Big Phil must fix one big Rangers mistake he made | OneFootball

One significant flaw (of many, it must be said) about Rangers manager Philippe Clement was his absolute refusal to change formation.

In simple terms he ran a 4-3-3-cum-4-2-3-1, a formation which always saw one striker flanked by two wingers, and generally two midfielders plus a playmaker.

It might have slightly altered based on a game’s flow, but this was always the system he used.

The problem was with all the injuries he had to contend with, we simply didn’t have the players for his formation, and he frequently shunted players out of position to accommodate the system – Fabio Silva, love or hate him, was a massive victim of this, while Dujon Sterling too was frequently wasted as a flanker.

And yet shoehorn these players he kept at, and it was just (one of many) reasons Rangers failed in the end to secure a 56 we had in our own hands, Rory McIlroy-style (sorry Rory).

The old adage goes in football that you should accommodate the players you have and find a system around them, rather than shoehorning the players into the system you want, and with that in mind it’s clear Clement didn’t do that.

Seeing Silva and Sterling dumped onto the wings was just ridiculous, and while (some) fans might bark about injuries, the whole point is you find the system for the players at your disposal.

No wingers currently available? Change the system then.

Clement was never willing to do that, and it cost us, along with a lot of other things.

Instead he kept shunting wrong players in wrong slots, and refusing to ever be flexible with the system, rigidly sticking by the one he wanted.

That is something he has to be able to alter. Sure, most managers have a favoured formation, that’s normal, but it’s abnormal to stick stubbornly by it when the players aren’t available.

That’s when a serious manager is tested – his ability to negotiate the loss of players by altering the tactics and system to accommodate.

This is something Clement didn’t do – and he will need to learn how.