Clement changes Rangers policy over Lundstram & Silva | OneFootball

Philippe Clement has slightly altered previous policy, of 100% defending his Rangers players at all times, by tellingly not defending striker Fabio Silva over his recent gesture to the fans or his diving, and yesterday, not defending John Lundstram’s tackle and admitting it was a red.

Speaking after the latest Old Firm debacle by the Ibrox side, Clement had no defence for the midfielder’s senseless assault on Celtic’s Alistair Johnston in the Celtic half, and condemned the stupidity of the moment, endorsing the card that was given.

He also did the same recently with Rangers forward Fabio Silva, by not defending his stupid diving or the appalling gesture at the fans, which shows that for all Ibrox Noise has criticised the beleaguered manager, he’s stopped backing his players up in the way he used to.

This is an interesting change – previously Clement would be in their corner and fighting for them always, defending his Rangers charges against the indefensible, but this change sees him now offering a word or two of critique and if the players’ conduct or behaviour isn’t good enough, the manager will admit it.

Now, this stops short of performance – the manager just doesn’t criticise his players’ contributions – he will always defend their workrate and their product on the pitch, never singling out any individual as not delivering.

But when it comes to ‘non-football’ related matters, per se, he is now entirely willing to be honest about a player not living up to the Rangers shirt.

As Lundstram didn’t.

We will have more on the Lundstram incident today, but we prefer our manager not to pull the wool over our eyes with utter nonsense in the press, and this small change is at least an example of Clement doing it less.