Clement on 'meeting with Rangers defence' after St Mirren

Do you accept you need to play better than against St Mirren?

Yeah, but it’s two totally different games. Two totally different opponents. You cannot compare these styles. And would you have said the same if we had scored four goals that game? If it was 4-1, would you have had the same question at that moment? Because we had really good opportunities and the goalkeeper made two really good saves.  It could have been 4-1 and then you maybe would have said 'Rangers, four goals against Bucharest, now four again...' it’s another perception. So, it’s again about perception, emotions, everything. We won the game against St.Mirren. We wanted to score more goals, yes. We had these opportunities also. We took several of those good. The goalkeeper played also a really good game. We get a goal against where there could be a foul, I didn’t want to go into that discussion after the game. It’s another discussion. There are a lot of things. So, it’s now the next game Aberdeen. A better opponent than St.Mirren, yes? But was Steaua Bucharest a worse opponent than St.Mirren? Also no. But there we were efficient. We took the moments and we played a really good game out of that. And Steaua Bucharest created better chances maybe than St.Mirren did, but at the end, it’s 4-0 and there’s a perception.  So it’s about looking at the reality. And that’s why we need a top, top performance against Aberdeen. That we know and I’m confident the team is going to do that

St Mirren did have a number of chances to score though. Does your defence have to be better?

Yes. We talked about that. We showed images about that because it was similar actions that they could do that we don’t want to see. And it’s also one of the strengths of Aberdeen. So we had a separate meeting with the defence about that. No, it’s not a concern, it’s paying attention towards that. Because I don’t think that other teams in the league play games without conceding chances. But we need to be better at that. We need to put standards higher. To have it less than we have in this game. About that one kind of chance that we have, yes.

How big a decision is it that centre-half pairing you have to make? John coming back in. Nana playing very well there when he moved to centre-half. Robin Propper coming off. How big a call is that to decide what team you go with?

It’s not what you want and what you think about before the game. But sometimes you need to react in the game to make the right decisions. And all these players are human beings. Like all the players are in the world. And everybody can have also a less good day than other days and be in problems because of that. And it’s my job also to make the right decisions. So, that’s what we did. That’s why I’m here for.

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Does tomorrow night feel like a night where if you go and win, it can really knock you on for the rest of the season?

For the outside or inside? For inside, we’re going to go full for these three points and we’re going to go hard. And we have confidence that we’re going to play a really good season.  We don’t need that moment to be ready for Sunday, for example. We want to be ready for Sunday. So, it’s game by game, giving our best.

But good to show others you are in the fight?

Maybe it’s better that they don’t think we’re in the fight. That they underestimate us at the end. No, we are just focused on ourselves and not on all the noise and things around. Just about ourselves and winning games. It’s difficult in the press conferences. Very difficult. And today more than ever, maybe. But, no, it’s part of football. And it’s changed a lot in the last 10 years than before. But players need to learn that also. Vaclav [Cerny] was in that way also a really good example because he was really, really hardly touched by all the comments that he got after a moment in Lyon. And he cut out his Insta after a good talk about that.  Because it’s of no use. It’s totally of no use to live in these emotions because then you can never create stability. There’s not one person in the world who is every day at his best and the top performance. But that’s what’s expected from all the players and we’re pushing in that way. But also in moments that they didn’t perform at their best. You need to give them also confidence to be the next time there to react in that way.  So, if I would listen to that and read all of that, then I would make a lot of bad calls, I think. Because, for example, Cerny would not have played after Lyon. And he was the most decisive player that we had the last couple of weeks. 

(Image: Image: Rob Casey - SNS Group) Have you had a lot of conversations with other players about blocking out that noise, especially when they come to a club where there's more noise than perhaps they're used to?

Yeah, that's a different world. And in that way, we're still working on making steps with the group. And it's not only about that, about noise and all those things. It's also about playing every three days. Playing European football combined with domestic games and having this rhythm of games. Your body needs to adapt. Your mind needs to adapt. So, we're working on all these things with a lot of players where it's the first time that they are in this situation. You have others who are more used to doing that and they can help in that way also in the dressing room. Because it's crucial. This club is about winning every game. If you win, it's good or it's normal. And if you lose, everything is really bad. So, you need to live with that. And you need to have this ambition to be on top next time to win it. It's about that every time. All over. And if you create that consistency, then you get results.

I suppose things have changed so much recently in the last few years, with social media and the focus on players after games, especially on social media. Is it different from when you played? 

Oh, yes. It's much different. At that moment, everything was just cut in stone. So, it's a really long time ago. No, it's a big difference. It's a different life. But, yeah, I had also an experience in that way when I was a player. But it's a really long story. I don't want to bother you with that. I think I was already 30 or something. It was the first time the fan forum at my club where I was captain. And I was there for a long time. So, it was something new. It's something exciting because you could read afterwards what people, fans, were thinking about you. So, everybody looked at us. Our dressing room, we started to talk about that also. So, and then you start to see, okay, this profile is really somebody who knows about football because he thinks I'm a really good player. And the other one, always critical for me, so he doesn't know too much about football. That was the reaction by every player. It's human nature. So, after six months or something that the forum was there, we had a fan day at the club. There were a lot of things to do around the club and we had training with the team. And I had to be the referee for a football game for all the people from the fan forum. They all came to play football. I was really interested in who were the guys who knew everything about football and who were the guys who knew less. But at the end, I saw that there was nobody really good at playing football. But they were good at recognising it or not recognising it, from my side. So, in the end, it's not only what you see on the pitch, it's also all the things around. Life, dressing room, training, all these things. You need all those things in the process. I understand that people who have never been in a dressing room or never been in 'what is the process to come to a team or to become a good player', that you try to explain that, but sometimes you cannot spread this message if you didn't live it. So, I understand that way. I learned from that moment also to accept it more, and not to put so much attention to it than I was in the beginning. That was a good lesson for me.

(Image: Image: Rob Casey - SNS Group) Is it harder now though with Twitter, and Instagram, as you say, there's so much more?

It's a new world, but is it harder? It's not only football, because we cannot exaggerate that. It's society. It's with children also. When you were a young child in my time, you could have been bullied. I never had it, luckily. I was one of the taller ones. You could have been bullied during school hours, and you came home in a safe environment. And now children can be bullied all the time because it's by the phone. And they have their phone all the time in their hands. So, it's society that changes them that way. And it's the same for you guys. Before, you had the newspapers, and you had the next day, the deadline. And now it's every second that you need to bring something, because otherwise somebody else is bringing it. So, the world has changed in that way, and we all need to adapt in that way. For players, it's different now than 20 years ago. Is it more difficult or more harder? I don't know. It's just society changing. Football has changed, and you need to adapt. So, I cannot say if it's harder or not. There are other difficulties.