The Madness of King Morelos

Only two days ago Ibrox Noise noted with curiosity an article from another Rangers site which was widely doing the rounds in defence of Alfredo Morelos.

It gained praise and critical plaudits for its method of exploring the uneven portrayal of Morelos in the media and in Scottish football compared with his peers like McGinn, Griffiths and other rogues from our league, past and present.

Unfortunately this piece was setting Morelos up for a big fall, and he duly delivered (again) last night as he let his team down during the latest episode of his disciplinarian disaster.

The problem we had with the piece circulating the wires was not that it was inaccurate, but that it was making the wrong argument. It asked why these other guys don’t get the nonsense in the press and our game that Morelos does given he actually has less cards than in certain cases. And that’s a fair question, but ultimately it’s an irrelevant one. The real question which matters is why does Morelos let himself and his club down on the occasions that truly matter in a manner which always appears self-combustive?

We have been loving Morelos in recent weeks, but there is no doubt he has issues on the high pressure occasions, both ability wise and discipline wise. He is unable to deliver his usual self and seems to struggle with the pressure to contain his composure as well – his frequent bottles in front of goal on the big moments in conjunction with needless and idiotic reds and yellows undermine the frequent and excellent work he does otherwise.

And moaning about why the press doesn’t target players on other teams quite frankly doesn’t help. Because we don’t ever remember Dembele getting sent off frequently (in fact he’s never been sent off) – or Griffith (ditto), or McGinn etc. The comparison is literally in the region of ‘but they did it too’. And yet they didn’t.

Even Steven Gerrard last night did not defend Morelos, and no one else it seems did either. We have certainly backed the striker up with regards his physical approach, as has Gerrard, but that’s not the same as discipline. Gerrard has confirmed he tried to talk to his lads about that very problem, but evidently it was in one ear and out the other.

When this all started it was the outrage about Morelos’ kick out at Pittodrie earlier this season, and how a red card wasn’t warranted. True, it was rescinded, but frankly his intent was evident and we were pleasantly surprised the suspension was withdrawn. If he’d been booked straight on plenty of fans would have been considering him lucky it wasn’t a red.

And it was a sign of things to come on that front.

This has grown into an issue because it is an issue, whether we like it or not, and no deflection and complaining about an uneven playing field of Rangers’ treatment in the press is going to change Morelos’ actions from a red into a yellow or less. If you lash out, you get an early bath.

If Gerrard has tried to fix this, and he says he has, and has clearly failed, the only hope left is that Morelos can curb this as much as possible via his own willpower.

On his game he’s an asset and every inch a £30M striker – but there is something psychological blocking him from making the step up and becoming what he should.

He’s nearly there, but until he can beat his demons and break out from the pressure bottles while keeping himself on the pitch, he won’t quite overcome that final hurdle.

Gerrard has worked wonders with him, but the work is not done yet.