Philippe Clement needs some good news. The Rangers’ boss, even in victory, can’t catch a break, what with his side’s grueling 2-1 over Motherwell in the League Cup semifinal at Hampden on Sunday paling in comparison to Celtic’s 6-0 thrashing of Aberdeen in the same competition the day before.
The Full Scottish
No reminder is required for where the Ibrox men sit in the Premiership table, nine points behind joint leaders Celtic and Aberdeen, their two bitter rivals, no less.
All of which is why it came as a bit of a shock to us that the Belgian bench boss decided to leave his captain, James Tavernier, on the bench for Thursday’s Europa League tie against Olympiacos. Granted, a segment of the Ibrox support has apparently lost its patience with the skipper, for whom defending has never been his strong suit.
A right back who doesn’t defend well can still be an asset if they can run the channels, cross the ball well, and are skilled at set pieces. Tavernier, until recently, checked all of those boxes. Until he didn’t—the attacking portion of his game reaching its nadir in that semifinal on Sunday.
Much to the delight of the grumbling support, Clement substituted Tavernier off in the 67th minute against Motherwell, so perhaps leaving him on the bench in Greece is actually in keeping with a larger plan.
“We play every three days, more games than ever in the history of football this season,” Clement told the press earlier this week, in somewhat Trumpian fashion. “Like we said before, ‘Tav’ will not play all the games.”
Okay, sure—at Celtic, Brendan Rodgers opted to rest his captain, Callum McGregor, recently, when he was injured. But it’s hard to fathom opting to rest your captain for a European tie, isn’t it? Whatever the rationale, it’s hard to say it worked. Rangers drew 1-1 in Athens. Is that good news?