Super Eagles and Rangers striker, Cyriel Kolawole Dessers, has praised Liverpool’s head coach, Arne Slot, for his brilliant man-management skills, Soccernet.ng reports.
The 30-year-old played under the Dutch manager during their time at Feyenoord, where they got to the final of the UEFA Conference League in the 2021/2022 season, losing out to Jose Mourinho’s AS Roma by a single goal.
Dessers, who has been linked with a move away from Rangers in recent weeks, has done well to turn things around by scoring six goals in four games.
Slot meanwhile, has done an excellent job taking over from Jurgen Klopp at Anfield this term, heralding a title charge with the six-time UEFA Champions League winners in England.
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Reminiscing on Feyenoord’s brilliant run in the UEFA Conference League three years ago, Dessers heaped praise on Slot, admitting life under the Dutch gaffer was amazing.
“When I was at Feyenoord, there was a match Arne Slot started with Bryan Linssen instead of me against Heerenveen. I was so disappointed. I came on ten minutes before the end. It was freezing cold, the match was already over, nobody really wanted to go forward. I came on with a really poor attitude because I was so disappointed that I wasn’t allowed to start. After the match, Slot sat next to me on the bus.
“I’ve had managers who got angry in such a situation. But he actually said in a very normal and calm way that he understood how I felt. He also explained why he had made his choice. I apologised, and he said again that he could imagine my emotions,” Dessers said about Slot in an interview with vi.nl.
“I walked back to the back of that bus and felt like it was out of my system. I still think back to that one conversation sometimes. There, Arne proved to me that he is not only a good manager, but also a good person.
“I sometimes miss that empathy in football with the media, with the fans too, who sometimes forget that a player is only human. The world of football is hard and sometimes unreasonable. So it’s worth its weight in gold if you have a manager who treats you normally, honestly and with understanding,” the ex-Genk man concluded.
In the 2022 UEFA Europa Conference League season under Arne Slot, Cyriel Dessers was brilliant in front of goal, scoring nine goals and providing two assists in 12 games.
This season, the Belgium-born Nigerian has found the back of the net has scored 18 goals and provided five assists in 35 games for Rangers across all competition.