Early season Rangers review of the new strikers – part 3, Cyriel Dessers

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Early season Rangers review of the new strikers – part 3, Cyriel Dessers
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - SEPTEMBER 03: Cyriel Dessers of Rangers celebrates after setting up a goal for Kemar Roofe, only for VAR to disallow it during the Cinch Scottish Premiership match between Rangers FC and Celtic FC at Ibrox Stadium on September 03, 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

In the next part of our four-part Rangers series, we look at Cyriel Dessers, the 28-year-old striker signed effectively as a replacement for Antonio Colak, at a cost of £6M, from Italian side Cremonese.

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One look initially at Dessers’ CV should have rung alarm bells for sure – for a man of his more advanced footballing years, he’s had around one club a season since he was 19. His career is a who’s who of midtable European sides, albeit with the odd Genk and Feyenoord in there too.

In short, deeply unsettled and unable to find a true home. We initially avoided holding that against him because Antonio Colak was in the same position when he came to Rangers.

The big puzzle was why we sold Colak for £2.5M and signed Dessers for a further £3.5M – in short, we marginally profited on Colak, then shelled out that and an extra few million to bring in Dessers.

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Who is exactly the same style of player as the Croat. It seemed like such a waste of time and resources when he plays a similar game to Colak.

His career goals rate?

Actually quite good. Utrecht, 19 in 56 with 7 assists. 20 in 41 at Feyenoord, 4 assists. 29 in 40 at NAC with 13 assists. 18 in 29 at Heracles, 6 assists.

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So have you noticed the issue? Yes, he’s only ever been any good in the Dutch top flight. In Belgium, 11 in 43 and 6 assists with Genk and 7 in 29 at Italian Cremonese with 2 assists.

At Rangers? 2 goals, 3 assists in 9. He was of course excellent for Feyenoord in the Europa Conference League but that competition has absolutely zero credibility.

His career is nomadic, and there’s a reason Cremonese sold him.

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So, how has he been for Rangers?

Unfortunately, not very good. He has 2 goals, and randomly has three big assists, 2 v PSV and one, curiously, v Morton. But in 9 appearances it’s very underwhelming.

He screams of awkward – he does want to be playing for this club, but the signing hype and big grin during those club interviews is gone, and he looks a bit lost. He has a very poor touch most of the time, and is rarely getting into the good positions to get a good shot in. He’s wasteful when he is. He struggles to read the game and doesn’t seem to understand the movement yet.

He looks like he’s low on confidence and it’s worth noting that his last goal in football before he arrived at Ibrox was in April.

He clearly enjoyed getting out of Serie A because he knew he was out of his depth, and he hoped Rangers and the Scottish Premiership with our Champions League was the answer.

So far it hasn’t been.

A lot of money was spent on him, where we could have just held onto Colak.

What was the point?

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1 COMMENT

  1. Yet another underwhelming signing for a lot of good money. He looks sluggish he struggles to turn quickly and is so so slow. Colak was also not quick but his movement and composure better he also seemed to know where to be unlike Dessers.

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