So far this season, the Alfredo Morelos that we have witnessed has been a shadow of the player who previously reached such high levels, bringing Barry Ferguson to the position that this campaign should be the Colombian’s last at Rangers.
That was typified with an abject display at St Mirren last Saturday when the striker displayed a lack of engagement and application in what was a very, very poor performance.
Truth is that Morelos had no meaningful impact on the game and was very fortunate to last the duration, with his start coming in place of the unavailable Antonio Colak. At one stage, Gio van Bronckhorst signalled for youth prospect Robbie Ure to warm up, such was his anger with the man from Cerete but the young striker eventually made it on to the pitch for the final minutes in place of Borna Barisic.
Meanwhile, speaking on his usual Go Radio Football Show slot on Monday, Fergie declared his belief that the mutual relationship between player and club should end:
“If he’s (AM) trying to get a move, if there are clubs there watching him play, I just think he looked way off it. I just think the best thing for both Rangers and Morelos is if they part ways.!
“Whether someone will come in for him in January I don’t know. Whether he’ll want to stay until the summer and go on a free transfer, we’ll just need to wait and see.”
The treble winning captain also remarked on the woeful showing from the Rangers frontman:
“His touch was away off, he was misplacing passes and I just didn’t think there was a work ethic there within him.”
“On Saturday, I was expecting a much better performance. During the week against Hearts when he came on, I thought he actually did really well and I’m thinking ‘right he’s back again’. But watching that on Saturday, he was really poor.”
Focus
The problem with the club’s record European goalscorer is a difficult one.
On the basis of Saturday, Colak will remain first choice striker unless ‘the Buffalo‘ puts in an immense shift behind the scenes until the restart. He will have been justified to be frustrated with a lack of game time but as in the recent League Cup game v Dundee, when given the nod from the start, he produced nothing. With that in mind, what will potential suitors be thinking, with a January or Summer switch in mind?
Alfredo Morelos is a very capable, dangerous striker but he cannot operate on reputation alone. He needs to find a way to regain his form and flow just as he did initially in Gio van Bronckhorst’s early days last year. He owes it to himself more than anything not to let his Rangers career finish with a whimper.