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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
David Irvine

'He found it funny' - Clement opens up on Cantwell substitution inside joke

Philippe Clement has opened up on the inside joke he shared with Todd Cantwell as he was subbed off in the 3-1 win over Kilmarnock.

The Rangers midfielder netted his side's third goal of the afternoon just after the hour-mark and was later subbed off with minutes left.

Clement hailed the "evolution" of Cantwell since his arrival at the club and joked he was much happier to withdraw the midfielder with minutes left rather than in the first half.

It comes after Cantwell was withdrawn in the first half against Aris Limassol in the Europa League group stage.

Quizzed on Cantwell, Clement said: "It's difficult to take out one player, it's a total story and every player has his own working points. And that's my job and the staff to point them out and work on that with them.

"I am happy with the evolution Todd is making and I prefer to take him off in the 87th minute rather than the 37th minute.

"I told him also when he came off...he found it funny!"

Clement had said of the substitution back in November: "We didn't create any depth on the right side with Todd, he was coming into the ball all of the time and that was not the idea.

"Then we created an easy game for them, what they like. I wanted to have more width on the right side and create more actions behind their defence.

"What Ross did, he did in a good way was be high - and he scored a goal like that.

"They are all important but they need to show they want to be in the team but it's an impossible job to have all 28 happy because it's 11 places every three days.

"The players that show themselves every training session and every game will get the most chances to play.

"I have no problem with Todd, he did a good job in the last couple of weeks. Today it was less good so another guy comes in and does the job for the team. We are a team together."

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