View: Rangers man in last-chance saloon v Tottenham, Clement has easy transfer decision if he flops

Rangers hosting Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday night should provide the ultimate opportunity for Cyriel Dessers to win back the faith of the Ibrox crowd.

Dessers, who turned 30 on Sunday while appearing as a late substitute in the 3-0 win at Ross County [8 December], has fallen out of favour with Philippe Clement as Danilo and Hamza Igamane have recently led the line from the start in recent matches.

Gers’ positive run of form has meant the 22-goal striker of last season has been shunted to the bench, but with the important games coming thick and fast, the time has come to hand him more game time.

Within the next week come arguably the two biggest matches of Rangers’ season so far – the return to Glasgow of Ange Postecoglou in the Europa League [12 December], before the Old Firm derby Scottish League Cup final at Hampden Park [15 December].

Cyriel Dessers has to start one of the next two for Rangers

At such a busy point of the campaign and with Rangers still playing catch-up, Clement will be wary of burnout for many of his favoured stars – but he will know he has a potent goalscorer on the bench.

The fear may be that with the chance conversion rate for which Dessers got slammed last season, he may not be as impactful with fewer opportunities against a higher standard of opponent than usual in Spurs and Celtic.

The Nigerian has not started in the Light Blues’ last four games, his last start on 23 November seeing him hooked at half-time despite having netted in each of his last three.

He then scored two off the bench in the 6-0 demolition of Kilmarnock on 4 December; he scored the crucial equaliser at Olympiacos. For all the discourse on his inconsistent finishing, Dessers holds that nous of getting in positions to score.

Igamane stole the show at Ross County last Sunday. He has really grown into this Rangers side and has to stay in it for momentum. Clement has fielded more attack-minded line-ups of late, but with Danilo unavailable against Spurs as he is not in the Europa League squad then Dessers has a great chance to earn favour with Clement and the crowd ahead of a busy period.

It could be the perfect audition to start the cup final against Celtic. Conversely, if he flops then surely Dessers is in the last-chance saloon at Ibrox, potentially prompting a decision to sell him in January to reinvest the funds in a replacement striker.

It will be interesting to see what decision Clement makes with his forward line.

In other Rangers news, the sack for Postecoglou has been heavily discussed should Clement come out on top on Thursday.

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