Do The Scottish Media Expect Miracles From Rangers Man Alfredo Morelos?
The Scottish Premiership kicked off the 2020-21 season today and it was great to see Scottish football return, even though it was sad that our terraces remained empty.
Aberdeen and Rangers fought it out in the early kick-off with Steven Gerrard’s men edging out the home side at Pittodrie.
A lot of the post match coverage on Sky Sports focused on the performance of Gers hitman Alfredo Morelos.
To be honest had you not watched the game and just caught the post match analysis you’d be forgiven if you thought that the Colombian striker had endured a stinker up North.
The panel of Ally McCoist, Kris Boyd and Darren Fletcher were quick to question the player’s fitness and his appetite for the game.
Now this intense spotlight has been on ‘El Bufalo’ since his arrival in Govan in 2017. That spotlight has only became brighter with the news that Lille have agreed personal terms with the forward this summer and want to bring him to France (Source Edinburgh News).
The Scottish media will constantly point to his petulant behaviour, his poor disciplinary record and question his mentality. Now the problem I’ve got with that is that they often chuck it all together instead of looking at incidents on an individual basis.
Morelos at times has let himself and his teammates down with silly decisions or by making rash challenges but at times he has reacted to nasty tackles and sometimes the referees card him due to his reputation, he has had red cards downgraded.
Now let’s get back to today.
Sky were saying he wasn’t doing enough and was coming too deep. Fletcher basically said he was coming deep because he wasn’t fully fit and just wanted to show he was trying.
Yet look at the Rangers goal.
Ianis Hagi flicked the ball around a Dons defender, Morelos receives it inside his own half but facing the Aberdeen goal. The Colombian international has dragged Scott McKenna into a midfield position and his defensive teammate Ash Taylor is then pushed towards the ball and that leaves room in behind Taylor. Morelos then passes the ball through Aberdeen’s centre-backs and into an on-rushing Ryan Kent, who then produced a composed finish to win the game.
At no point did the Sky Sports pundits debate whether this was actually Steven Gerrard’s tactic all along. Have Morelos come deep and free up space in behind the Dons backline.
Athletic journalist Jordan Campbell was quick to point out on twitter that this is a tactic that has been used before regarding Morelos playing away at Aberdeen:
Sky’s trio also debated whether or not Morelos was really up for it. They did all that while showing a video package of the hitman holding the ball up and playing in teammates.
They then looked at his touch map and presenter Eilidh Barbour had to tell her colleagues that he actually made more touches in this Premiership game than any he played in last season.
Yet Kris Boyd again questioned where he was having those touches, only seven were in the Aberdeen penalty area. Now it’s a bit rich that coming from Boyd, who would often be dropped for the bigger games because he simply didn’t contribute enough in the eyes of legendary Rangers manager Walter Smith.
We also had questions about Alfredo being less sharp than normal.
Now this is one that I can get on board with but again there are clear reasons for this and not just the ‘He’s had his head turned‘.
Morelos does generally take time to get fully match fit, I don’t think it’s a weight thing, he just usually has European qualifiers to help him get up to speed quicker. It was the same in the English Premier League when lockdown was eased, players took time to get back to full match fitness and get used to playing without fans (Morelos does feed off crowds).
I also want to comment on Charlie Adam and the former Gers midfielder discussing the valuation of Morelos.
Adam stated on BBC Radio:
“I would get rid of him. If the money comes for him, I’d get rid of him now.
“Due to Covid, I think anything between £8m-£12m and you’ve got to take it.”
Charlie Adam
Now I just don’t get it. I hate it when people try and value a player, it’s all down to what a club is willing to accept and what a buyer is willing to pay. I honestly don’t think Charlie Adam has anymore idea on valuations than I do.
By all means explain to me why you’d sell him and discuss the players qualities but you want to sell him for £8m to a team that has just brought in £60m? Are you forgetting Morelos has scored 72 league goals in 146 games and a further 18 Europa League goals and you’ll need to replace that?!
Why does the Scottish media want to constantly cheapen our game?
Social media always sees people having a go at the striker but that’s more understandable as opposition fans will always dislike figures like Alfredo Morelos. But I believe that more of our journalists and pundits need to be impartial and back up opinions with proper debate. It is all becoming very tiring and I am starting to wonder if they really just want to run the young man out of town.
Posted on August 1st, 2020 by scott
Filed under: Article
Just like to say “Well Said” regards this article. Just blindly putting up numers on Morelos discipline def does not tell the whole story. Personally I find the pundits
for Scottish football sickening, self agenda simpletons.
Regards
If you look back on all of his red cards you would see that half of them were unjustified and it was only his reputation that made refs so quick to flash a red.
He terrifies defenders and they foul him constantly and get away with it.
I would love him to tell Gerrard he loves Rangers and wants to stay.
I totally agree with your article on Alfredo. At a time when our game is being ruined by VAR, water breaks, 5 subs etc, we need characters who brighten up the game and Alfredo is one on those and he scores goals.
More of a concern to me is the poor Rangers performance today V and Aberdeen team which never looked like scoring. Even against the ten men we created nothing on note. The talked-up pair of Hagi and Aribo need to do much better. Lets see what Thursday night brings.