Ibrox Noise’s ratings yesterday were rather well received, with few criticisms of the scores we offered the players on new Rangers manager Philippe Clement’s debut, but throughout the match the classic fallacy of ‘were we watching a different match’ surfaced over one man:

Cyriel Dessers.

Through the whole 90 minutes, all Ibrox Noise heard was criticism, abuse, insults and put-downs aimed at the Belgian-born Nigerian international, but what we saw with thine own eyes contradicted that entirely.

Let’s break down Cyriel Dessers’ performance, and see if we can explain why we rated him 9/10.

For a start, and a point probably ignored by many – he only made 7 passes, but had 100% accuracy. He didn’t waste a single ball.

Secondly, he had 5 shots, and 3of them were on target – and of course, one clinically-finished goal.

Key passes? 3, more than anyone bar James Tavernier, who managed 4. Dribbles? Just one, but completed successfully, and he was also defensively on song, with 3 attempts at tackles, 2 successful. Yes, he was adding to the defensive side of the game, putting himself about when Rangers didn’t have the ball.

But what we noticed most was his movement. Cyriel Dessers was absolutely 100% making the runs. He was finding pockets of space and making his move a lot, and that movement was smart. He wasn’t always being picked up, but the boy knows how to read the game.

What we saw yesterday tied in with the analysis we’d seen of him before he joined.

So what’s the evidence he had a bad game?

He lost the ball 8 times in total but Sima lost it 21 times and Tavernier 23 times, so that one isn’t washing. And he only had 27 touches but what does that matter if the rest of his game is adding a lot to the match?

No, there’s a real hate for Dessers among some fans who have made their minds up and it doesn’t matter what he does, he’s not popular and won’t be credited when he plays well.

Was he Messi? Of course not. But he did little wrong on the day and yet wasn’t being praised by a lot of the fans who have decided to dislike him.

Look at his numbers for the season too:

16 appearances, 4 goals and 3 assists (including 2 v PSV). That’s 7 contributions – slightly short of one in two, and maybe not lighting up Ibrox but a long way from being a dud.

Don’t get us wrong, we’d rather we’d kept Colak, we loved the Croat, but that’s history – Dessers is who’s here and he’ll do better if fans aren’t slaughtering him even when he plays well.

Worth a thought.