Former Ger, Alan Hutton, has criticised Alfredo Morelos after his sending off in the Old Firm victory in December.
Hutton, speaking to Football Insider, believes his goal-scoring record against Celtic played a part in his lack of discipline.
So what has Hutton said?
Hutton was reflecting on Morelos’ performance and how much he has matured this season when he said:
“It’s just reared its ugly head again, the nonsense side of it”.
“He’s struggled for goals against Celtic which is well documented. He looked a little frustrated, he looked like he was desperate to score, taking shots from 40 yards when he could have just slipped people in”.
“You can see the frustration building and it’s just the other stuff that really lets him down. The second yellow card he looked a little bit disgruntled because maybe he thought it was a foul before”.
“At the start of the season I thought he’d turned a corner. He was getting involved in less of these incidents. Against Celtic, he just seemed a little bit back in his old ways”.
“He looked that little bit on edge. These are things as a player you need to deal with because you’re going to hurt your own team, it’s one of these where you’re affecting the team with your silliness”.
So is Hutton correct?
Morelos has been a much improved player this season, not just on the goal scoring front but also with his discipline. This may seem like a strange statement given that he has two red cards in his last few games but on each occasion he could count himself unlucky.
Against Motherwell he was sent off for celebrating in front of their fans after receiving an incredibly soft second yellow card and at Parkhead his two bookings were at worst, daft. His first for catching Scott Brown late, who, of course, made the most of it and his second was, rightly, given for a dive in the 96th minute of a 94 minute game.
The Colombian international is made out to be some sort of pantomime villain and the dirtiest player in Scotland, however, Ryan Christie (he’s not that sort of player) has an identical record this season. Morelos’ fouls are all stupid, niggly ones, whereas Christie, on more than one occasion, has endangered an opponent.
Hutton, disappointingly, appears to have jumped on the Morelos bashing band-wagon rather than analysing each incident on it’s own merit. There were several moments in the Old Firm game where he would’ve reacted last season, Christopher Jullien pushing him off the ball and numerous clashes with Scott Brown, now, he just stays on the ground or walks away.
Has Morelos been unlucky with his two red cards this season?
Yes
No
Morelos has let his performances do the talking against Celtic this season, and in the last two he has been outstanding despite not finding the net, he certainly hasn’t let anyone down and few would bet against him finding the net next time around, except maybe those of a green and white persuasion.