Dundee United secured a 1-1 result at Ibrox that day. The Premiership’s top scorer Sam Dalby opened the scoring and, while Vaclav Cerny’s equaliser just past the hour mark had the home fans confident briefly in a come-from-behind win, one would not be forthcoming.
Substitute Hamza Igamane came as close as anyone. His rasping drive from the edge of the box forced visiting goalkeeper Jack Walton into a flying save.
But it was reportedly Clement’s usage of Igamane during another highly-underwhelming Ibrox display which caused ‘contention’ behind the scenes amongst the playing staff.
Clement introduced Igamane not up front – in his favoured number nine role – but instead on the left-hand side of his midfield. Danilo remained through the centre on his ow.
And, according to Rangers Review, members of the squad felt that Rangers would have benefitted more from a change of system. Perhaps with Igamane joining Danilo up top against a Dundee United team happy to hang onto a point.
Just a few days later, Igamane would lead the line away to Nice in the Europa League as the summer signing from Morocco finally announced himself as a Rangers player with two goals in a thrilling 4-1 victory.
That would kick-start a run of 12 goals from 14 appearances.
Yet, in the eyes of many critics, a decent spell of form leading up to Christmas and early into 2025 was almost despite Philippe Clement rather than because of him. Rangers still looked like a side reliant upon moments of individual magic rather than one capable of opening up deep-lying defences with pre-planned moves and training pitch solutions.