Philippe Clement faces major James Tavernier Rangers dilemma

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Philippe Clement faces major James Tavernier Rangers dilemma
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - DECEMBER 17: Rangers captain James Tavernier celebrates at full time during the Viaplay Cup Final match between Rangers and Aberdeen at Hampden Park on December 17, 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

A very key question relates to a promise Philippe Clement has made with regards this clogged fixture schedule for Rangers, one that so far the club has shone in with flying colours.

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And that is the issue of rotation, whereby the boss has stated that players must get rotated in this next period, because it’s impossible for everyone to play every match.

And of course, that begs the question of James Tavernier.

James Tavernier has very rarely been dropped in his entire Rangers career. Once in 2016 and for Lee Hodson against St Johnstone in a 1-1 draw, and a few times for Nathan Patterson back in the day.

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In total he’s made 439 matchday squads and started 431 of those matches. He’s had a few tiny niggling injuries, but not a lot. A pretty staggering level of consistency and resilience we must say.

And the last match he didn’t play was v Morton in one a bunch of top-teamers were rested for.

But with this period upcoming, will Philippe Clement rotate with Tavernier as he did with Connor Goldson recently?

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Now that’s not being ‘dropped’, and technically it’s not being ‘rested’ either, because all of these matches matter.

‘Rested’ was against Morton, where a low-level opponent is deemed weak enough to rest key players for – St Johnstone are far from low-level.

Clement did describe Connor Goldson’s benching v Dundee as resting, and explained with all the matches coming up everyone can’t play every match.

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But what of Tav?

Will he be rotated?

The problem here isn’t that we don’t have a good player to deputise – Dujon Sterling can clearly do the job.

The problem is there’s no one in midfield to cover Sterling’s excellence in there lately – ALL of Rangers’ midfielders are injured aside John Lundstram, which is a bit of a shambles actually. No Jack, Raskin, Cifuentes or Lawrence fit at all.

Meaning unless Clement trusts Adam Devine in from the cold, Tavernier is pretty much keeping his place and might be the one player who simply doesn’t get rotated/rested/dropped/whatever word you want to use for this period.

Maybe not ideal, but then, the guy doesn’t seem to be entirely human…

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