Philippe Clement has revealed that last night was the first time he’d felt disappointment from his players since arriving at Rangers.
The Belgian was unhappy with his side’s performance as they stumbled to a 1-1 draw against Aris Limassol on Thursday evening. Ross McCausland scored a second-half equaliser to rescue a point for the Ibrox club after Shavy Babicka had the Cypriot minnows ahead.
The result leaves Rangers needing a win when they travel to Seville in a fortnight to face group leader Real Betis if they are to progress in the Europa League. If not, then it’s Conference League football after Christmas.
Clement is eager to see how his players react to their first real setback since his arrival in October.
“That’s interesting again, how people come into the building,” he said. “This is the first time that there is really a deception that I felt in the dressing room, they were not happy with their performance.
“That is a good thing that they were not happy with their performance but now we need to stand up on Sunday and show our best level, what we are going to need to win that game.
“And it is about making the mind-switch really fast every time and not losing confidence for whatever reason and show it from the first second when the game starts, to go full and get the three points.
“We can have a discussion about tactical things but if you want to have offensive full-backs and offensive midfielders and always stay with two centre-backs and one number six, then you are going to have a lot of transitions against.”
On the challenge of St Mirren, he added: “That they will make a wall and make transitions and set-pieces like we have a lot of games in the Scottish league.
“So there will not be a big difference in that way and they are going to fight until they die and for them, games against Rangers is maybe the biggest game of the season. So we know that.”
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