Philippe Clement Believes Rangers Can Close Gap on Top Two

Rangers manager Philippe Clement maintains that the nine-point deficit separating his team from Celtic and Aberdeen is not insurmountable, despite the club’s recent poor form. Following the damaging 2-1 defeat at Pittodrie on Tuesday night, which marked Rangers’ third league loss in their initial 10 games, scrutiny on Clement has intensified. The Ibrox manager stated: “Yeah, it’s a big gap, but if you’re focused on the gap, you’re not focused on taking the points.” He continued, referencing a past experience: “So when I stepped in last season, there was also a big gap [seven points] at that moment and we came back all the way, but did not succeed at the end of the road.” Clement emphasized his strategy: “So it was a story of game-by-game, giving the maximum so that’s what we need to do again.” He expressed belief in their capability: “Last year it was possible, so this year it’s also possible. I think we were the team in the second half going for the winning goal, getting the most time in the box of the two teams, but we were not clinical enough in that way to take the lead.” Clement also pointed to a disallowed goal: “Also, knowing that we scored the goal and it’s disallowed for a toenail offside, it could have been a different result also out of that.”