Rangers Coach Defends Booed Cyriel Dessers

The manager of Rangers, Michael Beale, has defended Super Eagles of Nigeria forward, Cyriel Dessers, who struggled on his League debut on Monday, August 14.

Rangers bought Cyriel Dessers from relegated Italian side Cremonese for a transfer fee worth £4.5 million. He couldn’t score in his team’s 4-0 win over Livingston in his first league game even though he was the frontman of the team.

During the game, Dessers missed an opportunity to score but contributed to the team’s opening goal.

Due to his poor outing, the coach decided to substitute the Nigeria international in the 71st minute which gave Brazilian forward, Danilo the opportunity to move into the center-forward position.

While exiting the pitch, some section of Rangers fans booed him in reaction to his below-expectation performance.

Cyriel Dessers left the game when Rangers were leading 1-0 courtesy of Sam Lammers’ 10th-minute strike. Seven minutes after his exit, Danilo scored Rangers’ second goal.

Within 15 minutes without the Nigerian striker, the Scottish giants scored two more goals to end the game 4-0, thanks to Abdellah Sima, and Kieran Dowell who scored the club’s last two goals of the match.

While responding to criticism against Cyriel Dessers, coach Beale pointed out how the Nigerian scored his first goal for the team during their Champions League qualification victory over Servette barely a week into the league game. He insisted that “Cyriel will be fine here.”

The coach added, “You can see that Cyriel has recovered from not having a preseason. Additionally, he was injured for the final two months of the previous season. He scored last week and made a key contribution to our opening goal today. Listen, we have high expectations for these athletes.”