Philippe Clement admits Rangers have "already lost too many points" after their Scottish Premiership clash against Dundee United at Ibrox ended in a stalemate.
Rangers produced another abject performance in front of their home support. They were booed off as they went into the half-time break a goal down, and the Rangers manager responded with a double change.
It continued to be a display which lacked urgency until Vaclav Cerny stepped up with a well-worked equaliser on 66 minutes.
However, the Light Blues were unable to build on any momentum from that moment and failed to find a winning goal.
Clement understands results must improve and even fears his side are slipping away from the standards he set when he first arrived.
Read more:
- Clement discloses Rangers offer to Dundee United that was turned down
- Goodwin reveals Dundee United request for second Rangers delay
Speaking after the full-time whistle, he said: "The result is very frustrating, we've already lost too many points. We know we don't have credit in the bank in that way.
"The performance, the second-half I saw what I wanted to see in my team. But we have lost too many points. We are not where we want to be as a club. It's two points lost we cannot lose. Last season we won this type of game every time. Even when it was difficult we could push over the line.
"It's totally unacceptable to lose that many points. We all know. I know, the players know, so there's hard work to be done to make that better in the next couple of months. But I am convinced also the last couple of weeks when I see performances like the second half, and I'm happy seeing players come back from injury that can help the team. That will be important."
Asked if Rangers could still mount a title challenge despite Celtic having the opportunity to go 11 points ahead in the league standings should they defeat Heart of Midlothian on Saturday night, Clement replied: "We don't need to speak about title's now. We need to speak about raising our level because we have control of how many points other teams take.
"You see a team that has stayed competitive today, that wanted to win. You didn't see a team who gave up, who didn't want to, or the last phase they kept on pushing to score the second goal to have the win. So that's the mentality that I want to see."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel