If ever a player represented a football team it is Cyriel Dessers and the current Rangers side.
One moment he’s brilliant, the next, he’s missing open goals against lower league opposition, if the manager had hair he’d be pulling it out.
Against Union Saint Gilloise, the Rangers No.9 was at his mercurial best and a key reason why a place in the top eight of the Europa League league phase was secured.
Rangers fans praise Cyriel Dessers performance
With no Ianis Hagi, Danilo and options for the wing restricted too, Hamza Igamane was deployed in a wider role to the one that he is used to with Dessers, who scored 8/10 on the player ratings, tasked with leading the line.
And lead the line he did, with four key passes and one big chance created, the 30-year old linked play perfectly.
He was also unlucky not to get on the scoresheet with an offside decision going down to millimetres.
It was a performance that saw Rangers fans take to social media to praise the much-maligned striker.
“Great effort to make the top 8. Some excellent performers tonight but especially big Dessers who led the line superbly well. Well done Rangers,” hailed Scott Cameron on X.
Rangers podcast, This is Ibrox, were also happy to see Dessers get the acclaim of the fans at full-time, “To chants of “nice one Cyriel” from the stands. He deserves that tonight, our MotM.”
Another, who openly admitted to not entirely being a fan of the Nigeria international said, “Been his biggest critic, but Cyriel Dessers was absolutely superb tonight, his best game in a Rangers strip.”
Finally, David Edgar of the Heart and Hand podcast tipped his hat to a player who has seen more criticism than most, “Have to say, I thought Dessers all-round game tonight was excellent.”
‘Brilliant’ Dessers impresses Philippe Clement
Philippe Clement was also pleased with Dessers’ display, and was effusive in his praise despite not normally being the type of manager to pick out individuals:
“Cyriel played a brilliant game. I want to see him more,” gushed Clement.
“He’s also one of the guys. He’s not from the young guys. But the evolution of… I remember when I came in last year in October how everybody was talking about him.
“Or even now some people still. But the games that he played this season already and how many amount of goals that he made.
“So, he’s very important. But he made a very good evolution in many things that were for me also not good enough in the beginning.
“But you see more and more that he’s using all the potential that he has inside of himself.”
