Cyriel Dessers: Assessing his impact at Rangers after 100 games
Kai Watson 
A last-minute Cryriel Dessers goal spared Rangers blushes on Sunday in their win over Dundee, leaving Barry Ferguson's side still 13 points behind Celtic in the Scottish Premiership.
You won't find any betting sites out there who are backing Gers to clsoe the gap on the league leaders, but at least Dessers' goal means the prospect of the title being wrapped up in the coming weeks has been pushed back ever so slightly.
Dessers has been something of a divisive figure among the Ibrox faithful despite a respectable record at the club, and Kai Watson, our Scottish Football tipping expert, has had a closer look at the forward and the impact he has had since joining in 2023.
100 Games of Cyriel Dessers
Cyriel Dessers 100th Rangers appearance against Dundee absolutely optimised his time at the club so far. He showed the good, the bad and the frustratingly likeable side of his game.
The truth is, on paper, his record for Rangers is actually very good. He has 45G/13A in his 100 appearances so far and has scored some very crucial goals.
Some which spring to mind are away in Betis in last season's Europa League, the goal away in Olympiakos and the goal and assist away in Istanbul against Fenerbahçe in this season’s Europa League.
In this season's Europa League, he has 3G/2A in 617 minutes, a goal contribution every 123 minutes in the second biggest European competition is nothing to scoff at.
He definitely thrives in the games that Rangers are the underdogs, particularly in Europe. It’s mostly domestically, when he gets a lot of chances that he frustrates fans the most.
Domestically this season, Dessers has 12G/2A in 1586 minutes, a goal contribution every 113 minutes. On paper, this looks like a pretty good record and not one to complain about.
However, the 30-year-old is a very enigmatic figure for Rangers fans. There are sections that think he does nothing right and doesn’t deserve to be at the club. There are also sections of the support that will defend every action that he does.
For all that he frustrates, he can never be accused of not putting in the effort or hiding away. He gets into great positions, his movement is excellent and if finishing ability was up to par with that, he wouldn’t be playing in Scotland.
For example, against Dundee in the late Saturday kick-off, he scored the winning goal as Rangers came from 3-1 down to win 4-3. However, he also missed five ‘big chances’, FIVE in one game!
It could have been a much more comfortable game for Rangers had the Nigerian striker been more clinical. As previously mentioned, there’s nothing that epitomises Cyriel Dessers time at Rangers more than missing five great chances then scoring a last-minute winner.
In the post-match interview he seemed emotional when his 100th appearance was brought up. He was told that his goalscoring record after that number of appearances was only bettered by Kris Boyd, Alfredo Morelos and Shota Arveladze.
When asked about the emotion in his voice, he replied ‘Yeah, these are big names... I know this has been two hard years for everyone.’
It is hard watching Dessers at times but he comes across very well in interviews and clearly enjoys being at Rangers. He does his best and fans often forget that footballers are human also.
The difference in the reaction to Dessers on social media after he’s come out, held his hands up and spoken honestly in post-match interviews is staggering.
That’s what he does to the Rangers fans, he gives them joy, frustration and sometimes just leaves them utterly perplexed but that’s just who and what he is as a player.
It will be interesting to see how Rangers fans and Scottish football fans in general look back at his time at Ibrox once he leaves, I feel the narrative could be very different to what it currently is.
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