Rangers hitman Alfredo Morelos scored and was booked as his team enjoyed an impressive away win in Denmark on Thursday night.

In truth the Colombian international striker was superb in the Europa League win over FC Midtjylland, yet the doubters and the naysayers will criticise Alfredo for his late booking.

I’ll fully agree that the amount of red cards Morelos received last season was ridiculous. I’ve always said that the twenty-three year old was bullied and received harsh treatment from opposition defenders since his move to Scotland. I also stated that sometimes the Scottish officials let him down by not protecting him against certain opponents/wind up merchants.

But too often Alfredo would let his teammates down by lashing out wildly and continually talking back at referees. At times he just needed to take a step back.

But you can’t expect the forward to cut out all the cards.

His style and his role for the team means that he will pick up more bookings than other players. As long as he curbs the dismissals and doesn’t needlessly get booked, it’s all good.

Morelos is the type of striker that leads from the front. He will harry and press defenders, often defending in the opponent’s half and trying to regain possession in attacking positions.

As a solo striker and one with a reputation, you know that he also has to protect himself. That means physically protecting the ball in certain positions and challenging in aerial duels. These type of comings together can easily lead to a booking, especially if they’re persistent.

Alfredo’s link up play and his holding up of the ball has been superb since Steven Gerrard took over at Ibrox. Gerrard as a player, played with heart and knows that kind of style can lead to bookings. He won’t want to keep that passion in check, he’ll just ask the Colombian to cut out the silly petty behaviour that crept into his game at times last year.

Gerrard recently said that he accepts that Morelos will get booked from time to time:

“He gets a yellow card on Thursday but his behaviour this season has been really good. We have to accept the fact he’s a physical player and is going to leave it on certain people.

“He’s going to fight, he’s going to hassle, he’s going to wrestle. That’s Alfredo Morelos. That’s why we all love him.”

Source Daily Record

The same passion for the game and his bravery leads to El Bufalo scoring more goals and that is without doubt his main asset.

You can easily forgive the odd or maybe frequent yellow card, if the striker is scoring goals. In total, Morelos scored thirty times in forty-eight games last season. This term he’s bagged five strikes in as many European outings.

With that record you can overlook the disciplinary issues as long as I say they don’t boil over into silly red card offences.

If Alfredo Morelos can continue scoring hatfuls of goals, then Rangers fans will love him and forgive his bookings.

Posted on August 10th, 2019 by scott
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