If one big talking point came out of yesterday’s Old Firm loss, it was the impossible miss by Alfredo Morelos.
Fresh off his new deal, the glaring mistake could not have come at a worse time for the striker, with all that hype of the Chinese millions and his own previous comments about wanting to move to England.
In short, the lad had added pressure on his shoulders. While we have never universally taken to him here on Ibrox Noise, and we have certainly pointed out his weak points, we have also respected his goals and the good side of his game.
Unfortunately, following yesterday’s calamity, many fans are only seeing the bad side.
The miss was utterly inexcusable and this time fans are not blaming a comical ‘bobble’ like they did against Ayr. That’s two open goal misses Morelos has been guilty of, one of which he just about got away with, the other he never will.
You will always be judged at Rangers and Celtic with how you perform against the Old Firm rival. Kris Boyd might have rattled them in for fun at Ibrox, but he only ever scored once against Celtic, once the league had already been decided and there was literally no pressure on the match. Hence his legacy will always be remembered not for being an incredible scorer, but for never doing so meaningfully against Celtic.
In three Old Firm matches Morelos has blown massive chances. And to miss an open goal (again) sums up an increasing mental block on his part against a team of the quality of Celtic.
His all round play otherwise was typical Morelos – holding up play, using his body well, and coming deeper to support. It was nothing stupendous but his work rate was evident.
Alas, that is all forgotten when you miss a 90 minute open goal that would have at least stopped Celtic extending their lead back to 9 points.
Where does Morelos go from here? When we say ‘Van Vossen’ all fans remember is ‘that’ miss at Parkhead. It is literally in the dictionary next to his name. Unfortunately even if Morelos goes on to become the best striker in Rangers’ history (Peter didn’t exactly set the heather alight), the miss will punctuate him. Do it against Celtic, it becomes indelibly marked.
The worrying aspect for Morelos is he was only a metre out and still missed. As embarrassing as Pedro’s miss was, he still had a bit of ground to cover.
To answer where Morelos goes from here – well, he has not become a bad striker overnight, but Graeme Murty did take a gamble not playing on-fire Jason Cummings, a hat trick hero as clinical as any striker we can remember at Ibrox, and deploying Morelos instead.
It is far too unfair to say ‘drop him’ about Scotland’s top-scoring striker, but Morelos now has a cloud over him, right or wrong, and Cummings has been chomping at the bit since January to get a start. It is worth remembering the ex-Hibs lad has still not made a single start in the league since joining.
It is a tough decision, and we far from want Morelos hung drawn and quartered like some fans do, but in the interests of fairness, Cummings deserves to play a bigger role now.
He has earned it.
Sorry again yesterday Murty showed he isn't a manager.
His bench WTF Miller & Herrera. What are they going to do zilch!!
Middleton and Murray should have been on that bench.
Windass scored then left for a fish supper.
Goss & Windass should have been pulled with them 2 coming on.
People saying Morelos is pish, what game are they watching he bullied there back 4 so much and got them down to 10 men.
He's 21 and got everything apart from composure and that will come with age and experience, Cummings mentioned in the same breath as Morelos don't just Don't!!!
Wasted opportunity yesterday Murty and UR to blame pal!!
10 out in the summer new manager and 6 signings with 4 youth team players moved up.
🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧 Queens XI 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
The road to redemption for Morelos is clear – bang them in against Celtic in the cup semi to put Rangers througfhand the miss is history! To be fair prior to the miss (and the one before it where he was straight through on the keeper) he ran the Celtic defense ragged – and that’s the rub for Rangers – Cummings might be the better finisher but does he have the work rate ands the overall game to create space for others which Morelos does week in week out? I wonder if the answer might be to try Morelos in the 10 role behind Cummings?
A word on Boyd – he didn’t score against Celtic because Walter rarely played him in the OF matches – not because of any concerns about his ability to score against them – but more about his overall work rate when we needed 11 warriors against Celtic.
Morelos needs support from the manager and the supporters to encourage him to forget the misses and make sure he's there the bury the next chance that comes his way. His all round game is good, he is just raw and his decision making in one on ones will improve with experience.
Remember he is similar age to Ryan Hardie. If Hardie had missed those chances I'm sure we'd say to cut him some slack as he's only young. So let's support El Buffalo guys, he is not the finished article but he probably wouldn't be at Rangers if he was…
Get off the lads back. He's a young player and he's having a good 1st season at a massive club. He can only get better.
Some support for him would be of benefit to him and rangers
utter pish yesterday not one gets pass marks morelos down to 3 million and i would take it .moult ten times the player he is. we let our best center half leave wilson and keep alves ,cardosso ,could not make this up ,murty one more game against eastenders to save job .dont fancy his chances .first thing he needs to stop is blabbering on about his celtic supporting familly and his love for wee brenda
moron
Can I ask Robbie Wilson to name the ten players he would get out I know it was a dreadful miss by Morelos but Murty should have made the changes when the scum went down to ten men I would have brought on Cummings then and played him through the middle with Morelos Windass seems to be immune from getting subbed our two centre backs were dreadful also
No problem 442
Hodson.
Alves.
Cordoso.
Bates. Heading South
Martin no contract offer please.
Holt.
Halliday.
Niko.
MOH.
Miller.
Forrest.
Dodoo.
Herrera.
None of them are Rangers quality.
If we lose the SF then a new manager required also.
I know it's a heavy Axe I've swung but if we want our trophy room full of silverware it is required I'm afraid.
Sentiments have no place in football.
spot on robbie the players you have highlighted have offered zero why have bates ,goss picked ,they will not be playing for rangers next season ,would add fordringham guy cant save a shot from distance .wee brenda wants murty in charge next year wonder why .that loss was murty fault ,f,f,s they were down to ten and 3 choice keeper look at there central defence was a shambles .and game was at ibrox ,only way to fix is keep changing manager until we get right man in .
