Craig Moore has said his old side face a “lot to work” to close the gap on the Scottish Premiership top two following Rangers’ damaging defeat to Aberdeen.
The Glasgow club find themselves nine points behind the Dons and city rivals Celtic after slumping to a 2-1 loss at Pittodrie on Wednesday night.
Clement’s side now have a mountain to climb to get themselves back into the running at the top of the table, and are under fire from the Ibrox faithful.
Former light blues defender Craig Moore, who made over 70 appearances for the club, told STV News that there’s a “lot of work to close that gap”.
He said: “I think there’s a lack of hunger and desire and I guess players that are able to stand up even in bad times, I mean, don’t get me wrong, this group, I’ve probably seen more bad times.
“They’re nine points adrift of both Celtic and Aberdeen, nine points ahead. So there’s a lot of work to close that gap.
Aberdeen remain undefeated under Thelin, who was appointed manager in the summer, and have now won nine consecutive home games in the Premiership, despite a summer rebuild.
This is contrast with Rangers, who themselves saw 16 players depart in the summer, with 11 new faces joining the squad.
“Aberdeen are also a squad that rebuilt and have managed to get players in and hit the ground running, with a far less money”, Moore added. “So it’s going to be a tough, tough ask and improvement is definitely needed.
“But again, I’m not telling Philippe Clement or Rangers what they need to do, they understand that.”
STV NewsFormer midfielder Charlie Miller, who made over 80 appearances for Rangers, echoed Moore’s thoughts and questioned Clement’s post match claims that it was one of the club’s “better performances of the season”.
He added: “I don’t know what game he’s watching, I really don’t.
“I thought for maybe 20 minutes in the game, we were okay.
“Thought Aberdeen the first half could have been 2-0, 3-0 up, although we could’ve had a goal, it was very tight for our offside goal.
“But just defensively, as a team they look all over the place. We really do.”
Moore and Miller are not the only players to question the state of play at Ibrox, with former striker Kris Boyd, who won two league titles with the club, launching into a furious tirade following the final whistle on Wednesday night.
“There is no way this can continue at Rangers and somebody needs to get a grip of it,” he said on Sky Sports.
“He now needs to go – if there is progression, you can cut him some slack, but eight of today’s 11 were already at the football club before he arrived, that is not progression.”
Rangers next face Motherwell on Sunday in the League Cup semi-final, before travelling to Olympiacos on November 7 in the Europa League.
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