Sir Kenny Dalglish has slammed Alfredo Morelos for getting himself suspended for Rangers’ BetFred Cup semi-final by picking up a needless booking in the quarter-final win against Ayr United.
Steven Gerrard is already set to be without Kyle Lafferty in the semi-final against Aberdeen due to the ex-Hearts forward being cup-tied, but he will now also see Morelos sidelined.
Across Glasgow, Celtic are also facing similar problems after Dedryck Boyata was sent off in their last-eight win over St Johnstone and Hoops legend Dalglish has hammered the two Old Firm players for their lack of discipline.
“Alfredo Morelos and Dedryck Boyata should know better,” he said on the Sunday Post website. “However, their petulance means both will miss their clubs’ appearances in the Betfred Cup semi-finals next month.”
“Morelos has been in trouble a few times this season, and he clearly has a problem with keeping his feelings to himself. He is very reactive to decisions made by officials.
“It seems that he feeds off that kind of thing, and it is part of his all-round package. But he will need to quieten down a wee bit, that’s for sure.”
He added: “Celtic will be without Boyata for their semi-final against Hearts after he was red carded in the closing seconds of their 1-0 win at St Johnstone.
“Again, his offence was totally unnecessary.
“Brendan Rodgers was far from happy with the Belgian defender, and quite rightly so.
“Honestly, what was the player thinking about?”
OPINION
Gerrard has a massive selection headache going into the BetFred Cup semi-final. Rangers will have to be at their best to beat Derek McInnes’ Dons side and to be without their two best strikers is going to be a blow. Umar Sadiq has barely kicked a ball since joining the Light Blues on loan in January, but he has been so unimpressive that Gerrard may go with someone else up front instead of the Roma loanee. Glenn Middleton and Ryan Kent could be used up front by Gerrard, but neither are going to be as good as Morelos and the £30,000-a-week (Football Insider) forward should be ashamed that his ill-behaviour has caused this issue. As for Celtic, missing Boyata would only be a massive blow if Brendan Rodgers doesn’t have Kristoffer Ajer and Filip Benkovic back to fitness. If not, his defence is going to be massively exposed and Mikael Lustig may end up having to play at centre-back.