Cyriel Dessers was in a bullish mood when addressing the press on Thursday ahead of Rangers’ Scottish Cup clash with Dumbarton.
The striker has taken a fair whack of criticism from fans and pundit across the country who are yet to be convinced by the man Rangers bought in the summer for £4.5m from Cremonese.
However his form in attack has improved under new boss Philippe Clement, who has had a huge influence on the whole squad never mind just one player.
Dessers has benefitted from a long run in the team due to two serious injuries to Danilo this season and has nine goals and seven assists in 30 games for Gers this campaign.
16 goal contributions across that tally of matches is actually quite admirable on the face of it. But Dessers realises no matter how decent his stats look now, he has fresh competition in the shape of Fabio Silva to contend with across the second-half of the season.
Optimistic Rangers outlook for Dessers
Not that Fabio Silva’s emergence changes much for Cyriel Dessers because he understands competition for places at a club like Rangers will always be the case.
And while he hopes the Wolves loanee contributes to the team, Dessers still wants to continue to write his own chapter at Ibrox this season and do all he can to improve.
Dessers said, as quoted in the Daily Record: “It’s part of being at a top club like Rangers there will always be competition. It’s only a good thing.
“I am not here for only myself, I am here for the team and I just want to win trophies here. I don’t care who makes the goal or wins us the game.
“I just want to win and that’s the important thing. Fabio is a good player and I hope he can help us a lot but I hope I can also do my thing of course. If you look at the split of my stats before the manager came and when he did I think it is a big difference.
“There is still growth left and I am working hard everyday to get better, in better shape and form and hopefully, we can help the team win a lot of games.
“We spoke about it but at this point, we don’t need to talk about it every day. He knows what I can do, I know he sees my qualities and now I have to work hard and fight for the team.”
Dessers will likely start against Dumbarton in the Scottish Cup tomorrow evening and we might see Fabio Silva dropped in just behind him, where the Portuguese claims he is best suited.
Although a Clement curveball could be thrown and Silva could be the man to finally displace Dessers at the top end of Rangers’ attack, just like we saw against FC Copenhagen on Tuesday.
