When Rangers had a striker like Ally McCoist or, more recently, Kris Boyd, leading the line, they also had other players capable of chipping in and scoring goals.
For Philippe Clement, his tenure as manager couldn’t be further from this uncomfortable truth with an over reliance on a striker who offers little, other than goals, in a squad that has a severe shortage of them.
Again, against Dundee Utd, it became clear who Rangers’ best striker is and why Cyriel Dessers is a massive part of what is going wrong at the club.
Danilo shows the problems Cyriel Dessers is causing Rangers
The table below shows the key statistics between Dessers and the man who replaced him, Danilo.
| Statistic | Cyriel Dessers | Danilo |
| Touches | 8 | 23 |
| Passing | 3/3 | 13/15 |
| Shots | 0 | 5 |
| Key Passes | 0 | 2 |
| Big Chances Created | 0 | 2 |
Dessers had eight touches of the ball and passed the ball three times – in 45 minutes, what exactly was he doing?
It’s not even close.
If anything, it should have been harder for Danilo to make the impact that he did given how deep Dundee Utd had dropped and how many bodies they packed the penalty area after going a goal in front.
Has Clement seen the problem too late?
Clement has been very stubborn in his time as Gers boss, but at least seems to have seen what everyone else did at Ibrox:
“And that was a big change in the second-half. Dani and Ianis gave a good impact in that way. So, I’m happy that they’re back in the squad after a long time not being at the club,” Clement said of the impact of Ianis Hagi and Danilo.
“That impacted our game, we see much more of what we want to see. In the second-half, I think fans see what they want to see. and they know also if they see this from the team 90 minutes we’re going to win a lot of games.
“We’re working very hard on that with the squad to get that kind of football again and to make it better. Like I said, Dani comes back from a long-term injury. He had his first minutes a couple of weeks ago. It’s step-by-step that he needs to take his minutes.”
If Clement doesn’t make the necessary changes for the next domestic fixture as the build-up to the Old Firm Premier Sports Cup final continues, there won’t be many fans at kick-off, never mind the subway loyal at full-time.
