Steven Gerrard’s stark admission that Alfredo Morelos is in poor form is probably not a particularly consequential comment, given the manager has stuck by players previously that he’s declared to be out of sorts.

James Tavernier got his backing in 2019 when the skipper struggled and his manager 100% had his back, defending his captain stoutly.

And only a few weeks ago he gently poked at Ryan Kent too, suggesting the winger was not at his best and not in the form he’s capable of.

So now it’s the Buff’s turn.

And don’t expect that statement to mean anything – it’s nothing more than a gauntlet, the manager declaring publicly a player is disappointing him, but doing it in a gentle manner and hoping the assessment will provoke the player’s improvement.

In truth it hasn’t ever worked – it’s never made an ounce of difference to the player, and Tavernier nor Kent’s form improved as a result of being scolded.

But it does declare a player the manager isn’t happy with and puts it into the public domain.

Morelos’ form has been poor this season – 5 goals from 15 is well below his capabilities, and that was never more summed up by having 7 shots on Saturday and none of them hitting their mark.

It’s true what Gary Lineker once said, that the real measure of a striker’s form isn’t shots on target, it’s shots at all, because if you’re not getting into good positions to take them, you have to question if your movement is good enough.

Morelos is still moving into the good positions and he’s getting the shots – he’s just extremely wasteful with them. And that’s not a lot better than not getting the shots in the first place.

But for his manager to make an example of him shows the boss’s patience is starting to wear thin, and a lot of media outlets have reported rightly that either Morelos’ form is gold dust, or it’s dreadful – there’s literally no middle ground with him.

Right now it’s a dreadful spell, but in truth it’s been that way most of this calendar year.

We don’t want to be writing scathing pieces of our star striker all the time, but his form this season is now costing us points.

He may find himself benched for a while if it doesn’t improve soon.