Alfredo Morelos is a very talented, dangerous striker. There is no doubt about that.
His goal on Wednesday against Hibs, the winner, was the Colombian international’s seventh goal of this Premiership season.
There were complaints that he shouldn’t have been on the pitch to score because of the incident with Ryan Porteous but that is a moot point because referee Kevin Clancy deemed the incident not worthy of a red card, in real time.
Now that Morelos has been cited and a three-game ban is pending on the outcome of the SFA disciplinary hearing on Tuesday, a familiar question has been posed.
Can ‘Alfie’ adjust his temperament to channel the aggression or does that fire need to keep burning otherwise the player’s threat will be much reduced?
In his Daily Record column yesterday, Rangers legend Barry Ferguson spoke on this issue.
“As far as Morelos is concerned, you do wonder if the guy will ever change his ways, never mind learn his lesson. There’s a risk involved every time the manager names him in the team.”
“On Wednesday night he risked leaving his team mates a man down in a game they couldn’t afford to lose given what is at stake and what they are so close to achieving.”
“But I’ll be honest, if I was Gerrard I’d also be prepared to take that gamble because Morelos is such an important player to the team. If you take that fire out of his belly you’re not left with the same player.”
“The manager knows what he’s dealing with. He can’t change Morelos but he’s clearly decided it’s a risk worth taking. In many ways, he’s stuck between a rock and hard place.”
Morelos sees the red mist and makes stupid decisions far too often, he gets himself involved in risky situations when there is no need to.
There is no pile-on to state the obvious and now he faces kicking his heels in the stands, just as he did over the incident at Tannadice last month.
Decisions ahead
Ferguson continued, “The bottom line is Gerrard has more quality options available now than he had previously, when Morelos could take a ban and expect to walk back into the team regardless.”
“Kemar Roofe, Cedric Itten and Jermain Defoe are all fighting for his jersey and more than capable of taking his place.”
“Granted, Defoe wasn’t fit the other night but Roofe and Itten both showed up really well when they came off the bench and they’ll feel they deserve the chance to get into the team and nail down a regular place.”
Rangers are a stronger team with Morelos and the pursuit of the title is paramount. If the Premiership trophy is in the bag, come the summer, there is likely to be some hard thinking ahead in regard to the future of Alfredo Morelos.