The international break seemed to go far longer than the two weeks it was supposed to, but it did allow Philippe Clement to spend some much-needed time with his Rangers players.
With only a handful of players abroad on international duty, the majority of the squad will have been under the Gers manager’s cautious eye at Auchenhowie since beating Livingston. Perhaps more crucially, Philippe Clement will have had the opportunity to work with nearly the complete starting XI on the training pitch as he seeks to instill the subtle improvements in his Rangers team that will make the difference week after week.
Philippe Clement gets Rangers benefit in international break
In reality, only Abdallah Sima has been missing, with Ryan Jack also away out of those who have started games recently.
Sima hasn’t kicked a ball for Senegal and will, at least, come back relatively fresh once he recovers from the journey home.
For Jack, Philippe Clement has been able to see Kieran Dowell over a longer period and Jose Cifuentes also returned early to Rangers after playing for Ecuador.
Borna Barisic being dropped by Croatia, ironically as he has returned to his best form for the club, will have given the manager a chance to work with what appears to be his favoured defence too.
Usually, Rangers have a lot of players away but, on this occasion, after a strong run of results and performances, the manager will have been able to work on everything from shape to set pieces without any distraction.
He will also have been able to give some time off to the likes of James Tavernier, Connor Goldson and John Lundstram who will be expected to carry the heaviest load over the coming weeks.
With 12 games between now and the winter break, the workload is going to be intense and most of the time will be spent recovering between games.
What this means is that getting early goals and killing teams off is even more important so that Philippe Clement can rotate his squad as Rangers look for success on three different fronts.
For once, the international break will have been welcomed by the manager, however, he’ll be glad it’s over so that he can get back to the business of winning games and the task of bringing silverware back to Rangers.
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