Philippe Clement is confident Todd Cantwell will bounce back after being hooked by his manager before half-time on Thursday.
The Rangers attacking midfielder was the one to be sacrificed by the Belgian to try and breathe some life into them as they trailed Aris Limassol in the Europa League, even though there were plenty of other candidates. Cantwell has been asked to play wide right in recent games due to injuries and it’s not his most natural position.Clement acknowledges this while also insisting he has performed the role adequately in other games, but not in this one. The Gers boss explained after the game the Englishman wasn’t doing what was asked of him and kept coming inside the pitch instead of stretching things out wide.
Clement said: “I felt Todd wasn’t playing his normal game on Thursday night. You can wait 10 minutes longer but for what? To lose 10 minutes more? “I’m sure he’ll react positively from it moving forward now. Todd has done a good job for me already on the right side, which I know isn’t his best position or preferred position. But with the injuries we have and the players out, that’s the situation right now. I don’t have many options on that side and he’s done a good job for the team before.“On Thursday it was less good but Sunday is a new game. It’s not about me being happy or if players give a bad pass or miss a chance. They need to play in the right positions. Otherwise we don’t play our football together and that’s not good.”Sam Lammers and Jose Cifuentes were others signed out for performances by supporters and Clement added: “I’m not going to speak about individual players, I’ll do that in the dressing room like I always do. It’s a team sport. We didn’t draw because of just one or two players.
“I know everyone is really ambitious here at Rangers but I don’t think there is one fan in the stadium who is more ambitious than me. So I understand that they want to win. We want to win also so we’ll work hard for that. This isn’t a road that’s going to be smooth. There will be bumps on the way.
“But I want to see a team that keeps on pushing for results. We’re missing injured players and some players are coming back from injury. We have to be sharper. But the group is pushing really hard. And I know that in a few weeks or months we’ll get better.”
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