Dessers, Igamane or Danilo? Ex-Everton midfielder claims Rangers boss unsure of who leads the line

Former Everton attacking midfielder Steven Naismith has reckoned that Rangers boss Philippe Clement does not know his best striker after dropping Cyriel Dessers to the bench for the game against St.Johnstone yesterday.

It was the second consecutive time that Dessers had failed to start this season with Hamza Igamane getting the nod as Clement sought to alleviate the pressure on him.

Igamane scored a brace and bagged an assist in the 4-1 win against OGC Nice in the UEFA Europa League fixture played on Thursday and was rewarded for his performance by being named in the starting lineup for the second consecutive time.

However, the Moroccan striker failed to replicate his performance and was replaced by Mohamed Diomande in the 76th minute with Dessers being left on the bench.

Clement had brought on his third striker, Danilo, in the 54th minute to make the difference, but the Brazilian also did not do anything out of the ordinary, and Rangers had to rely on an own goal from Jason Holt to claim the victory.

Speaking on BBC's Sportscene via Daily Record after the game, Naismith was of the opinion that Clement doesn't know his first-choice striker due to the inconsistency of Dessers and the other strikers

"That's probably the biggest frustration for the manager. He's got three forwards who are all slightly different in their type of profile as a player. 

"For any Rangers forward it is about the consistency. You see it through the years, strikers who consistently score goals or are involved in goals.

"Dessers has done that the most but has took a bit of criticism recently. He's searching for that one guy who is going to stand up and consistently hit the net, which eases everything for a Rangers performance."

Dessers has had the most starts this season, starting 18 of the 22 games that he has played as compared to Igamane, who has just four starts and Danilo with one.

Abdulkareem Abdulhamid

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