Philippe Clement laid out the four pillars of his Rangers blueprint when he was unveiled as manager on Tuesday afternoon. He has spent the days since assessing the rebuilding work that is required and each of the quartet were addressed on the eve of his first match in charge.

The Belgian wishes his side to be the best technical team and the best tactical team in the Premiership. Given the resources that he has inherited at Ibrox, both of those ambitions should not be unachievable. The fourth part of his plan – one which involves Rangers becoming the best mental team in the country – will come to fruition through a combination of man-management and recruitment.

Yet there is no reason – regardless of the calibre of player or the quantum of spend – that Rangers cannot be the best physical team in the league sooner rather than later. Before the other three pillars can stand tall, that one must act as the foundation for Clement’s tenure as manager.

Clement took his seat at Auchenhowie on Friday for his first pre-match press conference as he spoke for the second time this week. He did so with a sheet of paper that detailed the members of his squad who are not capable of getting through the 90 minutes against Hibernian.

Todd Cantwell and Ryan Jack both fall into that category, as do Tom Lawrence, Rabbi Matondo and Kemar Roofe. Kieran Dowell and Zak Lovelace, who was injured in the win over St Mirren before the break, remain sidelined and Jose Cifuentes was crocked during his national service with Ecuador.

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Perhaps the most significant update regarded the main signing of the summer and Clement confirmed that Danilo will be required to play some part against Hibernian in what will be his first outing since sustaining a serious facial injury at McDiarmid Park. Pictures emerged from Auchenhowie this week of the £6million recruit wearing a protective mask in training and the message that ‘he gets more confident with it every day’ from Clement was encouraging.

His answers on the wider topic of injuries were enlightening. Updates from his two predecessors – Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Michael Beale – varied in terms of their specifics and their usefulness but Clement outlined his studious relationship with the medical department.

Van Bronckhorst often sought to give little away when asked about the status of his walking wounded, while Beale was vague in his language and timescales were at times difficult to pin down. Both ultimately were hampered in different ways by the loss of so many influential players and the lengthy injury lists at their respective times were complicit in their downfalls as manager.

Clement cannot afford history to repeat itself for a third time. Even at this stage, just days into his Ibrox reign, he understands the injury situation is one which must be addressed. He will do so in his way and has already identified changes to the methods and timings when it comes to training that will continue to be rolled out.

“That's an important thing you guys need to know,” Clement said. “I always work in a really good way with the medical staff. I am really on top of that so in the beginning all medical staff are surprised because I want to know all the details, discuss all the things, and work more individually with the players towards what they do in the week physically to make them ready for the games.

“I want to create the strongest physical team in the league so you need to align things, that's everywhere in the team. If they say they can't play 90 minutes I will take that into account.”

In the coming weeks, Clement will see the treatment room clear and the dressing room become more congested. The squad that Beale has left behind is not without its shortcomings, but Clement will have plenty of bodies to choose from once every member of his group is fit and available once again and the decisions will then become more difficult, especially from middle to front.

He acknowledges that injuries can happen in a contact sport, but the former Genk, Club Brugge and Monaco boss also pointed to his previous squads and referenced availability rates that were ‘above 90 per cent’. Right now, he needs to get through the first 90 minutes as a new era begins three weeks after Beale’s departure.

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The success of the collective is always more important than the success of the individual but both are, of course, intertwined. Clement spoke about how the potential of each player is different and how his sessions will be more tailored to the needs of every member of his side and his squad, using the example of training a centre-back and a full-back for their respective specific role rather than utilising a more general approach.

Rangers have not been fit for purpose so far this season. The coming weeks will be indicative and supporters will expect to see immediate rises in confidence and tempo before being able to buy into the Clement style of play.

“No, I'm not saying that because I was not here,” Clement said when asked if training previously had impacted on the shape of his players. “You can hear stories people tell, if you were not here to see it it's not important. What is [important] is what's now and how we're going to improve that we have fewer injured players. The past is the past, this is a new story, I know really well how I want to work.

"More individually on the physical levels because that is the modern game, we're going to train collectively but within that, players will have more individual targets physically. I adapt to that in every training. It takes a lot of work for the staff so we are starting to organise all those things that can work in that way so we can build the strongest physical team like in previous clubs.”

The time on the grass has been useful in recent days but those who take their seats at Ibrox should not expect an immediate transformation. Clement insisted that he was not a ‘magician’ during his unveiling press conference, while a nice line – complete with a wand waving action – that he is ‘not Harry Potter with a magic stick who can change everything suddenly’ was a light-heartened moment as he met the media for the second time.

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He again defined the identity of his side as a ‘dominant’ one. He will allow freedom in terms of positions to ensure that Rangers create, and convert, chances but there must be a structure that underpins it all. Rangers have to be relentless but not reckless.

When asked about what he had learned during his first days at the club, he stated that they were not for the ‘eyes or ears’ of the assembled Press pack. He acknowledged, though, that he had seen ‘a lot of things that we can make better’ alongside the positives that he had picked out.

“It's not [that I want them] to be risky and do stupid things, that's not what I want,” Clement said when asked if Rangers had been playing within themselves so far this season. “To give s*** lateral passes in our own half. It's not that, it's about being brave, playing forward, not thinking we'll keep the ball and I don't take a risk now, I don't lose the ball so nobody will boo at me.

“It's about giving the ball forward, making runs without the ball without being afraid that if I make this run I won't make it back in time. To do that we need to create first a structure for the team. We've made the first steps in that way, if we want to attack in a certain way what are the positions of everybody at the moment? We can develop this week by week.”

The speed of those improvements will be defined by how quickly his players can adopt his mantra and take on board his messages. He will not do everything at once and ‘kill’ them, but the bar will be set by a boss – a ‘football addict’ - that is eager to create more of a bond between the players and the supporters.

That relationship is just one of the things that Clement must build at Ibrox. Before that, he has his pillars to put in place first and foremost.