The bullish Rangers message from Philippe Clement that's picking up sorry stars off the floor as title race fire sparked

Leon Balogun has explained how Rangers manager Philippe Clement has attempted to keep the squad focused on the positives following their recent ropey domestic form.

The title-chasing Ibrox side begin their post-split fixtures this weekend, starting with a short trip to Paisley to face St Mirren on Sunday. The Light Blues currently sit three points behind reigning champions Celtic, but will take confidence from their Scottish Cup semi-final win over Hearts at Hampden, which halted a run of two games without a victory.

Defeat to Ross County in Dingwall was followed by a goalless draw against Dundee at Dens Park last week to leave Philippe Clement’s side fighting to keep their title prospects alive. But centre-back Balogun has provided an insight how the Belgian has reacted on the back of two poor results.

The Nigerian international stated: “He's been really good with us because he makes sure that we don't get too emotional because it's always very easy to watch those games back and then just feel sorry for yourself, talk yourself down.

“He just reminded us of things that, even though we had bad performances, we still did good. He makes sure that he reminds us of what we have to do and repeats that quite heavily as well. Then you can see throughout the training sessions how the confidence slowly builds back up.

"I think it's not a surprise that we had a few difficult spells in the game on Sunday as well. But then again, we showed the character that he was able to instil in the team.”

Balogun marked his return from illness with a strong defensive performance after Clement made the gutsy call to drop mainstay Connor Goldson during last Sunday’s semi-final clash against Hearts.

Asked post-match if Balogun’s performance has given him a headache over who to start in central defence going forward, Clement said: “A headache? Yeah maybe, but a nice one. When I came in we had at that moment four really good centre backs with Connor, with John, with Leon and Ben Davies. Ben has also been injured a long time and is coming back now. 

“Connor did a massive job the last couple of months when we have been the best defence. But he looked a little bit tired to me last week. My idea was to let Leon play on Wednesday, to give Connor a breather. But Leon became sick then so there were circumstances where you need to adapt. 

“I know the quality of these four guys, I know they are going to push the next few weeks to be in the team. If I can have more headaches like that in all the positions then I am sure we are going to be really successful the next couple of weeks.”