Philippe Clement insists he does not always follow sports science recommendations after the issue of players’ fatigue at Rangers continued ahead of the Old Firm game on January 2.
The Gers boss revealed before Sunday’s 2-2 William Hill Premiership draw at Motherwell that Czech Republic winger Vaclav Cerny and Moroccan striker Hamza Igamane had started on the bench as two of seven changes after discussions with the players and backroom staff responsible for fitness.
Both attackers came off the bench at the start of the second half as Rangers trailed 2-0 and the latter scored a brace to grab a point, albeit Celtic’s lead at the top of the table increased to 14 points.
Clement said: “ I understand that people don’t realise the effect that things have on the human body if it’s (a game) every three days.
“It’s every three days going full and recovering fast and full and full. After a while, you get the tiredness. It’s logical.
“In the past, we had a winter break around this period. Players also played less games in Europe. So that makes a difference.
“Every step in between, you can have some recovery. Vaclav didn’t have any until now. He has played twice the amount of minutes that he played last season. His body is adapting to that and he’s adapting really well.
“But we were on the edge with him, to let him break down and that would have been foolish.
“Can you tell me one team in the world where a player played this season, all the games, 90 minutes and played international duties?
“There’s not one. That’s because of the amount of games and also the difference between 15, 20, 30 years ago and the intensity of the game now.
“I tried to explain it before the game. Maybe I didn’t do it well enough.
“If we keep playing this amount of games in a short time this question will not be asked in two, three years because everybody will say it’s normal (rotation).
“We would have maybe lost more points the next couple of months if Vaclav and Hamza played, or tried to play, 90 minutes and they got injured for two, three months. It’s not to rest them, but to see that they play less minutes in that game.
“In that way, people sometimes make conclusions that the sports department makes the decisions about the team. Also, totally not the case.
“It’s not that I follow everything to the letter. I’ve been pushing players above this limit and I take the risk at that moment. If the players get injured, it’s my responsibility.
“I did it several times this season, last season, the years before in other teams. But it’s just the normal way of working for everybody.”
