OPINION
Alfredo Morelos has a problem. Five red cards has set a new European record for a single season, and he cost Rangers again in the latest Old Firm clash. You can’t play for 60 minutes a goal and a man down and expect to get anything from the game.
His Rangers teammates battled on, ultimately in vain, on Sunday after he was sent off for swinging an arm at Scott Brown. They clawed back an equaliser in the 63rd minute but were undone by a cruel late goal and they deserved more.
Since the game Steven Gerrard has lambasted Morelos saying, “I’ve gone above and beyond for Alfredo. I will recommend to the board that he is fined a week’s wages, with the money to go to the supporters who came here. I can’t defend him any more.”
It must be hugely frustrating but there were mitigating factors on Sunday. Or at least one big one – Scott Brown.
He set the tone for the Old Firm game and his face, grinning, as Morelos was sent off after doing all he could to provoke him is just as bad a stain on the game as anything done by the Rangers players.
Morelos shouldn’t have swung an arm. But Brown shouldn’t be trying to provoke him by ‘accidentally’ tripping him up. And he didn’t need to go down clutching his face after the arm clearly went nowhere near.
We’re not trying to justify the actions of Morelos. Gerrard is right to snap and it could well signal the end of his career at Ibrox. Jermain Defoe has four games to prove he can replace him at the front, and with only three more games until the summer window opens, Morelos could be on his way.
That would be a shame, though. He’s proved he’s the best striker in the Premiership this season but he’s let his team down, time and again.
He needs taming but that’s what managers are for. Morelos has scored 29 goals in 45 games this season and Gerrard shouldn’t be selling him like the more outraged pundits are recommending.
He should be looking into alternative forms of help for a young player who clearly needs an arm around him. That’s true man management and it would prove Gerrard has what it takes to manage at the very highest level.