Andy Halliday says criticism of Rangers’ £4.5m ace is ‘miles off’ after playing against him
Given that Andy Halliday has shared a pitch with him this season for Motherwell, critics of the Rangers ace would be well-advised taking the midfielder’s comments on board.
There certainly hasn’t been many more divisive players in the Rangers’ modern history.
Even after a flying start to the current campaign, there are still those who feel the £4.5 million man lacks the consistency to be relied upon for a club with genuine Scottish Premiership title ambitions.
Philippe Clement singled out Rangers duo Vaclav Cerny and Conor Barron after August’s narrow 2-1 win over Motherwell.
But, after watching his backline being given the runaround by another of Clement’s charges first-hand, Halliday feels that those who remain firmly in the anti-Cyriel Dessers camp are nailing their colours to the wrong mast.
Andy Halliday says Cyriel Dessers’ Rangers critics are wrong
Dessers’ brace fired Rangers past Dundee and into the League Cup semi-finals on Saturday.
And while the striker certainly has a habit of making the difficult look easy and the easy look difficult – he can miss from five yards one minute and then fire an acrobatic volley into the net moments later – Halliday insists that Dessers’ all-round game makes him a more difficult opponent than, say, Antonio Colak.
“The second finish [against Dundee] is a brilliant finish,” Halliday says, Colak prolific at Ibrox but often anonymous in games where Rangers struggled for possession. “I thought he was good against us as well at the start of the season. He was really good.
“I think there is a lot said about his link-up play that is miles off [the truth] to be honest with you.
“I compare him to a Colak. He is miles better outside of the box than Colak, definitely. He has miles more to his game than a Colak for me.
But, with seven goals from nine games this term compared to two from nine at the start of 2023/24, the former Feyenoord hitman has come on leaps and bounds of late.
crown.
Mirroring Halliday, Rangers legend Kris Boyd was full of praise for Dessers too after Saturday’s 3-0 triumph.
“Three goals, and Cyriel Dessers with another double,” the five-time Scottish Premiership Golden Boot winner smiles, Boyd delighted by the impact of Rangers’ new recruit Nedim Bajrami too.
“I think [Dessers] answered the critics again on Saturday evening with two decent finishes. The first one, really instinctive. And the second one, a great ball in from the left hand side. And, I must say, the technique to finish that…”
Dessers will hope to maintain his hot streak against Malmo and Hibernian this week.
Not only with his potency but also with his ability to bring team-mates into play.
“When first came in, things were bouncing off him,” Motherwell captain Paul McGinn points out. “And that doesn’t happen anymore.
“Don’t get me wrong, he is frustrating in terms of that lack of consistency,” adds Halliday. “The amount of chances he misses, he could have had four or five easily [against Dundee, but] the second one is a great finish.
“You talk about Dessers with some of the missed chances. I think, sometimes, he is too composed. He wants to take that extra touch and chop across the defender.
“For the second, he usually takes a touch. But he just guides it into the bottom corner.”
Kris Boyd argues that Rangers striker Dessers is underrated
Dessers can often be at his best when he is relying on instinct. Give him too much time to think about things, and the 29-year-old will attempt to beat one man too many and get crowded out.
Two clinical first-touch finishes against Dundee on Rangers’ Ibrox homecoming, however, is proof of how lethal Dessers can be when he simplifies his game.
To quote the visiting Dark Blues boss, Dessers taught Tony Docherty’s Dundee a ‘harsh lesson’ as the Glasgow giants moved one giant step closer to defending their League Cup