Philippe Clement wants Rangers semi-final hero vs Hearts to become a 'killer' as reason for key defensive change explained

Philippe Clement has branded Rangers hitman Cyriel Dessers “too nice” - demanding the striker becomes more of a “killer” following his deadly Scottish Cup semi-final double against Hearts.

The much-maligned Nigerian international, who netted his 18th and 19th goals of the season either side of the interval, booked the Ibrox side’s spot in next month’s Old Firm final against Celtic back at Hampden Park.

Dessers could easily have bagged himself a hat-trick had he not passed up a number of other opportunities. He unselfishly tried to set up fellow attacker Fabio Silva in the closing stages, only for the Wolves loanee to make a mess of the chance from just a couple of yards out.

While quick to acknowledge his outstanding work ethic, Gers boss Clement admits he wants to see even more from Dessers in the lead up to the end-of-season blockbuster against the Hoops on Saturday, May 25th.

“He’s too nice - as a person and sometimes in the duels as well,” Clement admitted in his post-match assessment. “It was better today. He kept the ball, was strong and scored good goals. But there is work to do on being more of a killer but if you see the progress he’s made in the last six month.

“He’s honest, he works really hard for the team, he doesn’t have injuries, he plays a lot of minutes and he’s getting stronger and stronger in the duels. He’s scoring a lot of goals now also.

“Can he make more goals? Yes, but I don’t know any striker in the world who takes every chance. Can he be more (selfish)? I think in the end, it was better to shoot himself, but he’s giving everything for the team and that is a really important quality.”

Clement also explained his decision to drop central defender Connor Goldson to the bench was due to fatigue, insisting he had planned to start Leon Balogun alongside John Souttar against Dundee on Wednesday night before illness struck.

The Belgian added: “Connor has given a lot of this season already. He’s been massive very important, we have the best defence in the league also because of him. But I felt some tiredness in the last week or so the idea was to do it against Dundee but Leon became sick so it wasn’t possible and that’s why we did it today.”