Wouldn't disagree with any of those names but we can't do it all in one or two transfer windows. That's a proven disaster.
Whats the point in changing manager everytime we loose to celtic thats like if man u get beat of city gose should go to its utter pish look at wrenger longest manger served and still going we shouldnt just change a manager cause they got it wrong in a game or 2
I said at the start of the season he was a 20 goal striker. But those misses against Celtic are totally inexcusable. The way he throws his arms around in the last few weeks like a petulant child when he doesn't get a pass, then he costs me £380 against Falkirk for a – 3 bet trying to round the keeper. Then the literally impossible miss with the entire goal to aim for. I was meant to be in work at 8. Its 13:30 and I'm still in bed I feel sick to the pit of my f****** stomach and I genuinely feel embarrassed at that yesterday. We were the better and on form team. We had an extra man for a third of the match and they still f****** beat us. Serious questions need to be asked of that team. Bruno, Fabio Cardoso and Herrera need to go. Id genuinely let them go for free. As far as I'm concerned if we're getting offered anything over £5 mil for Morelos we should take it. Much like Ally McCoist the lad needs 4/5 chances to score a goal, but McCoist played in a team that was wiping the floor with other teams in the league. That is a luxury we can't afford at the minute. Absolutely furious.
Onto the bench! Murty said the value of a big squad is people are under pressure to perform or someone is waiting to take their shirt. Morelos had 2 chances and couldn't take them. Cummings deserves his chance. Let Morelos come on for the last 20 mins and build his confidence…and let us rebuild our confidence in him! Morelos may have better workrate but to be fair to Cummings his link up play is very good anytime he's on the pitch.
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Totally agree. He's a young guy and needs to know that there is competition for places at a big club. If you are dropped to the bench you work hard and earn your place back.
The fans were right….when the celtic scum got sent-off and rightly so….we should have brought on Cummings,immediately and our tactics should have changed too.
Murty is only apprentice manager…he needs time and has to understand quickly when he makes mistakes,same as the players themselves.
I would say Morelos blew 3 good chances if you count the one when he stupidly ran offside when a goal scoring opportunity was definitely on. They of course ran up the park to equalise to compound matters. However, perversely, outside of that he was a handful all day and must get massive credit for our second goal. The cross from John was pretty tame and would've been easily cleared but Morelos bullied their defender out of the way for the ball to reach Candeias. He could still end up with 20-25 goals this season which is still a good return for a young player. Give him support to reach his full potential.
Mate i thought I was the only one that noticed that, if he never bullied that defender out of the way the ball wound never have reached Candeias
The whole game was a chance to finally beat that mob and we blew it. Collectively. Morelos missed a sitter but his game otherwise was excellent. Cardoso was brushed off by Dembele but the guy practically hasn't played for months. Windass disappeared for a while but he scored a cracker and set up the tap in for Morelos. Goss was invisible the whole game and when we got a free kick at the edge of the box let Windass balloon it over the bar. Fod could have stayed closer to his line for their second. Murty should have brought Cummings on earlier or even Holt for Goss. Nearly everyone made mistakes, and we let them off the hook, but we are much closer than anyone thought we could have been a few months ago. They have a good side (plenty of ex Man City, PSG and the like) and we bossed them for most of the game. Talk of pressure on Murty is just ridiculous. There are some people posting on here with the brain cells of an ant. As I've said before one win doesn't make us world beaters and one loss doesn't make us relegation fodder. People need to gat some perspective. We will beat them in the cup semi.
wake up
Well said John.
john i might not be as bright as you but i have a opinion on the game same as you .i just wont accept were second best to them
Got fkn jailed fur Dain " Delete Delete" tae scum on way tae game, just saw highlights there, fkn gutted. Stawnin at charge desk an told, up wan nuttin 1st couple a minutes "hard on" still fkn stawnin err an the scrum equalised, fkn right a spat in that bastards face, " charge 2" ye ha… still fkn stawnin err, Candy Ads, " ya fkn dancer" managed tae get into ma pocket an had a bit fur aboot 5 joints, an gubbed it…. woke up in fkn cell fur they " other scummy bastards tae gladfully tell mi 3-2, spat in that pricks face…charge 3….usually…honestly chaps, if we wanted tae win wan eh them, wid be S/C, no surrender peeps
Good job it wasn't 5-1 squire or it would have been the gallows for U!!? 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
First I've laughed since the game!!!!
Wanker
Concise and insightful input from Cathal once again.
Cathal. I think you've lost your way again. You may find the big words on this site a bit difficult to handle. Maybe get some web sites more suitable to you from your local priest.
Please don't ban this idiot he makes me feel better about myself every time I see one of his posts.
It’s a bitter pil to swallow from yesterday’s result. Morelos’s face at the end said it all the poor boy was dejected ffs.. He will want to score against Celtic as much as we want him too… Cummings no doubt would’ve scored it but he wasn’t on the pitch so pointless – if yer maw had baws she’d be your uncle…
Yeh I’m surprised when they went to 10 he didn’t go 2 upfront, but Murty must and will learn from these situations. It’s all experience for him and the Team.. I thought Rangers did ok and still managed to give that mob a game.. Still a bit to go so we must dust ourselves down stand up keep going forward…
Anybody remember when Super Ally couldn’t buy a goal at Rangers? Morelos will improve so will the rest 🔴⚪️🔵👊
I’m all bitter and twisted, but it has to be put behind us. Forgive. Sh1t happens. Lets get it right next time for the cup.
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