Michael Beale laments Kemar Roofe’s ‘poor luck’ as he challenges Cyriel Dessers to take his Rangers career to the next level.
Despite squandered opportunities, the Nigerian striker can click into gear for Rangers, according to his manager.
Michael Beale has challenged Cyriel Dessers to get into gear while Kemar Roofe sits out yet another game.
The Rangers manager concedes that the Nigerian has yet to catch fire at Ibrox, but he’ll have his chance now that Danilo is out for the long haul. Roofe will miss Saturday’s Premiership match against Aberdeen after suffering a groin injury in the 4-0 win over Livingston in midweek.
Todd Cantwell, Nico Raskin, Kieran Dowell, and Tom Lawrence are all expected to be sidelined until after the international break next month. And, with the jury still out on supporters, Beale is turning to players like Dessers to step up. “Yeah, listen, I think there’s a couple of things,” he added. Cyriel aspires to do better. That is a proven fact. I don’t believe he’s yet demonstrated his full potential. He’s scored three goals and provided two assists.
I believe he has been extremely unlucky. If you recall clear and obvious, we scored a goal in midweek and it was given because it was not clear and evident. We had a goal chalked off two weeks ago in a more important game (against Celtic), and it’s this simple and apparent thing again.
“If he gets the assist there and adds it to his assist against PSV, I think people will see him as more than just a goalscorer because his pass for Rabbi Matondo was fantastic, and his awareness in that moment to set up Kemar Roofe, and even earlier in that game when he’s offside and crosses for Rabbi Matondo.”
“So I think he’s shown in moments, but he’s looking for a rhythm and consistency.” He’s been out of the team recently, so if he plays, he’ll have a chance to come in and stake a claim.”
Roofe, who has endured two injury-plagued seasons at Ibrox, is a waiting game, according to Beale. “We don’t really know what we’re dealing with until we get the results of the scan,” he stated. It’s obviously unfortunate for Kemar because he’s returned to the team and performed admirably till the other night. Listen, let’s hope it’s nothing serious and that he’ll be available in the near future rather than the distant future.”
Beale confessed that he will also have to handle Ridvan Yilmaz after his return from a long-term injury. “The biggest problem Ridvan has had since he joined the club, you can see he’s a high-energy player,” the boss remarked of the full back’s goal and performance against Livi.
But he must play in that high-energy manner. His running, his dribbling. But, for whatever reason, he hasn’t been able to maintain his fitness. It hurt him a lot recently when I didn’t put him in the European squad. But, at this point in time, I don’t think he’ll be able to bang out the games as much as we’d want, given where he’s at physically.
“When he’s fit and ready, he offers us something different than Borna. Borna’s crossing is spectacular, but Ridvan will dribble his way in.”
Rangers have now kept four consecutive clean sheets, thanks to the return of defender Ben Davies. Despite transfer speculation in the summer, Beale claimed he was desperate to keep the former Liverpool man at the club.
“My relationship with Ben has always been strong,” he remarked. We had some candid discussions about where he could improve, but as he stated, selling was never in the goal, and you also have to have an offer that you believe is fair.
There was no interest, and Ben wanted to stay here, which was important to me. It was a busy season, and I wanted to make sure we had the correct people in the building. Nobody can argue with Ben when he’s on the field. His play in the last four games has been outstanding. He’s proven himself. If he can just play like that, the noise will go away because everyone will recognize him as an important player.”
