Barry Ferguson shares what he would do with ‘rusty’ Danilo and Cyriel Dessers for Rangers v Livingston
Barry Ferguson urged Michael Beale to stick with Danilo and Cyriel Dessers when Rangers face Livingston despite them looking “rusty” against Servette.
The Gers started their Scottish Premiership campaign with a limp 1-0 loss at Kilmarnock last Saturday (5 August) despite a heavy recruitment drive that has seen nine players arrive this transfer window.
Dessers started that game from the off while Danilo came off the bench, but both men were chosen in attack as Rangers won the first leg of the third round of qualifying tie for the Champions League 2-1 against their Swiss opponents at Ibrox on Wednesday (9 August).
The two forwards were perhaps not yet at their fluent best, but Rangers great Ferguson warned it will take them time to get and said Beale should retain faith when Livingston visit Ibrox on Saturday (12 August).
“As I keep saying, this is a work in progress for the time being and it’s certainly no time to make judgements, even if the fans might be looking for new recruits like Dessers and Danilo to have hit the ground running a little more quickly,” Ferguson wrote for the Daily Record (11 August).
“Yes, they still look a little rusty but they have only been training together for a couple of days having joined the squad a little later than the rest.
“If I was Beale I’d send the two out of them straight back out again this weekend to lead the line against Livingston because they need more time together to get to know how each other plays and for that on field relationship to build. It will come.
“But it’s going to take time. For now, I’d rather concentrate on some of the positives which came out of the other night because it was certainly a much improved performance from the one we saw at Kilmarnock on Saturday.”
Familiarity is key
There is an old saying that familiarity breeds contempt but that is certainly not true when you are trying to forge a successful strike partnership, indeed familiarity is key to getting the best ouf of each other.
Which is why Ferguson is absolutely right in his assessment of the situation. We have barely scratched the surface of what either player can do in a Rangers shirt yet, and while last weekend was a hugely disappointing start there is still a lot of groundwork to be done to bring the new faces up to speed.
Rangers’ first-half showing in particularly against Servette was pretty decent and the more Danilo and Dessers play with one another, the more likely they are to forge a strong pairing up top.
Panicking at this juncture and constantly tinkering with the line-up will only be detrimental to Rangers’ hopes of wresting the title back from Celtic this season. It might be a frustrating few weeks, but Rangers fans should stay patient.
In other Rangers news, Kenny Miller has called for patience amid Michael Beale’s revolution.