Rangers icon Kris Boyd was speaking on Sky Sports’ The Debate show on Thurday evening in the aftermath of the club’s 3-1 defeat against Bayer Leverkusen at Ibrox, and he delivered a bold verdict on Alfredo Morelos.
What’s the word?
The Bundesliga outfit, boasting a plethora of talented individuals including the likes of Kai Havertz and Leon Bailey, outclassed the hosts and put one foot firmly in the next round of the competition with three away goals.
Alfredo Morelos started at the spearhead of the Rangers attack amid growing concerns over his attitude and commitment to the club.
Indeed, the prolific centre forward returned late from a trip to Colombia recently and that, combined with his failure to score a single league goal in 2020, has understandably made him a big talking point of late.
And when asked if the mercurial 23-year-old is more hassle than he’s worth, Boyd providing a damning verdict, per The Debate (March 12th 15:01):
“At this moment in time, yes. I’ve said that before as well. You know, I think that you can’t keep protecting someone with the amount of red cards that he’s had, but the annoying thing is that at the start of the season he went until maybe December, I can’t remember off the top of my head, without being booked. So it looked as if he’d turned a corner and then the red cards started happening again.”
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Re-emerging problem
Indeed, Morelos didn’t quite make it until December without picking up a caution but he stayed on the right side of the line for the most part, picking up just two bookings before the final month of the year.
In December, though, the tide started to turn. He was sent off for two bookable offences against Motherwell before suffering the same fate in the Old Firm derby at Celtic Park prior to the turn of the year.
Steven Gerrard needs to decide this summer whether his star striker is indeed worth the hassle or not.
Replacing him will undoubtedly provide a huge challenge to the recruitment team, but they may be left with little choice if a suitor is willing to stump up a significant fee for his services.
And if Morelos is no longer happy at Ibrox, there is no doubt the club should make a contingency plan to prepare for his departure in the summer.