Philippe Clement has spoken to the press after the win over Hearts at Ibrox. Here is everything he had to say.
What are your emotions?
The emotions are that I am really happy because I spoke for the last two days with the team that I am still in an observation period to see, I know their football qualities, how they are as individuals and a group. I am curious if there comes a moment, and it always comes, where the scenario is not going our way how they would react. Maybe I should have talked about that before the game because it happened. I am not believing in those things. Clearly they had the reaction that I wanted. I spoke about that with them. Our strength needs to be that whatever happens in football, we never give up and we keep on repeating what we are doing because they are doing already good things together. Of course we need to still make better a lot of details but if we show the right mentality over and over again in every action and in the reaction afterwards then we are a really good team. That is what we showed together, not with eleven but with the whole squad, also the players who came in to give this energy. Was it perfect? No. But for me it is a reference game in the way that they have seen if they never give up a lot of good things can happen. It is not a guarantee that you win every game because not even the best teams in the world manage to do that but we are going to win much more games than we have done until now. It is a big step forward for me and in that way Tav was an example today. Missing the penalty, getting the stick because of that, that moment you can lose confidence, you can go down, you can stop taking responsibility. But he took the second penalty, he scored it and afterwards he gave the assist for the second goal. I want to see a lot of players with that mentality in my dressing room. I want to see everybody with that mentality in my dressing room because then we are going to make an amazing season.
Is your message starting to get through?
That you need to ask them. I have seen what I wanted to see today, a team that never stopped. Also when we made changes the players came in stepped into the game directly and with confidence to believe in themselves. It is a shit scenario today. The first attack you get against you get a goal. Afterwards you are dominating, you are getting balls on the touchline and not in, you miss a penalty, you have a lot of shots, I think 28 today. We were really dominant, I think 78 per cent ball possession. Everything is there but it is still not there. I told them at half time that we keep on going because we are a team that can score two goals in five minutes. OK, it was not five minutes! But that needs to be our strength for the rest of the season, that we keep our tempo high and in that way we will win a lot of games.
Do you think this team is ready to challenge for the title?
Is it five points? It is good that you told me. I will say the same things I said a few days ago and I will repeat it for the next couple of months so that you guys know already, or you can talk to your Belgian colleagues about it because they know it for a long time. I want my team to be focused on thing and that is the next game. Nothing else. Nothing else. That is the only thing we control ourselves. We need to raise our level, we need to become stronger and better as individuals, as a team, and we will focus on that. I am not busy how many points a team is in front of us or a team is behind us. We need to focus on ourselves to make sure, as much as possible, we take the three points all season long in all the competitions. That is the only thing that is important. Then, at the end of the road, you can start to calculate. It is much too early. I said it now already. I know the question will come a few times but you will get the same answer because that is what I believe in. It is not a game or something. It is what I believe in. It is the only way for success.
That was a proper impact off the bench from Danilo?
Of course it is an important goal. He still has a lot of improvement that he can make in the game and being available but it is a very important goal and he is looking bright for an amount of minutes in the training. He had his injury, he was a long time out. He was not in top physical shape so we need to do step by step building him. Same thing with Todd today. For some people they don’t understand that we change him after a while but to keep him good, to keep him ready for the next couple of game, you need to make those decisions also for the moment. I would prefer if I had a squad now that I work with in preparation and they are all top fit. It is not the case. They come out of injury or some lack some physical fitness. We need every game to puzzle what is the best squad to start with or who are the ones to replace. That is a good challenge.
Is Ross McCausland close to a start?
That depends on his training and the games in the next couple of weeks. I am not a coach who cares about age. Look at my track record. In Monaco I had 17-year-olds starting, in Brugges the same, in Genk also young players. For me it is not important if you are 17 or 37. It is what you prove on the pitch. He is already 20 so is he already an old player?
How is Nico Raskin?
I didn’t see him yet so we need to make a proper assessment about that this evening or tomorrow with the doctors in hospital. I hope that it is not too bad because he has been important in the last couple of weeks and is a player with a lot of potential.
Did you ever doubt Tavernier would take the second penalty?
No. No. What happened before, I told you guys, all the players have a white page with me. What happened before is not important anymore. There was no doubt about that if he felt confident. He is on the list as number one and we always have a one, two and three. They can decide at moments if one doesn’t feel good then number two takes the penalty. I cannot predict what is going in their head during a game. It could have been today that Tav said after the first missed penalty that the second one should [take it]. Not a problem for me. It is clear what is the order. He took the responsibility in a good way. It is positive.
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