Journalist Jonny McFarlane has hit back at comments made by Peter Grant criticising Alfredo Morelos.
The Rangers Review writer was speaking on the site’s YouTube channel following remarks made by the former Celtic midfielder on the Go Radio Football Show.
His comments were relayed by the Daily Record as he called the Gers talisman a ‘liability’ and doesn’t believe he will be a big loss should he depart this summer.
Now McFarlane has slammed the ‘lazy’ rant made by Grant and jumped to the defence of the Colombian.
He said: “First of all, I’m surprised at Peter Grant coming out with stuff like this, because in general, he’s normally more thoughtful in his punditry than some of this stuff.
“I mean, number one, Alfredo Morelos’ best period was last year in Europe for Rangers. I mean, he was injured and didn’t play in the key games – so that’s not accurate.
“The majority of the games were played after once he got injured unfortunately, because I think if he’d still been around, Rangers would be Europa League winners.
“To say he’s a liability, the last red card that Alfredo Morelos had was in 2019 and it was the game against Celtic – the 2-1 defeat at Parkhead.
“So there’s no doubt that Alfredo Morelos has curbed the worst aspects of his temperament in games. He’s done really well to stamp that out of his game, so I don’t really think that’s fair.
“And then finally, I think the point about his fitness is pretty fair, to be honest. He has had issues with coming back fully fit from home in Colombia.
“But talking about he’s had injuries – Alfredo Morelos has had one injury in the entirety of his time at Rangers, he’s never been injured. The only time he was injured, again, unfortunately, was in the lead-up to the Europa League latter stages.
“So I just think it’s pretty lazy and a lot of the comments made there are just factually incorrect.”
TIF Thoughts on Morelos and Rangers…
Should Rangers sell Morelos?Yes!
No!
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The 25-year-old sharp-shooter suffered an injured thigh that ruled him out towards the end of the season but as McFarlane alluded to, Morelos has certainly developed as a player in recent seasons, and after a lull at the beginning of the campaign, he responded following the arrival of Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
Former Gers captain Bary Ferguson previously revealed that the player cut almost a stone in weight when the Dutch boss initially took charge and 12 of his 16 goals in the Europa League and Scottish Premiership came after the change in the dugout.
The £11.7m-rated frontman has certainly shown commitment and a willingness to develop as a player, which would seem to further dismiss Grant’s comments, and it could be said that most Light Blues fans will be hoping the club can tie him down to a new contract beyond his current deal that expires in 2023.