Glasgow Rangers missed out on the chance to win the first domestic trophy of the season when they lost on penalties to Celtic at Hampden Park in the League Cup final on Sunday.
Ridvan Yilmaz was the only player to miss from the spot, despite goalkeeper Jack Butland also taking one of their penalties, whilst centre-forward Cyriel Dessers came off the bench and did not take one of the five spot-kicks.
The Rangers number nine was either not trusted by Philippe Clement or did not back himself to be one of the main takers, which is concerning either way you look at it.
Dessers has been linked with a move away from Ibrox ahead of the upcoming January transfer window and his failure to step up when his team needed him is one of the reasons why the manager should bin him from the squad.
Why Rangers should sell Cyriel Dessers
French outlet Le Republicain Sportif recently reported that Ligue 1 side Saint-Etienne are interested in a swoop to sign the Nigeria international next month, with a fee of around £3.5m needed to make a deal happen.
Clement and the club must take advantage of this interest from the French team and ruthlessly cash in on the former Cremonese man, who has been an unreliable performer for the Ibrox giants.
Appearances
49
Goals
22
Big chances missed
33
Assists
6
As you can see in the table above, Dessers has missed a whopping 33 ‘big chances’ in the Scottish Premiership since the start of last season, which illustrates how wasteful he is in front of goal.
That is further illustrated by his return of one goal from 3.98 xG across six outings in the Europa League so far this term, and Clement could finally bin him by unleashing a B team player as his replacement in the first-team.
Why Zak Lovelace should be unleashed
Zak Lovelace could come up from the academy to take Dessers’ place in the side and allow the club to cash in on the Nigerian flop, as he has shown plenty of promise at youth level.
As you can see in the clip above, the English marksman scored the winning goal in the Glasgow Cup final against Celtic for the B team on Tuesday night, with a composed finish late on in the match.
The 18-year-old gem, who came off the bench against FCSB in the Europa League this season, has made five first-team appearances for the club to date, but is yet to establish himself as a regular in the senior set-up.
Lovelace, who missed 320 days with a hamstring injury between October 2023 and September 2024, has had his development hampered by injury issues, but he is now back and firing for the B team – winning them a trophy a couple of days after Dessers failed to help his team to win one.
The teenage sensation, who was once hailed as “exciting” by ex-sporting director Ross Wilson, has produced 17 goals and seven assists in 34 appearances for the B team in total, as well as two goals and four assists in six matches in the UEFA Youth League.
At the age of 18, Lovelace still has plenty of time left to develop and improve, and he could benefit from being the third-choice striker behind Danilo and Hamza Igamane, with Dessers being sold to facilitate that step up for the youngster.
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