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Better than Dessers: Rangers’ £4m “firework” has ignited his career
Glasgow Rangers find themselves in territory which looked unimaginable following the sacking of Michael Beale at the start of October.
The Ibrox side were trailing Celtic by a considerable margin in the Premiership and lacked any real identity, with the supporters seemingly writing off another season.
Philippe Clement arrived to save the day, however, and just five months on, the Gers are through to the last 16 of the Europa League, have claimed the League Cup trophy and, most importantly, are within touching distance of Celtic.
The Belgian has done a spectacular job considering he has had to utilise some of Beale’s summer signings, with the likes of Cyriel Dessers and Sam Lammers featuring prominently.
Lammers has since departed on loan to FC Utrecht for the remainder of the campaign, yet Dessers is still in Glasgow, despite having failed to live up to his lavish transfer fee.
Cyriel Dessers’ Rangers statistics
Having lost attacking talents such as Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos, Beale’s first priority during the summer transfer window was to replace them as soon as possible.
Dessers soon arrived from Serie A side Cremonese for a fee in the region of £4.5m, which was a significant sum to be paying for a striker who had scored just six league goals in Italy the season prior.
The Nigerian forward has found the back of the net on just 12 occasions since making the summer move and his performances have not been great, as he often goes missing during big games.
A key example was the recent Old Firm clash against Celtic at Parkhead. The 29-year-old started the tie, yet he missed a big chance when it looked easier to score, while completing just 12 passes and taking 25 touches during the match.
The former Feyenoord hitman looks far too one dimensional and his lack of tactical nous means he does not drop deep often enough to link up with the midfield, going large patches of games without taking a touch of the ball.
Rangers required a player who could do more than just be an out-and-out goalscorer following the departure of Morelos, but Dessers simply isn’t the answer.
There was another attacker who departed Ibrox in 2023 that could have been a much better option than Dessers and surely would have thrived under Clement – Fashion Sakala.
What happened to Fashion Sakala
Following their first league title win in a decade, Steven Gerrard looked to significantly bolster his team in order to cement their dominance.
Sakala joined during the summer of 2021 for free, with the Gers securing his services on a pre-contract agreement and it looked like a wise investment.
The Zambian forward took a while to settle in at Rangers following his move from Belgium, eventually scoring 12 goals, and registering seven assists in 50 matches during his debut season.
He ended up winning the Scottish Cup while featuring heavily during the club’s run to the final of the Europa League in 2022, although they lost to Eintracht Frankfurt.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst didn’t give him many opportunities throughout the early stages of the 2022/23 season and it wasn’t until Beale arrived that Sakala started to perform well.
Indeed, having scored just once prior to the enforced hiatus due to the World Cup, Sakala netted 11 times during the second half of the season and proved that he could make a difference to the team going forward.
Former Ibrox defender Alan Hutton previously dubbed the forward as a “firework” and his unpredictable nature often caught defences out on a regular basis.
During the summer transfer window last year, however, Beale decided to cash in on the 26-year-old, reportedly securing a transfer fee of around £4m for the player, which, on the surface, represented solid business.
With Dessers not quite living up to his big-money fee and Sakala settling in quite nicely in Saudi Arabia for Al-Fayha, there is no doubt that the former Rangers forward is currently outperforming the Nigerian this season.
Fashion Sakala is outperforming Cyriel Dessers
While Sakala may have scored ten goals to Dessers’ 12, the Zambian has netted his in just 27 matches, while it has taken the 29-year-old 35 games to score his.
In their respective leagues, Sakala has missed fewer big chances (nine to 13), than Dessers, while he has taken more shots per game (3.2 vs 2.7), succeeded with more successful dribbles per game (2.7 vs 0.4) and won more total duels per game (5.5 vs 2.4), clearly showcasing his superior statistics across a range of performance metrics this term.
It isn’t just domestically that Sakala is shining either, proving to be a hit in the AFC Champions League, scoring three goals from just six matches, chipping in with two assists too.
