We don’t deny yesterday’s meek display from Alfredo Morelos may have had a mitigating circumstance or two. The unspeakable banner from the home ‘fans’ may well have played on his mind and caused his rash conduct, stupid dive and general ineffectiveness, but given Morelos has played like this more times than we care to remember without any similar obvious provocation, it has to go down as one of ‘those’ matches that frustrate us so much about the Colombian.
Let’s be clear – when the lad is on his game, he’s exceptional. There’s a good reason he may well get his EPL move this summer ‘thanks’ to Brendan Rodgers’ interest in him, given when he’s in the zone he is a total handful, a lethal striker, impossible for defenders to deal with and a pain in their backsides.
He wins tonnes of fouls, he wins aerial battles and he generally plays for the team. Oh, and he scores a bunch too.
This is his great side – and doing it against Aberdeen, Rapid, Hearts, Osijek and other decent sides (not Celtic, yet) shows he can deliver on the bigger occasions too. This side is his £20M one.
Unfortunately he has the other side – the immature wee brat side, the petulant tempestuous bluster side, the one that gets wound up, that lets provocation get to him, and which loses focus badly. That is his Mr Hyde alter ego and Alfredo Morelos is the kind of player who wears his heart on his sleeve, like most Hispanic players do.
Unlike, however, his ‘mentor’ Daniel Candeias, he has developed a massive reputation for his conduct, where his older team mate has managed to keep his more red-blooded moments to a minimum and succeeded in not getting a reputation as a hot-headed idiot.
Not that Morelos has – we’re sure not saying he’s a genius, but he’s not stupid either – he’s just very emotional, and defenders play on it, as, now, do crowds.
Morelos isn’t going to grow out of this – he’s been this way since summer 2017 when he was coming up on 21. Almost two years later and if anything he’s actually gone back the way – 5 yellows in 14/15, 5 in 16/17, 12 in his first season at Ibrox, then 13 already this season with reds too. And before you completely blame Scottish referees, one of those reds was in Europe v Ufa.
Morelos’ temper and petulance seems to be a direct correlation of his maturity as a player. As he’s developed under Gerrard, who really has got some of the best out of him this season, in concert with that improvement in ability and as a player has been a parallel degradation in his attitude.
He has got more hot blooded as his quality of play has progressed.
So, in short, we have to take the rough Morelos with the smooth one too.
Is it worth it? Well, he wants to leave, and we’re getting to the point that while his repeated statements to that effect are getting very old, we can understand it too.
Glasgow is not for all players, nor is the SPL, and Morelos is certainly a target – some of this is of his own making, and some is just because of his profile.
So whether it is worth it or not, he’s here for as long as he’s here and we’ll get the rollercoaster of him whether we like it or not.
Hold on to your hats…
But he does get criticised more than others. Sportscene once again spent time on him unfairly. Take the “dive”. Sure he went down easily. But he was being held. Why not penalise the player fouling him? When he was sent off against Aberdeen McKenna was pulling him back then kicked him in face. His retaliation was minor. Same when he was sent off at start off season when McKenna deliberately barged him off the ball. His retaliation was minor but he was sent off( ok rescinded but Rangers suffered) Stephen Thompson and Stewart said barging was all part of the game. Ref didn’t see incident but dickhead linesman saw chance to make a name for himself. No, Morelos is being targeted and refs don’t protect him. I was taught to get retaliation in first and early. Maybe that’s what he is doing.
Good point, they always concentrate on his retaliation and ignore what is being done to him. Barging away from the ball is not part of the game. It should be punished. Holding on to a player in the penalty area is not allowed in the rules and should be punished.
But Fredo looks at someone and it's a card
Considine the donkey grappled with Morelos and anyone in blue yesterday every SS did it's their tactics against only us . The Real once again was dying to get Alfredo ..agree too though he was subdued and should have been substituted . He'll get his revenge on them at Ibrox
I'd bet money, he'll be gone by Summer.
And if he gets us £15mill+ this summer he goes with my best! 😃👏🏻
#ForeverRFC 🔴⚪️🔵
Agreed, except I want £20mill+. And I think we will get it
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