The secret to more Rangers clean sheets revealed but it’s no easy work for Ibrox running men

Defender reached a new milestone in his Ibrox career on Saturday and reckons there’s plenty more to come with Clement driving standards.

On Saturday, Connor Goldson became the Rangers’ 300th gamer. However, the massive defender argues that Philippe Clement’s down-to-earth approach has given him plenty of miles left in his 31-year-old tank.

More significantly, he thinks the Ibrox team still has a lot of way to cover as they surge through the gears beneath the Belgian. It was one thing to storm to the top of the table and take pride in their position against Hearts on Saturday.

However, Goldson asserts that they won’t be satisfied until they reach the finish line. And so be it if that means striving for more, even with a 5-0 lead over the top team in the Premiership. Surprisingly, the Englishman wasn’t quite happy with Rangers’ ninety-minute performance, which saw them sweep aside a team with the second-best form record among all 15 of Europe’s top leagues.

When asked if that exemplifies the current expectations at Ibrox, he responded, “Yeah, it does.” It has been a long since we truly enjoyed a football game at home. That was the ideal opportunity there. It became somewhat of a basketball contest in the last thirty minutes as we attempted to score.

“If we get five the manager wants six, if we get six he wants seven. So it is probably a little bit of that, putting the foot to the gas and score even more. I think we could have controlled it better and we gave away too many transitions by not controlling the football enough.

“But we’re in a good place, confidence is high, we’re winning games and that breeds confidence. We’re doing it by working hard and you see in that game the amount of distance the boys are covering in games.

“That’s why we’re winning games of football – through hard work and the tempo we’re playing at, counter-attacking when we’re sitting low. I think it’s harder for teams to come here with a game plan because we’re scoring different types of goals so long may it continue.

“We need to keep working hard game by game and day by day and reaching an even higher level.”

Goldson, in his sixth year at Ibrox, reckons he’s never worked harder in a light blue shirt than under Clement. The former Brighton stopper detailed the changes that have been made to his game as the Belgian looks to suffocate teams at Ibrox. It means a high line and extra running for those at the back.

But the rewards are there for all to see with just one defeat from 25 games and eight goals conceded in 19 league games under the former Club Brugge and Monaco boss who, he insists, is squeezing more out of his game than ever before.

He said: “Running wise yes! Running wise it is different. It is just the way he wants us to play. He wants us to stop counter attacks. If we have got a team on the edge of the box he wants us to push all the way up to the strikers so they can’t get the ball and turn. That is what is leading to us keeping more clean sheets – the boys up the pitch are pressing.

“We are going with them as high as the striker goes. So he just wants to stop transitions, which I think we got caught on a few times at the start of the season. Yeah, it is good, I am really enjoying it.”

Further up the park Rangers’ three January signings – Fabio Silva, Oscar Cortes and Mohamed Diomande – have hit the ground running and all three chipped in with goals to down Hearts on Saturday.

It all adds to a strength in depth Goldson hopes can hold off the challenge of Celtic to secure his second Scottish title.

He said: “We knew we needed quality and the squad needed a few more players and I think you look at it now, even the five subs we made against Hearts, we bring on Raskin, Wright, McCausland, Fabi and Kemar.

“With the tempo we’re trying to play at then when you can do that after, 60,70, 80 minutes it makes a big difference.”

Goldson has been a rock at the back for Rangers since being tempted to Glasgow by Steven Gerrard in a £3million deal in the summer of 2018.

He completed the set of winners medals when the Ibrox side lifted the League Cup to add to his Premiership and Scottish Cup gongs in December.