Are Rangers better without Alfredo?

When Alfredo Morelos was banned for four matches and the hype and furore went ballistic over it, many observers including us at Ibrox Noise wondered how we could cope without Morelos’ goals, assists and influence.

The bizarre answer is against two extremely able sides in Hearts and Motherwell Rangers, overall, ave benefited more from Morelos’ absence than we did from his presence.

The team has looked more organised, more symbiotic, and more convincing than it has in a long time, and it’s doing it against decent SPL sides and not the basement strugglers – and how much we can put down to the absence of the disruptive Colombian is anyone’s guess.

Jermain Defoe has taken his chance with aplomb. A goal and technically two assists plus two offside goals in two matches is some idea of how he’s filled Morelos’ gap with ease, frankly.

He seems to work hard, and his unselfish assist for Arfield’s hat-trick today was something Alfredo Morelos would simply never ever do.

For Morelos’ strengths, he has more weaknesses, and Defoe, right now, is showing him up rather badly.

On current form, Morelos will not just walk back in to the side when his suspension ends – and if he does, Defoe can feel extraordinarily hard done by.

Morelos, for his definite assets, seems to be an awful pain for his team mates when he’s in petulant mode, and that’s been a lot this season. With Defoe’s calming influence and yet unerring ability to assist and score, the Englishman is showing there’s life after the Colombian.

And that reassures everyone.