Philippe Clement has spoken to the media ahead of the Premiership fixture with Hearts. Here is everything he had to say.

Can you give us a squad update? What is the availability of Kemar Roofe and Borna Barisic?

Kemar will not be available for the weekend, for sure. Probably we need to rebuild the next week, the next weeks, we need to take a really good look at that because he has been struggling already for a long time with the same things. So it is important to find what is the reason for that and not always find the solution to get him fit for the next game and then struggling afterwards again and going game by game. But really going to the cause of the problem. Borna, we will see if he can train tomorrow or not. That is still a question mark.

Can you tell us what the situation is with Kemar?

I can do a lot of things but I am not a doctor. I didn’t study that long. I studied a few years but not like the doctors need to do. I cannot say anything about that. We first need to make a really good assessment how to bring Kemar back in a way that he can be a long time back and not a short time because that has been the case the last couple of months, to get him fit for games but then in between struggling. We need to get him really fit.

When will Danilo be able to play 90 minutes?

That is also an interesting question. Of course, not now. He has been quite a while out, he didn’t play many 90 minutes in the last couple of months, or even the last year. He looked bright in the short period that he played. It is about making him stronger that he can reach that level during 90 minutes. It is a work over several weeks to bring him to that level. We have a lot of cases like that so we will look at it individually, case by case how they recover after games. It is interesting to see with Danilo after this if it looks good and with the performance staff and medical staff we will have a good individual plan for every player to get them to this level.

Where are Tom Lawrence and Rabbi Matondo in terms of their recoveries?

They are still in Glasgow! No, they are not yet ready to train with the squad.

What do you make of Graeme Souness saying that he is close to a consultancy role?

There is nothing that concerns me. We had a good talk in the interview, it was interesting also for me to get more info about the club and to make the decision. He is somebody who is passionate about the club. The other things are between him and the board to decide what or how. We will see. We had a good talk. We are both passionate people about football, we are both passionate about this club. That is never a problem.

He was complimentary about you but also said he would probably have chosen Frank Lampard over you. Does that worry you?

It is good, that is a good lesson for me now that I read everything that is said. The things that is said, you put it in a different perspective. I am not going into those talks or rumours or all this noise about this. I am here to do a sporting job, I am here to build a team, to make it stronger. I am not here to talk about rumours or things that are spread or half spread. That was not the real story. I am busy with the team and all those things.

What has been your assessment about the quality of the squad?

About the quality, that we can grow, that we need to grow with the objectives we had, like I said one week ago. That is really short term. We need to work hard on that and in the next weeks and months we will make a good assessment to see what we need to do or not need to do in January, which positions we need to look for to make the squad better or not. It is an open period for the players now, a white page, they get chances to show themselves. I am looking at it that way also. Interesting to see with the problems that we had this week with no left full-backs, we need to find other solutions and players stepped in and showed that they can do it also. That makes the squad stronger and better and that is what I expect for the next couple of weeks and months. I am not working towards a starting eleven that is always the same. I want a bigger squad. If you want to compete in four competitions, you need a squad where more players are available and are ready to reach that quality that you need every game, every three days. Really interesting period in the next weeks and months, it is much too early to make decisions around that.

Given how hectic it has been, is there a sense that fans need to accept that performances will go up and down?

I don’t know if it is going to be a bumpy ride, that is normal in these circumstances. We are going to take the ride as straight as possible and go over the bumps. That is my hope. We are going to work hard with the players, about their fitness, their recovery, their lifestyle, about what we need to do tactically. We can do things this morning. Of course everybody is tired after a game like that but we had a video meeting also about the things that were good, the things we have to improve after the game. Like this, it is building a story together. The football I want to see is a football with a lot of movement, but a lot of movement together. It is not something you can create in one, two weeks. Nobody can do that, not one player can understand that also how to move together with two or three other players at the same time in two, three weeks. If you need to change system it is even more difficult. We need time, we need hard work, we need concentration of the players in the next weeks and months to make this story really strong. I am convinced that with these players and the right decisions we can make a really good season.

What are your expectations from Hearts?

That they want to come back after losing a game. They are now close to the top positions there. It is a short recovery after the game so our focus is now on that and doing the right things in this game against Hearts. They have a few interesting players, a striker that played in Belgium I know him from before. He played in my old team where I started playing football and he is doing really well. It is going to be a game where we want to be dominant. They will play a transition game, they will count on set pieces. So we need to be on top of our game with and without the ball.

Is there an update on Cifuentes, Lawrence and Sterling?

Cifuentes normally will train for the first time tomorrow. Normally, so don’t shoot me if it is not the case! That is the idea for the moment. The other two are not yet available for the weekend to train.