The Mistake of Morelos – what went wrong?

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The Mistake of Morelos – what went wrong?


Many things worried us about last night’s painful draw, but one of them we saw coming in a way few may have.

When we published our predicted XI (which was way off, incidentally), a major selection we’d made was Jermain Defoe thinking Gerrard would want to save Morelos for the weekend.

Give him the match off and have him champing at the bit come Celtic.

Instead, Morelos was selected to start even at a venue Defoe is known to be deadly at – and had arguably his worst match this season by some distance.

We saw that coming, and it’s why we assumed Stevie would too.

Alfie has been in sizzling form this season – he was due a bad match, but perhaps better management could have saved it for a slightly less challenging venue than Pittodrie.

And we really felt he wasn’t even up for the match.

When through on goal in the first half, he wasn’t sharp enough to wake up to being onside, and proceeded to effectively jog his run thereafter. He similarly found himself diving to the floor more than once, although he was legitimately fouled plenty as well. And once the side’s morale had gone, so did his shooting as he blazed wide.

We love Morelos and we will not criticise him for a very bad night – again we hold the blame for this one at Gerrard’s feet for not giving Defoe an outing and freeing El-Buffalo for a rest and full energy for Celtic.

Because now his confidence is likely to be shot and who knows what kind of performance he’ll have at Hampden this weekend against his bogey team…

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10 COMMENTS

  1. It's not Morelos we should be talking about it's barisic.he said he left him out because he had some heavy treatment.
    Why not leave him out in the hearts game which was a stick on 3 points and he's just came back from international big games, bring in Flanagan or halliday in that game, putting Flanagan who has not had any game time this season was criminal and it showed he was at fault (along with others) for both goals lost and lets be honest here tha t defence is a fkn shambles.
    Gerard has done well since he came to us but that's 3 games now this season he has left big players out, septic hearts and sheep and it's cost us points in every game.
    Always play your best 11 in the big matches.

  2. I would have played El Buffalo, definitely. Its the two centre halves that need a kick up the backside. Def missed BB too.

  3. For the fist half hour we had penned in like they should be !!! And we were playing, probably the most dominant football I've seen at pittodrie in decades
    Then we got Cocky and complacent , lost our intensity and level and couldn't get it back
    Defensive mistakes ? Yes , Morelos was saving himself for Sunday ? ( Looked that way ) and 100% Katic needs more game time

  4. Can’t believe how negative you have been since the draw at pittodrie,every story since has been too negative , yes we were two goals up and cruising but games change on goals , we need to back team instead of all the negativity, we have lost one game in league and we’re one point away from European football after Xmas and we’re in a final on Sunday , we as rangers fans need to back the team

    • I agree completely. Given Morelos has been on fire, Gerrard would have been slaughtered had he left him out in what was obviously going to be a very difficult game. We have had a great season so far.

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