Dessers must be replaced by a Rangers star in a different capacity by Clement

With a 3-2 aggregate victory, the away team advanced to the quarterfinals thanks to a goal by Rafa Silva, who was onside by the narrowest of margins.

The Gers failed to generate opportunities or pose a threat to the Portuguese team at Ibrox, therefore the Belgian head coach may now consider making some changes from his starting lineup for that game.

With a dismal performance for the Light Blues, Cyriel Dessers had a howler up front. As a result, Clement will need to move Fabio Silva to center forward in order to replace him against Dundee.

The stats of Cyriel Dessers versus Benfica at Ibrox

In a crucial European match played at Ibrox under the lights, the seasoned striker was chosen to lead the line for the Gers, but he fell short of the moment in terms of enthusiasm and quality.

Due to his limited mobility, Dessers was unable to hang onto the ball or create issues for the Benfica defense by running in behind or down the channels to open space for his teammates, which made him an isolated figure at the top of the game.

Despite Rangers holding 65% of the control, the 29-year-old striker only got 18 touches of the ball in 77 minutes of play. This indicates that he did not contribute enough to the game by either dropping deep to get on the ball or creating options to pass to.

Benfica’s defenders dominated the wasteful center-forward, winning six of their eight duels against him, as the table above illustrates.

At the other end of the field, Dessers was essentially ineffective as he failed to create any opportunities, take any shots on goal, or finish any of his attempted dribbles.

According to these numbers, the prior Serie A failure had no effect in either of the two legs against Benfica, and the Light Blues were eliminated from the European tournament.

The Rangers number nine should be dropped from the starting lineup as he has not scored a goal or provided an assist in his past five games across all competitions, including his last two Premiership games.

 

Reasons for playing down the middle with Fabio Silva

Given that Silva was the last player to start for the first team in October 2023, Silva might be Dessers’ sole realistic option at center forward.

The Wolverhampton Wanderers loanee, whose work ethic has earned him the nickname “infectious” from Connor Goldson, has been used on the left side recently, starting on Thursday’s match against Benfica. However, he should now be moved to striker to take the place of the lightweight Nigerian.

The Light Blues manager does have choices in the wide areas now that Todd Cantwell and Rabbi Matondo have returned from their separate injuries. Ross McCausland or one of them may replace Silva on the flank, freeing up the 6′ 1″ ace to play down the middle.

Although Dessers has not scored or assisted in any of his past five games, the young Portuguese player has scored one goal in each of his last two games and won two goals and a penalty kick in his last six.

Moreover, and this is quite cruel, he was not given credit for the assist when Sterling scored the goal in the match against Benfica in Portugal after his cross into the box deflected slightly and fell to the midfielder, who scored from close range.

If that had been considered an assist, Silva would have finished his last 11 games for the Scottish powerhouse with four goals, one assist, and one penalty won across all competitions.

In the SFA Cup last weekend, he scored his most recent goal against Hibernian. As you can see in the video above, he skillfully manipulated the room to find the bottom corner.

Dessers has been having a lot of trouble lately, therefore Clement should start the 21-year-old loanee as the number nine against Dundee because of his superb goal-scoring play.

If the manager moves Silva to the striker position, he could have an opportunity to continue his goal-scoring streak as Sunday’s opponents have given up the joint-most goals in the league (50).

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