On the back of a point on the road against Sparta Prague, Rangers will look to keep the pressure up on league leaders Celtic as they host Hearts on Sunday afternoon.
There will be a familiar face for Philippe Clement with Lawrence Shankland no stranger to the new Rangers manager; the Hearts captain spent a year with Belgian side Beershot,
Clement’s old club from his playing days, before making the move to Tynecastle.
“They have a few interesting players,” said Clement. “Their striker played in Belgium. I know him from before, he played in my old team where I started playing football and he is doing really well.
So It’s going to be a game where we want to be dominant, they are going to count on set pieces. So we need to be on top of our game with and without the ball.”
Shankland hasn’t been quite as prolific this term as he was last season – this time a year ago he had already bagged ten with the striker currently sitting on six. Steven Naismith has played the Scotland internationalist slightly deeper however Clement is more concerned with his own side line up as he looks to lay the foundations of his era at Rangers.
“It’s going to be a bumpy ride, it’s normal in these circumstances but we’re going to take that ride as best as possible and I hope we go straight over the bumps. That’s my hope we’re going to work hard with the players around that, about their fitness, their recovery, abut their lifestyle and what we need to do tactically.
We had a video meeting this morning about the things that were good and what we have to improve after the game yesterday, it’s building a story together.
The football I want to see is football with a lot off movement but a lot of movement together. It’s not something you can create in one or two weeks.
Nobody can do that, not one player can understand that also, how to move with two three players at the same time in two/three weeks. If you need to change systems it’s even more difficult. We need time, we need hard work, we need concentration from the players in the next few weeks and months to make this story really strong.
I’m convinced with these players and right decisions we can make a really good season with this team.”
