Rangers: ‘Weird’ Cyriel Dessers baffles BBC Sportscene pundits after ‘fantastic’ Hibs goal
Cyriel Dessers has to be admired despite his faults because the Rangers striker is always in positions to get chances, says James McFadden.
The former Scotland forward and fellow BBC Sportscene pundit Neil McCann are both impressed and confused by the Rangers striker, who scored his 17th goal of the season in the 3-1 over Hibs (30 March), because he works hard and scores goals but also misses so many.
McCann was impressed with the “fantastic” bullet header he powered in from a Todd Cantwell cross deep into first-half stoppage time at Ibrox, as McFadden admitted it was “weird” how the Nigerian international keeps appearing in the right areas despite attracting criticism for his misses.
McCann said (7.50pm): “It was a brilliant cross in for his goal but this a guy that we are constantly talking about being involved in the game, missing chances, easy chances, things that he should be scoring. That’s a fantastic header. I have to say Cantwell coming back into the side provides a brilliant cross and it’s a bullet header.
“He could have so many more goals but you have to compliment the boy because he’s always involved, he works very, very hard for the side, and he’s come up trumps today, but that one [in the second half] should find the back of the net.”
McFadden added: “It’s weird, because he always seems to be in the right position. Now sometimes he’ll take a touch when he shouldn’t or he’ll hit it first time when he shouldn’t but he’s always there, and he keeps going and he gets his goals.
“He could have more but you have to admire him for keep putting himself in there and he gets his reward in the end.”
Rangers striker divides opinion during debut season at Ibrox
It may be as simple as Dessers being a talented forward with less than top level finishing, and as a second or third choice at Ibrox he would be viewed pretty positively.
Unfortunately for him he was one of the more expensive additions to a summer transfer haul that collectively promised much, mainly thanks to Michael Beale upping expectations himself, but struggled to get going.
And the injury crisis in Govan which has since robbed Philippe Clement of Danilo, Abdallah Sima, Oscar Cortes and others for long periods has forced Dessers to be the long-term number one and left a lot of pressure on him.
Since Rangers didn’t sign a number nine in January he has kept things on track pretty well, and in many ways it is difficult to argue with 17 goals in all competitions.
His detractors might argue that even his header against Hibs would have probably gone over if he’d been any further out since it bounced in off the underside of the crossbar, and the chance he arrowed wide from close-range in the second half was a reminder of how maddening he can be.
But when he is now only behind James Tavernier in the Rangers scoring charts it is clear that he is contributed a lot of positive to this season, and a forward who wastes as many opportunities as he scores is still preferable to one that barely gets any at all.
With Sima featuring for the first time since January and Cantwell fit and firing it should ease the burden on Dessers, with time yet for him to improve his reputation further with two more trophies on the line.
But, even allowing for the return of Danilo, the Light Blues look like a true number one is still needed in the summer.
In other Rangers news, a senior Light Blues player’s future has now been decided after a confident update.
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