Clement dismisses Celtic and title talk after Rangers close gap

What are your thoughts on the performance?

I am pleased what I saw today. I see the team grow week by week, month by month and that is also the idea, of course, that the players start to understand better and better how to run, when to run, the timings together, the connections, the reaction after losing the ball, the organisation attacking wise, defensive wise. I have seen three good goals. I see more and more the football that I want to play. We are not at 100 per cent yet but that is normal. I told the team also after the game that where they are now, with most of the teams in the past we were after nine or 12 months in that way. That is a really positive thing that you see also it is not about 11 or 14 players who understand, but the whole squad and whoever we put on the pitch they know what to do. The new players we need to integrate more and in that way it is positive that Fabio got these minutes and scored a good goal. It was important also that Oscar came in in a good way, we know the way we want to play football suits his qualities. A lot of positive things this evening. And next to that also this great synergy with the fans. We talked about that the moment we stepped into the building that it was a major thing to get it back and to play in an atmosphere like that is a joy to be a football player or manager. I don’t think there are many places like that in Europe so we want to continue in that way, from both sides, this synergy and belief in each other. If I compare with my first weeks here playing at Ibrox, the beginning of the game you felt this nervousness in the stands and also on the pitch in that way in moments. Now we started hard, we had three good opportunities in the first three minutes and there were a lot of players and it was blocked or the goalkeeper made a save, but everybody stayed calm in the stands or on the field. That is what we need to create in the next couple of months also.

How is Leon Balogun?

Not good, and good in a way. It is not good because it is a bad injury, he probably broke something in his face. The positive side is that he is a warrior and he is somebody with experience who already had things like that in the past. He believes he can be fast back with a mask so I hope that is the case. It is the medical staff who need to decide that.

You must be pleased with another clean sheet?

We are really clear about that. The football I want to see is not only attacking, not naïve football. It is football to win games. Our structure is much better than the first months. It is normal also, we worked really hard at that and the players are conscious about that also, it is not only about attacking but we need to avoid getting goals against. I think it is the first game there was no shot on goal. Maybe Jack in one way was not happy with that but in another way he will be happy that we have a clean sheet and that we win the game. He is a serious guy. He was really good also by keeping everyone focused and that is also important to have a personality like that in the dressing room.

Is that the kind of performance you want from Fabio Silva?

There are still a lot of things to improve, but that is normal. He needs to get a connection with the other players, understand better where to run, when to do what. I am very pleased about the way he stepped into the building, working hard every day in training. He wants to learn, he wants become better and you see already flashes of his talent. He is not yet at his top, top level but we knew that because he didn’t play many minutes and he didn’t know his teammates or the way we want to play football. With playing more minutes and making more trainings, he will grow in that. I am happy that I have, for the moment, two strikers who are really hungry to do what they have to do for the team and that is not only scoring goals.

Did you pay attention to Celtic’s result before the game?

No. No, totally not. I told you guys and I hope you guys believe me because I am not somebody who lies about things. Sometimes I don’t say everything, that is true, you cannot say everything. But it is really important in football to focus on yourself. We can look at the ranking in the last two or three games of the season because maybe you need to do tactical things at one point or whatever. But before not. We don’t need to be busy with what others are doing or not doing, we need to be busy with ourselves and be ambitious to try and win every game and to grow as a team and individually. All the players are busy with that. There is no difference anymore about other teams playing before us and what result they have or playing after us and what result they have. We just focus on ourselves.

You can go top of the league on Tuesday night…

It is not important where we are now or on Wednesday. It is important where we are at the end of May. We will focus on that.

Can you understand why the fans are starting to believe?

Yes, but that is the nice thing to be a fan. I have been a fan also before I was a player. That is a different life, that is a totally different life. We know what we need to do our job and that is with complete focus. If you start to think about others, you start to lose things yourself. We are not going to fall into that trap as a team. I am happy with the team also in that way, I don’t hear any name of another team during the week. Everybody is focused on Rangers and not on his ego but on the team. There is a really good team mentality now in that dressing room and I am going to be really tight on that so that it stays that way. That is the reason we get results. The moment we start to focus on others we can lose that.