Looking beyond Rangers’ domestic inconsistency, Nigerian international and top striker of the team Cyriel Dessers, says he would rather look at the positives in the season. Dessers urges his Rangers teammates to seize the opportunity as they look to take a step closer to silverware at the biggest stage in Europe.
The Light Blues’ form from domestic to European football has been night and day with a Europa League top eight finish booking a direct qualification to the last 16 of the competition. But on home soil it has been a much different story. Sunday’s 3-1 away win at Hearts brought the gap to rivals Celtic back down to 13 points – but the result doesn’t tell the whole story with results on their travels proving a real problem this season.
Philippe Clement and his troops also lost to Brendan Rodgers’ men in the Premier Sports Cup Final while they suffered a massive shock defeat to Queen’s Park in their own backyard – a result that effectively ended hopes of landing domestic silverware this season. Dessers knows ‘significant improvement’ is required if they are to challenge the Hoops for the title, but says everyone inside the walls of Ibrox is determined to put in the hard graft to close the gap and compete at the highest level.
“I think we are even more aware that this is a big opportunity and it is very important for us, that we need to go for it and seize the chance.”
BRILLIANT FORM
The striker has spoken of his form of late which has seen him net five goals in five outings.
Also Dessers’ strike at Old Trafford against Manchester United was voted Men’s Goal of the Month for January.
It was an excellent take-and-finish from the striker in the UEFA Europa League as he got on the end of a long pass from James Tavernier.
Dessers used his body intelligently to nudge defender Harry Maguire out of the flight of the ball and after a lovely touch on his left-side he swept the ball into the bottom corner.
He is also full of praises for fellow forward Hamza Igamane, while hoping their partnership can continue to grow in the coming weeks.
He continued: “I am feeling well at this moment, for me personally it is a good feeling but I think in the last games the whole team shared this feeling as well.
“If I am going on this week there are a lot of positive vibes in this building.
“My partnership with Hamza? I hope that is something that continues, the last three games we have been playing together, I have a very good feeling about this.
“The Scottish league is a very tough league for a striker, you get a lot kicks, knocks, punches and all of these things.
“A lot of times I am fighting against three centre-backs, with Hamza next to me or me next to him I think that causes some distraction there and we can use each other, create space for each other, make them hesitate a little bit more and take the profit out of that.
For me it was nice to play with him, obviously Hamza is a very good player and I hope this partnership can grow.
“I think this was a nice start but there is still a lot of growth left in this partnership for our connection.
“These were also the first few games that we played together because normally we get subbed on or off for each other.
“I am looking forward to that and hopefully we can develop that together.”
The 30-year-old has challenged the Gers to go on a similar run of wins as they did at this stage of last season, with the hopes of getting their hands on trophies with what remains of 2024/25.
He added: “Obviously we are hoping, I think last season in a similar period we had a run of 10 games in a row with a win.
“It would be unbelievable if we could go back to that form in the same stage of the season and you never know what happens.
“We just have to look at it game by game but there is the hunger and the hope to go on a similar run.
“We are still competing in three competitions, I think the confidence that we get from the European games is huge, with getting to the top-eight.
“Something special there is possible, for the league we just need to keep going, you never know what happens and just keep looking at it game by game.
“For the cup it is just a big opportunity to get to a trophy in a couple of games.
“The hunger is here to do something special there as well.”
LEON BALOGUN
His teammate and fellow Nigerian Leon Balogun is not as patronizing as Cyriel of Rangers branding it ‘too inconsistent.’
Speaking to SportsBoom, he said: “Too inconsistent. I think that’s the most honest review I can give. If you look at Europe, we’ve been pretty good. We got direct qualification to the round of 16, but domestically, too inconsistent.
“I mean, I don’t want to be short or shy for words, but that’s just the perfect description. We’re too inconsistent. That’s why we are where we are in the league, which is sad.”
He continued: “I’ve been fortunate to be part of a team that successfully broke Celtic’s dominance in the past, and I’d love to experience that again. However, at this moment, it’s clear that we have a lot of work to do to challenge Celtic for the title.
“As things stand, we’re behind in the race, and this season has highlighted the need for significant improvement. We’re fully aware of the challenge ahead, but we’re determined to put in the hard work necessary to close the gap and compete at the highest level to reclaim the title.”
