Rangers fans shouldn’t expect Mohamed Diomande to score regularly for the club after an impressive start to life at Ibrox, according to Philippe Clement, but the manager wants all areas of his side to pose a threat to the opposition.
The 22-year-old burst onto the scene following his January move to Rangers from Nordsjaelland, hitting goals in back-to-back games against St Johnstone and Hearts, but he hasn’t found the net in the five appearances he has made since that strike against Steven Naismith’s men.
Clement hopes that the Rangers supporters are appreciating the other qualities that Diomande is bringing to his side, something that international selectors clearly are aware of, given he has received call-ups this week for both Ghana and the Ivory Coast under-23s.
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Once he has resolved that dilemma, Clement would love Diomande to get back on the goal trail for Rangers, but he says that isn’t the main metric by which he is judging his contribution.
“It is important, but don’t expect Dio now to score 30 goals a season,” Clement said.
“I hope he does, but he has other things to do on the pitch.
“But it is important of course. The football I want to play, I want danger to come from everywhere, from all the positions.
“Our full backs score goals, our centre backs score goals, our defensive midfielders, the wingers, the strikers, number 10, everybody.
“For me, that is the most difficult thing to stop. If the danger only comes from one, two or three players, then it is easier to stop.
“I want a team that we can use every game to look at where the weak points of the opponent are and where we can exploit them, and you need different qualities for that.
“The players have stepped into this story, that’s why we do finishing exercises with everybody, not only with our attacking players, and they are getting better and better at that in all the squad.
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“That is a major thing, I want a sort of total football with everyone involved.
“Only Jack (Butland), he is the only one who will not score, because I don’t want to be that focused on everybody scoring that he starts to get the penalties or something!
“That could be a trick to do that, but that is not the idea. And Tav would not be happy I don’t think.”
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