So, we’re going to take on the-now infamous striker issue at Rangers, and try to sum up exactly where we are with regards the lack of a proper 9 or 11 at Ibrox.
January failed us, recruitment and Nils Koppen failed Philippe Clement who needed a proper hitman available for the rest of the season.
Some argue that had Fabio Silva been signed on February 1st every Rangers fan would have been buzzing to get a £40M striker on Deadline Day.
Yes and no. We’ve been there before a couple of years ago, Aaron Ramsey and Amad Diallo with a market value of £80M combined were very late in January 22 and neither of them could have been worse for the club.
Rangers fans are more cautious now, even if there’s initial excitement about the player’s value and career.
But the reality is Silva wasn’t signed on Feb 1st, he came in late December and so far has been disappointing, even if Philippe Clement tries to put an understandably positive spin on him.
Which leaves us with aforementioned Portuguese, and of course Belgian-born Nigerian Cyriel Dessers.
That Dessers, who only 15 days ago was the ‘worst striker av ever seen’ has now become something akin to the sole Rangers forward we can even remotely rely on for goals is a bit of a shambles.
He is on 8 for the season, which is ok – it’s into creaking somewhere near 20 a season territory and he does have history for strong-scoring seasons:
20 in 41 for Feyenoord in 22 (10 of them were in the Conference League), 15 in 25 for Heracles in 2020 or 18 in 29 that season total.
Dessers is not a career failure and he has scored well for clubs before. Breda? 22 in 36, but it was in the Dutch second division…
The point is the lad can and has scored.
But the bigger point is can Rangers rely on him as the striker?
The real answer is we have no choice, he’s all we have unless Silva comes onto a game.
The board have lumbered Philippe Clement with a rather naff scenario. They failed to get him a proper striker, so he must make do with what he has.
He got the league cup with a squad filled with Sam Lammers, anything is possible, but even ‘incredible’ surely has limits.
Hopefully Phil can find a way to get a song out of Dessers and Silva, because that’s the only option.