Cyriel Dessers has a goal or an assist nearly every 90 minutes in the league since signing for Rangers and yet he continues to frustrate.
Against St Johnstone, a 20 minute cameo saw him miss two 1v1 opportunities and hit the crossbar – if Gers boss Philippe Clement had any hair to pull out there would have been massive tufts on the McDiarmid Park touchline.
If Cyriel Dessers truly wants to win the fans over and become Rangers first choice number nine, he has to be more clinical and it isn’t a big adjustment that he has to make.
Cyriel Dessers needs to lose hesitancy to be Rangers hero
Against Ross County, he scored two goals but on another occasion could have scored four – in his defence, a goal-line clearance was all that stood between him and leaving Ibrox with the match ball.
The issue, is that the 29-year old is consistently making the same mistake.
There are shades of Nikica Jelavic in his play in that he has an ability to carve a chance out of very little by isolating defenders and winning personal duels.
If only he was as decisive with his finishing as the Croatian.
And this is the step he has to make.
Thierry Henry was as good a player as modern football has seen in 1v1 situations.
Cyriel Dessers will never be as good as the Arsenal legend but the Rangers number nine can still take a leaf out of his book.
Henry has spoken about how he used to prepare for games by visualising what he was going to do with the ball if he got into certain positions.
Dessers could be on 20 goals if he didn’t have the yips whenever he is clean through on goal.
It sounds simple but all he has to do is, at least, make the keeper work.
Stop over complicating situations where all he has to do is pull the trigger, an issue that can be worked on at the training ground.
His two chances against St Johnstone are a great example.
Why take the first one round the keeper?
Even if he hadn’t lost control, all he was doing was making the angle tighter and going onto his weaker foot.
At 10 yards out, he could have picked any corner of the goal to aim at and the keeper would have been up against it.
The second, Dessers again does everything right to create the chance but takes too many touches rather than just opening up his body and getting his shot away.
Strangely, Cyriel Dessers looks like a better fit for Philippe Clement’s system than Fabio Silva in that he seems to make better runs into space.
But, until he demonstrates the ruthlessness that made Henry one of the most fiered strikers around, he will continue to frustrate.
