbi coming back?

I think we came a lot of times behind them on the break but we made a lot of wrong choices in our last pass. Yes, and it's other options also, again in that way. Nedim, Vaclav, Cyriel played a big game on Thursday. They played also a good semi-final. So the more options we have again in our offensive part but all over the field, the better it will be for the squad. And the more competition there is for spots also, that will raise the level again. So I'm looking forward to that.

Is Cyriel responding to the fact that Danilo and Igamane are challenging him?

No, because you cannot say that. Because at the beginning of the season those guys were not here. Dani was injured, Hamza was injured and Cyriel made eight goals in seven games or something. So he's not that kind of guy. He's just somebody who gives everything for the team, does everything to score goals but to work hard also for the team. But he doesn't score every game. I think a striker who scores every game for Rangers, he will not stay long at Rangers also. He's scored already quite an amount of goals this season. Could he have scored more? Yes. Are we working on that? Also yes. If you see one year ago where he was at this moment, I think I came in around one year ago, I think he scored three goals in that period. He scored already much more in this period until now, this season and in the period also from last season. So he's taking steps in that way and he scored a lot of important goals. So he needs to continue that way. But I'm happy to have Dani back. He's been out long. He showed a lot of quality also in the first weeks when I came here at Rangers. He scored good goals. He was important for the team. And the more, like I said, the more I can make rotation in the squad, the better we will get because we have now this short break for the internationals. Not for the rest, yes. For the guys who played less minutes, they will have a friendly game this week also. But after that, it will be three months of every three days game. So that's going to be a massive period where we're going to need all the players at their best because everybody who shows the good quality will get their minutes along the way. With that massive amount of games, we need to manage that well.

Are you managing James Tavernier’s minutes?

It's every game looking what is best for the team to win the games and to manage that.  That's our job to do.

What's your thoughts on James' performance today?

That it was also in ups and downs. He had a few really good moments. He had a really good shot also in the second half. We were unlucky that it got blocked. There were also moments that defensively it could have been better for me. We're going to work hard on that with all the team. There was not one player today who only had highs. So it was a performance too much with ups and downs. We need to get still more consistency to kill these games off and that's the most important.