Philippe Clement hasn’t been shy about tearing into Rangers’ woeful injury record.
Since the Belgian came into the club, he has set about trying to halt a disastrous run of injury problems which have stretched over the course of two years at Ibrox.
Injuries cost Giovanni van Bronckhorst in Glasgow and they will cost Philippe Clement if the Belgian does not get to the bottom of things at Rangers.
Claiming early on in his tenure that he wanted an availability of 90% across the entire season for his squad, Clement has previously branded the situation the ‘biggest puzzle’ he’s faced in football.
The ex-Club Brugge and AS Monaco manager also insists that injury problems are at the heart of the club’s Premiership shortcomings.
With 11 players currently sidelined heading into the clash with Dundee, a snarling Rangers manager also lamented not changing things at club’s training centre sooner.
“Maybe it was better not to wait until the end of the season to make decisions around that,” claimed the Rangers boss.
“But you give also chances to people.”
Now, the data backs up Clement’s frustration with only around 70% of the first-team squad actually available across the Scottish Premiership season.
Rangers Premiership availability laid bare
In data compiled by Twitter user @theglimmertwin, who has links to fan media blog the Rangers Journal, Rangers’ player availability has been as drastically low 70.85% for the Scottish Premiership season.
This is roughly 20% less than Philippe Clement’s 90% target and, whilst proving something really is rotten in the state of Ibrox’s medical department, it only tells part of the story.
Of the 29-man squad listed above, Sam Lammers is omitted despite fellow January departure Jose Cifuentes being included.
January signings Mohamed Diomande, Oscar Cortes and Fabio Silva are also included.
Lammers, who has been on stunning form for Utrecht since leaving Rangers on loan in January, was available for all 22 of the Premiership match days he was at the club (100% availability).
This pushes the final total up to 71.83%.
Only 8 players in the entire 30-man squad have been available for more than 90% of matches this season.
Amongst them are two goalkeepers in Jack Butland (100%) and Robby McCrorie (100%).
For outfield players alone, Rangers’ Scottish Premiership squad availability is as low as 69.81%.
Of the 28 outfield players, only John Souttar (94.44%), James Tavernier (100%), John Lundstram (97.22%), Fabio Silva (100%), Sam Lammers (100%) and Cyriel Dessers (100%) have over Clement’s 90% target.
Without any of the over 90% players in the Rangers team, availability plummets to 61.96% across the remaining 22 players.
That’s almost 30%, or one third, lower than Clement’s target availability.
Rangers not getting value from expensive squad of crocks
This alone is startling evidence of how much injuries are impacting Rangers.
There are far too many handsomely paid players who are propping up the squad despite not being available for selection.
It is actively damaging our trophy ambitions and for the good of the club these guys have got to go and go now.
Out of contract stars like Borna Barisic (83.33%), Ryan Jack (38.89%) and Kemar Roofe (52.78%) are easier to move on but Rangers really are not getting enough value from expensive investments.
Is Ridvan Yilmaz’s availability (77.78%) justifying a £5m transfer fee?
What about £4m Ben Davies (52.78%), £1.7m Nicolas Raskin (66.67%), or £2.5m Rabbi Matondo (63.89%)?
Kieran Dowell (38.89%) and Tom Lawrence (63.89%) aren’t on peanuts either.
All these guys have to be moved on because their track record with injury is so abysmal and they have proven they cannot be trusted to show up and put up for the club.
Rangers cannot go into the trenches with these guys again when the evidence proves that they are physically incapable of stringing a run of matches together.
It is a damning indictment on both the club’s medical department and recruitment with the data suggesting we’re heading the same way with Abdallah Sima (66.67%), Oscar Cortes (37.5%) and Danilo (33.33%).
What an absolute mess Philippe Clement is having to deal with here and Rangers will likely never be able to challenge over the course of a season if it continues.
