What Rangers can get out of Dessers and Lammers as transfer targets to provide perfect foil amid mini-skirts theory

It was the eccentric former Aberdeen boss Ebbe Skovdahl who warned us that statistics can be misleading when he famously said they are “like mini-skirts – they give you good ideas but hide the most important things”.

And Rangers fans will be hoping that is true certainly when it comes to one of their two Serie A targets. Michael Beale appears to be closing in on a double signing from Italy with a £3million deal for Atalanta’s Sam Lammers and Cremonese forward Cyriel Dessers looking like they could be heading for Ibrox.

Both suffered relegation from Serie A this season – Lammers was on loan to Sampdoria for the second half of the season – but having played for the two clubs holding up Italy’s top flight, will they be strong enough to make it at Rangers? Dutchman Lammers is the one where supporters appear to have the most reservations. And it comes back to the stats. The fact the 26-year-old netted just two goals – from an xG of 7.24 – in 34 games last season (one for Empoli in 14 matches where he started the season and another in 20 appearances for Sampdoria where he moved in January) isn’t filling fans with confidence.

At 6’ 3” it’s probably no surprise to see that his solitary goal for Sampdoria came from a header as he bulleted home from a cross from the left, ironically against Dessers’ Cremonese side as the men from Genoa went down to a 3-2 home defeat. Yet most of Lammers best work appears to be done outside of the box and he could prove perfect foil for someone such as Dessers as he can bring others into play.

For such a towering presence, he is comfortable with both feet and had a 53.3 per cent dribbling success rate and 56 per cent success in winning the ball back in the opposition half. An early scouting report