Clement laments Rangers profligacy—but are there bigger issues?
Rangers’ manager, Philippe Clement, bemoaned his team’s incapacity to “kill off”
opportunities after his team conceded four goals in a crushing Europa League loss to Lyon.
Two days after Celtic’s humiliating 7-1 loss to Borussia Dortmund,
their city rivals too had a depressing evening as the Ligue 1 visitors outperformed them.
The Ibrox manager lamented first and foremost a lack of cutting edge in attack,
even as he acknowledged his team “were not sharp enough” on defense. Even more obviously,
Vaclav Cerny and James Tavernier both squandered excellent chances early in the competition.
“We don’t reward ourselves clearly on the scoreline,” Clement said to TNT Sports.
As a result, you have two 100% chances, which are the game’s initial chances.
You must eliminate them. If it’s 1-0, 2-0, of course it’s an entirely other game.
“We trail because we lose balls in areas where we shouldn’t lose balls and because our defense
isn’t good enough.
In the end, we have exactly the same number of chances and an equal amount of chances as Lyon,
but the score is obvious. And that’s the distinction in finishing and quality.”
Clement ‘can’t accept’ Rangers level
The two early opportunities Clement mentioned were from captain Tavernier,
who saw his shot superbly saved by Lyon keeper Lucas Perri, and Cerny,
who had a goal yawning from yards out, somehow cleared the bar.
When all of those things are taken into account, along with Tom Lawrence’s late equalizer
and the Cyriel Dessers chance that went awry just before the equalizer,
Rangers’ total expected goals were actually greater than Lyon’s—2.26 compared to the away team’s 2.15.
That undoubtedly indicates Clement’s attacking carelessness,
which has been a problem early in the season as the Ibrox squad seemed
to have trouble finishing teams off.
The Belgian was asked if he could believe the statistics,
which also indicated that Rangers had more shots than Lyon, and he said, “No, I cannot.”
I don’t accept our current situation or that we are losing games.
“I always strive to elevate the bar. The fact that you produce so many opportunities
against a really talented club that plays excellent football and combination play is,
in my opinion, a very encouraging thing.
“But we need to make the next step to finish off those chances
and then you can go to another level.”
However, away from the absence of clinical edge at the top end,
it must be disregarded that Rangers shipped four goals and were fortunate not to have conceded more.
This was only the third occasion in Europe that the Ibrox club had conceded four goals
at home in the Europa League/Uefa Cup before this loss.
Their entire performance was abysmal, as Lyon’s excellent assault led by Malick Fofana,
Rayan Cherki, and Alexandre Lacazette took advantage of their mistakes.
This season, Rangers’ formation has come under fire, especially in midfield,
and it was poor again on Thursday, which contributed to the visitors’ ability to consistently
slice through the hosts.
previous Ibrox striker Steven Thompson expressed skepticism about his previous side’s
performance level and implied their victories had been covering up cracks,
even though they had gone into the game after four straight clean sheets.
Speaking on Sportsound, he added: “Rangers had built up a wee bit of momentum with the four
clean sheets, but the performances, Malmo apart, haven’t been great.
“So maybe they’ve been masking with results instead of performances.
The manager will try to get a rhetoric of ‘it’s looking good’. But is it? That’s the question.”
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