Following an immediate upswing in which he emerged victorious from six of his first seven games in command (the other being a crucial 0-0 stalemate in Prague), Clement’s offensive stalwart ran out of steam at Pittodrie on Sunday.
James Tavernier’s penalty in stoppage time was necessary to salvage a point there, because his team lacked quickness and cunning in their matchup with Aris.
The spectators’ ire was directed against the £3.5 million Dutch midfield player Lammers, who was eventually substituted in the second half and received a caustic round of applause that would have made any player shudder to be brought back out there.
However, a number of other players, most notably the highly anticipated summer addition Jose Cifuentes, also fell short of their strict boss’s expectations.
This three-time Belgian title winner has maintained since day one in the job that he would only be satisfied with the best performances during practise and game days.
When asked what lessons his squad had learnt from the two games in which they came well short of reaching that goal, Clement replied, “I learned we conceded two goals that were unnecessary.” We need to be more astute because we made things harder on ourselves, I also discovered.
But the gang is working pretty hard at it. We’ll improve in a few weeks or months, I’m sure of it. That is typical.
“guys need to play in the appropriate locations; if they don’t, we can’t play our football together and we’re not good. It’s not about me being happy or if guys pass poorly
We dominated the game on Thursday, which was a significant departure from the encounter in Limassol.
Naturally, though, we wanted to prevail. We spent a lot of time in their box, but our final pass lacked precision.
Although falling behind wasn’t a nice situation, the response was favorable in the end. I am aware of our circumstances, but we did not treat ourselves after winning.
“We have players out with injuries. Raskin and Jack, two key players in the midfield, are out, and some others, like Matondo, are recovering from injuries and aren’t playing at their best.
