Dingwall was no bolt from the blue
With Clement’s men winning just two of their last seven, Rangers have gone off the boil at worst possible moment
AFTER all the improvement and all the promise witnessed since Philippe Clement took charge at Ibrox, Rangers left Dingwall on Sunday in a familiar position.
Marginal favourites to win the Premiership title before they departed for the Highlands, they handed that dubious honour back to Celtic over the course of a thoroughly wretched afternoon.
Four points behind Brendan Rodgers’ side, with a game in hand to come against Dundee tomorrow, Rangers are still very much alive in this compelling championship race.
Without question, had they been offered this position when Michael Beale was handed his P45 in October after going seven points behind, they would assuredly have taken it. None of this, however, represented a crumb of comfort to a shellshocked travelling support who witnessed a display which was — by Clement’s own admission — the worst he’d presided over since coming to the club.
The collective performance was poor in so many respects, but you could hardly claim that it arrived like a bolt out of the blue.
After losing at Celtic Park on December 30, Rangers won 11 straight matches in all competitions, conceding just six times.
Notwithstanding the fact that they’ve recently faced Benfica in the Europa League, they’ve won just two of their last seven matches, with 12 goals lost in the process. No matter how you dress it up, they’ve gone off the boil at the worst possible moment.
After coming from behind to take a point from Celtic in the penultimate league derby of the season, the Belgian claimed he hadn’t recognised the side which had played so poorly for the first 45 minutes. He’ll be much more familiar now, though, with what his team can produce when they misfire so badly. Days after insisting they would play Dundee on Mars if required, Rangers turned in a 90minute performance which was light years away from the manager’s expected standard.
‘The big thing, which will be alarming if you are a Rangers fan, was the lack of desire from the team,’ said former County boss John Robertson. ‘They never deserved anything out of this game.’
Disjointed and weak, Rangers’ defence looked vulnerable every time County charged forward in numbers. For all he took his season’s tally to 24 goals with a late penalty, skipper James Tavernier’s defensive qualities were again under scrutiny as the Staggies dramatically turned a
The alarming thing if you are a Rangers fan was the lack of desire
one-goal deficit into a 3-1 lead, with two of their goals stemming from attacks down his flank.
Connor Goldson, normally the most dependable figure in the backline, has not looked like his dominant self for some weeks.
John Souttar is good on the ball yet also prone to lapses without it. Playing only because Ridvan Yilmaz is injured, Borna Barisic departed the scene after 54 forgettable minutes. Out of contract in the summer, the Croatian’s mind already appears to be elsewhere.
Playing behind such a ragged back line, even Jack Butland now looks to have left his best form behind him. The Englishman, who has been his side’s star performer this season, will feel he might have done better than parry two shots back into trouble as County turned the game on its head at the start of the second half. Even though Clement’s side were ahead at the interval courtesy of Jack Baldwin’s own goal, at no stage did they ever have control of the match.
Todd Cantwell showed up well when he got possession of the ball. The trouble was that the lack of second balls won by John Lundstram and Kieran Dowell ensured Rangers’ main creative force remained largely on the periphery of the game.
The collective malfunction was completed by a woefully out-ofsorts front line. It said everything about Rangers’ potency that an own goal and a penalty were needed to trouble the scorecard.
Abdallah Sima could be cut a little slack due to the fact he’s returning from injury. Not so much his attempt to score with a blatant punch into the net which only earned him a yellow card.
Fabio Silva departed alongside Barisic having claimed an assist for the opening goal. Otherwise, he’d have been anonymous.
Yet again, Cyriel Dessers huffed and puffed and did not convince. It’s hard to argue with a goal return of 17 on his debut season, but the striker hasn’t delivered often enough in the big moments.
Just as he fluffed his lines at Parkhead in December and against Benfica at Ibrox last month, so he was found wanting again when it truly counted.
Had he scored past Ross Laidlaw at 1-0, as he should have done, the game would have been in the bag.
Quite why Clement opted to select Dessers ahead of Kemar Roofe for fully 73 minutes, only he could explain.
The same applied to Barisic’s initial inclusion at the expense of Dujon Sterling. Fresh from scoring a peach of an equaliser against Celtic, Rabbi Matondo was only introduced once the game was running away from the visitors.
Clement has lately been deprived of the services of Ryan Jack, Danilo and Oscar Cortes. Yet he still has an abundance of options. He played his hand poorly on Sunday.
The Belgian’s unblinking take on the implications of the surprise result also raised eyebrows.
Everything else being equal, the expected victory would have likely seen his side requiring just a point from the final derby at Parkhead to get over the line first. As a consequence of losing, the chances are that they’ll now have to win there in front of 60,000 Celtic fans. That could prove to be a significant difference in how all of this eventually unfolds.
But Clement insisted: ‘(It’s) the same story as it was three days ago or one week ago.
‘We need to be focused on us. We need to win games whatever the situation.
‘We need to continue what we’ve been doing and focus on ourselves and go every time hard to get three points. It starts on Wednesday when I want to see a better performance.
‘We are going to go every game to win the game and we will see in the last two games what the ranking is.’
For Rangers to stand any chance of sitting above Celtic in the final standings, the fightback must start against Dundee.
The Dark Blues have found sympathy hard to come by over the state of their pitch in recent weeks.
If Clement’s players don’t walk off it with a victory, he’ll know exactly how they feel.