If strikers judge themselves solely on goals, then Cyriel Dessers will be content with his contributions so far this season. The much-maligned centre-forward netted his 19th and 20th strikes of the campaign on Wednesday evening as Rangers recovered from a disastrous first quarter of an hour in Ayrshire to beat Kilmarnock 4-2.
Dessers, who is now only three goals off beating his tally from last season, wants more: "Twenty goals in February, it's not bad," he said.
"But, yeah, there are still three months to play, I want more, more goals, more wins, so we just have to keep going.
"Goals and personal milestones are nice, but you want the team milestones, and that's winning cups, winning league titles, and we'll do everything for that, game by game, and just focus on, like you say, like for example now, focus on Saturday, next game at Ibrox. We have to do something for our fans, give them something back after the last two performances there, so I think that's where we need to start."
Read more:
-
Funeral to take place for Glasgow footie scout who discovered Dalglish
-
Premiership top-six battle heats up with five games until the split
Motherwell are next up for Rangers as Barry Ferguson takes charge of his first game at Ibrox. The 47-year-old, who was appointed interim head coach on Monday following Philippe Clement's inevitable dismissal, is an undoubted legend in the eyes of Dessers: "I've seen him in the Hall of Fame, obviously, I know what he did for the club, five league titles, five Scottish Cups, all these things, so that speaks for himself," said the striker.
"He's a big name at this club, a big personality, and I think it's good that he's around now. He knows the club through and through, he knows what the fans want, what the club is all about, and he's just trying to bring that to us. Obviously some guys have been around for a long time, they know this as well, but I think it's good to hear it from him as well."
Ferguson might be inexperienced in managerial terms, but the Rangers players and fans alike already appear right behind him.
Raising his fist to the Rugby Park away end after a ferocious comeback on Wednesday, the club legend has already, in a few days at the helm, looked to have reinstalled a growing sense of hunger and passion to the ranks that characterised him as a player.
"Our gaffer knows the club through and through," said Dessers.
"He knows the fans, he knows what the club is about, he tries to bring this experience to us as players, and we have to take that and convert it to the pitch. You know him as a player, and I think he wants to see that from us as well, to start, and then our quality will show as well.”
Just half an hour into his first game at the helm, Ferguson made one of the most seismic calls he will ever have to as Rangers boss. After a torrid first 15 minutes on Wednesday in which Kilmarnock took a 2-0 lead, young central defender Clinton Nsiala was hooked.
Although it was a brutally ruthless call from Ferguson, it undoubtedly changed the game. Naturally, however, Nsiala's pride will have taken a sizeable hit, although Dessers and his teammates are by the 21-year-old's side: "We've got his back, he doesn't have to worry about that," he said.
"That's football, I think everybody in this dressing room has been in that situation before in his career. He's very, very young, I don't think he even has 10 professional games, so he still has things to learn, but we see his quality every day, and he'll be fine, he'll learn from this. He'll bounce back, because he also has that in him, so he'll be fine, he'll be important for our team as well."
If taking off Nsiala was a big call, Ferguson's first halftime team talk as Rangers gaffer was equally as crucial. Vaclav Cerny gave the visitors to Rugby Park a lifeline going into the break, but that didn't stop the caretaker boss from ripping into his players in the dressing room: "Obviously, about starting the game, not that much nice words [were had]," revealed Dessers.
"But we were still in the game, and that was an important item for us, and we had to at least measure intensity and hopefully even add a layer, and I think we did that in the second half, and then you see it's even nice to play here, and you can see that we are very dangerous.
"It has been very weird days, so maybe that's something that was still in the legs in the first 20 minutes, but that's not an excuse. We have to be better, we have to start better, but I'm glad we showed the reaction, I think that's a huge thing for us and that should give us confidence for the next weeks. But it's just about consistency, if you can do it here in a tough place, then I think you can do it on every pitch in Scotland, and that's just what we have to show."
While Dessers might want Rangers to regularly churn out positive results going forward, consistent inconsistency marred previous manager Clement's tenure.
He was sacked last weekend after a 2-0 loss at home to St Mirren saw the Ibrox club remain a considerable 13 points behind arch-rivals Celtic at the Scottish Premiership's summit.
Despite receiving public backing from his higher-ups on several occasions, a second defeat of the season to the usually tricky Paisley outfit was the straw that broke the Belgian’s back.
Rangers supporters might have rejoiced at Clement's departure, but Dessers and Co. briefly saw the poignant side of a man losing his job: "It's always tough, because people talk a lot about football, but we also see the human side," he said.
"That's really tough, and emotional for everybody in the building, but then 48 hours later you have an important game, and you have to get your head back in it and find your feet."
Rangers might be out of both domestic cups and light years behind Celtic in the 'race' for the title, yet an apparent wave of positivity now surrounds the club after Ferguson's unexpected return.
Next up on a tricky collision course for the inexperienced boss is Motherwell, who are also under the stewardship of a new manager, Michael Wimmer.
As the Fir Park side make the trip along the M8 at the weekend, Dessers says Rangers will be famished for another victory: "The hunger will be even more to show something on Saturday," quipped the attacker.
"It will not be an easy game, Motherwell is a tricky team as well, but for us at home we need to win this game, so we need to go hard."
