Rivals to Partners: Dessers plays up striking relationship with Moroccan Igamane

Super Eagles and Rangers striker, Cyriel Kolawole Dessers, has played up his partnership with Morocco U-23 striker, Hamza Igamane, Soccernet.ng reports.

Like last season, Dessers started this campaign as Rangers first choice striker up front, but fell down the pecking order in November, after he went on an eight-game goalless streak.

Rangers head coach, Philippe Clement, dipped into his subs and chose Igamane to be the team’s first choice striker and the Moroccan took his chance, scoring 10 goals in 10 starts for the Gers. Igamane’s form saw Dessers’ playing time reduce, and as a result, exit talks began to brew ahead of the January transfer window.

However, the Nigerian took his chance when called upon, and scored four goals in the Gers’ first three games of the new year, including a brilliant strike against Manchester United.

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With both strikers now in goalscoring form, Philippe Clement developed a selection headache and has played the two African strikers together in attack over the last three games, and Rangers are yet to lose when the duo start.

Dessers, speaking about his situation at Ibrox, revealed he’s put all the transfer rumours behind him, with his focus solely on winning silverware at the club.

“I am feeling well at this moment, for me personally it is a good feeling but I think in the last games the whole team shared this feeling as well. If I am going on this week there are a lot of positive vibes in this building,” the Belgium-born Nigerian said in quotes revealed by Ranger’s official website.

Quizzed about his newly established striking partnership with Igamane, Dessers praised the young Moroccan striker and hopes Clement’s tactic continues to flourish.

“My partnership with Hamza? I hope that is something that continues, the last three games we have been playing together, I have a very good feeling about this. The Scottish league is a very tough league for a striker, you get a lot of kicks, knocks, punches and all of these things.

“A lot of times I am fighting against three centre-backs, with Hamza next to me or me next to him I think that causes some distraction there and we can use each other, create space for each other, make them hesitate a little bit more and take the profit out of that,” the former Feyenoord man added.

“For me, it was nice to play with him, obviously Hamza is a very good player and I hope this partnership can grow. I think this was a nice start but there is still a lot of growth left in this partnership for our connection. These were also the first few games that we played together because normally we get subbed on or off for each other. I am looking forward to that and hopefully, we can develop that together,” Dessers concluded.

Dessers has scored 18 goals and provided six assists in 37 games across all competitions for Rangers this season, while Igamane has scored 13 goals and provided three assists in 29 games for the Gers.