Rangers hero spots sign 'frustrated' Dessers is feeling the heat but he challenges Danilo to turn UP the pressure

Billy Dodds reckons Dessers will be relieved to see Danilo back even if it means his spot is no longer safe

Cyriel Dessers walked wearily back to the Ibrox bench last week looking like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. But Billy Dodds reckons the Rangers hitman should be relieved that he’ll soon have a rival back helping to share the goalscoring burden.

Having started the season in red-hot form with seven strikes in his first nine outings, the Nigerian’s goals have recently dried up. Last week’s blank in the 2-0 win over St Johnstone was the fourth game on the trot where Dessers had failed to net and his frustration showed as he trudged back to the bench after being hooked by boss Philippe Clement.

It’s that loss of form that has prompted the Ibrox faithful to shoot hopeful looks in the direction of Danilo. With Hamza Igamane yet to deliver on the early promise he showed, the Light Blues legions are now turning attention to their Brazilian as they search for a frontman to provide a reliable flow of goals.

The former Feyenoord and Ajax ace teased the punters last week when he posted a video of himself netting in training as proof he is close to putting 10 months of injury angst behind him. But it will be a few weeks yet before Danilo is back up to full speed and the likelihood is that Dessers will again lead the line when Gers head to Kilmarnock a week tomorrow.

However, former Ibrox poacher Dodds reckons the impending return of his strike rival might just be the push Dessers needs to rediscover his deadliest form. Dodds - who won three trophies at Ibrox after being signed by Dick Advocaat in December 1999 - told Record Sport: “Dessers looks like a guy who’s in need of a break.

“He came off against St Johnstone and looked pretty frustrated. For whatever reason, it's not been happening for him these last few weeks.

“I've spoken about his mindset before, because you can go under as an Old Firm player if you're not performing and the crowd gives you a bit of stick. Dessers, to his credit, has come back fighting before but you still need more than one guy so you’re not thinking, ‘Oh well, even if I don't perform to my best, I’m still going to play’.

“It will be good for him that Danilo's fit again, it's great that he's there for competition. That’s the difference at the club now compared to when I played at Ibrox. Right now Dessers knows he’ll play every week.

“When I joined from Dundee United, I was playing the best football of my career. I hit the ground running, did well, helped take the club to a league and cup double - and was still left out for the start of the next season!

“I had to go again. I scored 12 goals in the first 13 games of my second season. But I remember wee Dick still left me out for a Champions League game against Sturm Graz. I was raging because I couldn't have done any more.

"I had to be playing out my skin at Rangers even to have a sniff because of the competition we had then. That’s what Rangers have to get back to. Being dropped made me angry but it also made me hungry. That was my personality, ‘I'll show them’.

“I had Tore Andre Flo, Rod Wallace, Seb Rozental to contend with - and that was at a time when Michael Mols was out injured. I knew I had to be at the top of my game if I wanted to play and maybe the edge that's missing now. Dessers doesn’t have that competition. He’s come off having not played well against Lyon, he's not done well against St Johnstone either, but he probably knows he's still playing next week against Kilmarnock and I don’t think that’s good for a striker. Danilo's got to bring that competition now.”

The Sao Paulo-born striker’s Ibrox career has been beset by stints on the treatment table. But he showed in a brief six-week period at the tail end of last year some promising attributes as Rangers produced their best stuff of Clement’s year-long reign to date.

A serious knee injury sustained at Tynecastle left Gers again having to rely on Dessers’ goals for the remainder of the campaign. And while he would go on to finish the season with a tally of 22, it wasn’t enough to prevent Gers tripping over the finish line as Brendan Rodgers’ relentless Celtic stormed to another title. But Dodds is eager to see what Danilo can offer to Rangers’ Belgian boss this time round.

“You could see at times last season that when Danilo could get a run of games, there was something there,” he said. But Rangers will never know exactly what they’ve got with him until they see him play 20, 30 games in a row. So let's get a run of games into him and see if he is the striker we all thought he might be.”

Danilo isn’t the only one Dodds would like to see nail down a permanent place. He added: “It feels like Philippe Clement is always searching for his strongest XI, whereas Celtic, they know eight, nine of their team right away and there's maybe two or three changing.

“I’d like to see Rangers having a bit of that. There’s nothing wrong with changing your team if you're managing the balance between Europe and domestic action. But this chopping and changing has been going on for quite a while now.

“Philip Clement's been there a year now and I think all these changes are why Rangers are still inconsistent - some really good results but then some slip-ups.

“It sounds as if I'm having a go at the manager but I’m not. Of course there’s been injuries but when these guys return, it seems to take a while to get them back in the team and maybe that's causing the inconsistency.”

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