Some Rangers fans wonder why Big Phil won’t start his best XI | OneFootball

We’re seeing this question surface a few times, just why is it Philippe Clement is driving fans mental by never selecting Rangers’ best theoretical XI to start matches?

Why is there always a Scott Wright or suchlike in there to bring the quality down?

Well, shock horror, almost all managers seem to do this. We even vividly recall Steven Gerrard doing it, rarely-to-never picking his best XI and driving us nuts in the process. Remember when Niko Katic was in stunning form and the old boss dropped him for Filip Helander?

Things like that drive supporters round the bend, but there is (generally) a reason:

No manager wants to show their best hand and use their nuclear weapons from the start.

Unless you have a brilliant squad/XI and are called Manchester City or suchlike, revealing your hand at the start lessens the quality of options you can bring on, and that means if the tactical flow of the match didn’t go your way, the ways you can change it are reduced.

By leaving strong options on the bench, theoretical starters on the bench, there are effective game-changing players available to do exactly that in the event of the starting XI not working, or things needing freshened up.

In truth, we don’t really like this strategy, never have.

It’s immensely frustrating seeing strong quality players on the bench while the starters include Scott Wright and sometimes Ben Davies.

We do believe you should start with your best XI bar none, but that’s not the way managers seem to think these days.

That all said, we have no theory for why Kieran Dowell keeps coming on, and why Danilo still hasn’t played. Or why Jefte didn’t get on at Hampden.

But there you go – starting a ‘weaker’ XI means you have more grade-A quality on the bench that you can use later in the match.

We guess that means, sometimes, being benched is actually a compliment…