Cyriel Dessers accepts Rangers’ under-achieving players owe their hurting fans and Philippe Clement and they have to start to repay them by delivering a Premier Sports Cup Final place.
The pressure has been cranked up on the struggling Light Blues as they lost 2-1 at Aberdeen and that sparked an angry response from the travelling support. This latest damaging defeat leaves Rangers in third spot and some nine points adrift of both Celtic and the Dons in the Premiership. That is why they need to relieve some of that pressure by taking care of Motherwell at Hampden on Sunday and looking to take another step towards retaining their League Cup trophy.
Dessers said: “It (the semi-final) was already huge. A chance to go to a final, hopefully our third cup final in a row, that would be massive, but with the result against Aberdeen, obviously it will become even bigger to give our fans something back.
“But we fully realise that and we will be ready for them. We as a group, as players, we have that feeling, not only towards staff or people in the club, but also to the fans that are travelling here, that are showing up at all of our games. Like I say, we need to bounce back and I think we will.”
Rangers announced big financial losses this week and the club still has to fill a number of key off-the-field positions. That has just added to the frustrations of the Ibrox support as their team also appear to be getting left behind on the park. Dessers reckons they have every right to be angry and demand so much more.
The 29-year-old stated: “Obviously, they travelled all the way here to support us again so I can understand them. They want to see us win, they want to see us compete, they want to see us on the top of the table. We’re not there yet and hopefully we can start fighting back now and give them something to be more happy about.
“Obviously. it’s difficult to see their reactions and that hurts. But we know they’re hurting as well. You don’t want to be in this situation but right now we’re all in the same boat.
“We are Rangers, the fans are Rangers, we as a team, the staff all together and we have to stick together, no matter how difficult the times are. I’m sure we need to bounce back and I’m sure we will bounce back.”
Rangers can park the Premiership this weekend but defiant Dessers is adamant that Rangers can still drag themselves back into the title race with three quarters of the campaign still to go. He pointed to the fact Rangers clawed back seven points last season under Clement although Celtic put the foot down and eventually raced away from that again. Dessers accepted that performances have to be dramatically improved for that to happen.
The former Cremonese star insisted: “I think so. Last year around this time we were in a similar situation and by New Year we kind of closed the gap and then later in the season we came back again, so it’s not impossible, but we will need to up our level in more games.”
Dessers admitted the players are also hurting over their current predicament. He added: “It’s extremely difficult and painful. “Obviously, it (Aberdeen) was a big game, so you arrive here with some expectations, and to walk off the pitch with a loss really hurts.”
Clement is rebuilding his squad but it is clear that all is not well. A lot of his new signings and those he inherited are not firing. Dessers also knows that at Aberdeen they didn’t get the breaks either.
Dessers, when asked why things are not happening for Rangers, answered: “That’s a really good question. “We found control in the second half, and at that time “I think we had some small chances. “At that point we missed a little bit in terms of creating the big chances to finish it off. “I haven’t seen their second goal yet, but it looks like we were a little bit unlucky there and they were very sharp at the second post again. “It’s painful that we gave away the control there again and then it was going to be tough in the last 15 minutes.”