Philippe Clement wants longer recovery after European games as Rangers beat Livingston

Philippe Clement praised Rangers for the way they dealt with a “tricky” trip to Livingston as he called on the Scottish football authorities to consider implementing Sunday evening kick-off times for teams playing in Europe on a Thursday.

The Rangers boss watched his team run out comfortable 2-0 winners at the Tony Macaroni Arena less than 72 hours after an energy-sapping 2-1 victory over Sparta Prague in the Europa League.

Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibernian and the Ibrox side have all had to contend with playing domestic matches on Sunday afternoons after Thursday night European fixtures this term, and Clement feels Scotland should follow the lead of other leagues by allowing teams more recovery time in such situations.

“I think it’s better for Scottish football to do it that way,” said the Belgian. “They do it in Belgium and in other leagues.

“People who have never played may think, ‘what is the difference between six hours or eight hours more?’ but it’s a big difference in the recovery of a body, these hours of sleep and recovery because it’s a really short time for players to recover.

“We play every three days, we will have a schedule of 12 games in about 38 days (after the international break) so recovery is an important part of it. The food, the drink, the cryo, when to sleep.

“It’s important I think in every league that teams that play in Europe on Thursday evening play on the Sunday evening. In a lot of leagues, that’s done so it’s maybe something we can see in the future.”

Clement made four changes for the Livingston game and admitted his team selection was influenced by the gruelling impact of the Sparta match.

“Yes, because for example, Danilo did 1,300 metres of high-intensity runs on Thursday so if I let him start