Chris Sutton has insisted Rangers are still not a brilliant football team despite their recent results but claimed they will take heart from Celtic’s struggles.
The former Celtic striker said Rangers are still not out of the woods despite the upturn in form since Philippe Clement took over, and compared the Ibrox boss to Ange Postecoglou.
Sutton went on to slam Rangers’ Glasgow rivals, labelling them disjointed, and suggested the Light Blues will be inspired by their struggles with the opportunity they have been handed.
Speaking on the It’s All Kicking Off podcast [21 December], Sutton shared: “I think there’s been a marked difference with the new Rangers manager Philippe Clement coming in with a good track record.
“He’s got his head down, like the Belgian Ange Postecoglou really in that he’s just focusing on what his team are doing, not talking about Celtic. They had a brilliant result in Europe against Real Betis to top their Europa League group.
“I still don’t think Rangers are a brilliant football team, and I don’t think they’re out of the woods yet. Where they will have a great deal of heart is they’ll look across the city at a Celtic team at this moment in time who are disjointed and going through the motions.”
Just keep moving forward
The main task for Clement now at Ibrox is just to keep moving forward. As Sutton praised him for, the boss has been taking one game at a time since arriving in Glasgow, and that attitude has allowed Rangers never to get too high after wins, or too low after they fail to win.
Having said that, they have very rarely failed to win under the new boss’ guidance. Clement is still yet to taste defeat in Glasgow, having won 13 and drawn three of his 16 games in charge in an incredibly impressive record.
This run has taken Rangers to within two points of Celtic at the top of the SPFL, with a game in hand meaning if they were to win that game, they would leapfrog their Old Firm rivals – something that was almost unthinkable when Michael Beale was sacked.
Sutton’s claim that the Ibrox club will be heartened by their rivals’ struggles may well be true, but Clement’s control and calmness under pressure has allowed them to go about their business with very little fuss, and they will continue to do so.
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