Morelos Performance

Mosschops said:
I thought he was awful yesterday. Passed the ball directly to a celtic player twice in 5 mins, was playing wide right for some reason and then he started fannying around doing his usual stupid off the ball stuff
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Don't you think that maybe the game plan was for him to drop deep and wide, or did he just ignore the manager who just let him do what he wanted
 
Grigo Yossarian said:
Im not going to defend him for his behaviour in that period. I’m a Rangers fan & he put us at risk with that behaviour mate.

On the other hand, so many people slate the guy unjustifiably too.

If that Ryan Kent ‘through on goal’ opportunity was Morelos there would have been a thread specifically on that mate.
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The issue is he’s used up a lot of people’s goodwill with the whole circus this year. Unless we see a return to form, he’s still going to get stick, justified or not. I agree some of it is unfair but if he’s become the whipping boy for a section of (online) fans after being the golden boy, he only has himself to blame.
 
The other point that is often missed concerning Alfie is the way he occupies the headspace of defenders.

They are paranoid about him.

He pulls them all over the place, and I think this is why we’ve started to use their obsession with him to our advantage.

I’m actually sure Gerrard and Gary Mac have decided to use this as a tactic to our advantage.
 
dereksmallsloyal said:
The issue is he’s used up a lot of people’s goodwill with the whole circus this year. Unless we see a return to form, he’s still going to get stick, justified or not. I agree some of it is unfair but if he’s become the whipping boy for a section of (online) fans after being the golden boy, he only has himself to blame.
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Im not saying for one minute he’s the Alfredo of old mate, and have already acknowledged it in this thread.

He had two red cards last season, one of them dubious and one of them totally embarrassing.

But he hasn’t lost his goodwill for me as I always err on the side of supporting a Ranger & giving him the benefit of the doubt.

We have yet another Alfie thread on FF yet I haven’t seen a thread praising Glen Kamara for his best ever performance for Rangers yesterday.

The SMSM & mentally challenged propaganda machine have won again.
 
dereksmallsloyal said:
The issue is he’s used up a lot of people’s goodwill with the whole circus this year. Unless we see a return to form, he’s still going to get stick, justified or not. I agree some of it is unfair but if he’s become the whipping boy for a section of (online) fans after being the golden boy, he only has himself to blame.
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Its obvious he's being told to do a different role than previous seasons he's a lot more involved in build up and that will probably affect his goal return however his new role is allowing other players to get in amongst the goals meaning we aren't over relying on him to score the goals to win us every game
 
Grigo Yossarian said:
Im not saying for one minute he’s the Alfredo of old mate, and have already acknowledged it in this thread.

He had two red cards last season, one of them dubious and one of them totally embarrassing.

But he hasn’t lost his goodwill for me as I always err on the side of supporting a Ranger & giving him the benefit of the doubt.

We have yet another Alfie thread on FF yet I haven’t seen a thread praising Glen Kamara for his best ever performance for Rangers yesterday.

The SMSM & mentally challenged propaganda machine have won again.
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Ok mate, I think the last sentence is a little bit OTT. We can have opinions on Morelos without it being mentally challenged propaganda.

Completely agree on Kamara though - in fact, we were close to a perfect performance yesterday in tactics and in midfield and defence.

You’re right - we should enjoy the moment here - I certainly haven’t stopped smiling and gloating since the final whistle.
 
Yesterday wasn't his best day but he was far from poor. Had a hand in the second goal, heavily involved in the first half, did his usual pressuring of their back three until he came off which resulted in them hacking it out for a throw or back up the field to us on countless occasions, smashed one low across their box at 0-0 that somebody really should have been on the end of. All little things which contributed to our complete and utter domination of the match.

Speaks volumes for me that none of our front three were anywhere near their best yesterday and we still absolutely cruised it. Very pleasing.
 
Hes a feckin handfull for defenders, whereevr he goes they have to keep a close eye on him which means more space is created for others. I think that factor contributed very much to our success yesterday. Had the cameras not been lucky to catch that flick at Broonaldo none of us wouldve noticed. I'm pretty sure the coont was at him whole game but most of the antics goes unnoticed. Anyone who has played the game at almost any competitive level knows what goes on in a match between players. The cameras only pick up a fraction of it.
Such a pity Alfie never managed to get a goal, but they will come.
 
In terms of play I thought overall he played well.

I was more angry at the fact he was going for mentally challenged players and not even looking at the ball.

And although the slap on brown may have been funny, on another day if he was caught doing that could’ve easily been a red for lifting hands no matter how soft the slap was.
 
I get the feeling he is knuckling down and doing what the manager is asking of him. yes he is not getting the goals but he is playing for the team.

When he plays the team is better, he was getting frustrated for not scoring but you see the targeting he gets. They were tag team hassling him yesterday lets not carry that on.
 
Going by this thread, some posters seem utterly crestfallen that he didn't see red. Morelos played for the team in the second half without being outstanding. Like Barker and Kent. Yet folk on here are lining up to have a go. It's hardly his fault we didn't accept Lille's offer. Get over it and support the guy who is playing a role within a winning team at Parkhead.
 
His performance was a mixed bag in that he had some awful passes, poor touches but was also involved in most of our best passage of play whilst working their defence. But he certainly put in a decent performance and did his bit though I’d be reluctant to call it a good or great showing. But Morelos’s card is marked now and he’s obviously lot a lot of the fans going on some of the crap written about him recently and the insistence on taking time out of celebrating to micro analyse his performance and to look for any reason to criticise him.
 
klos said:
Going by this thread, some posters seem utterly crestfallen that he didn't see red. Morelos played for the team in the second half without being outstanding. Like Barker and Kent. Yet folk on here are lining up to have a go. It's hardly his fault we didn't accept Lille's offer. Get over it and support the guy who is playing a role within a winning team at Parkhead.
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You are right he did have a good game overall, but surely you were watching the game when he deliberately went for Duffy and another mentally challenged then slapped brown over the head?
 
Mixed bag really for me.

Always causes any defence problems in general.

Some tidy link up play and some slackness. It's been the story of his season so far tbh
 
He set up their best chance in the first half from the edge of their own box with a woeful pass that allowed them to break quickly. He gave the ball away easily a few times in the first half. Improved in the second half.
 
Though he played well, good link up play, good movement, some nice touches and passes and a nice one to with Arfield for the 2nd. He did lose it for a bit after he clipped Brown's lug and also gave the ball away a few times but overall I though he was decent. He's definitely changed his game or probably more accurate we've changed his role in the team
 
Arminius said:
Alfie is judged to an infinitely higher standard by referees, pundits and seemingly on here as well.

I mentioned on a recent match thread that Alfie had made a wonderful move coming OUT of the penalty area that then created space behind him for his striking partner to run into and score.

I truthfully couldn’t care less if Alfie never scored another goal and his general play meant he helped us win every single game.
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Some of his passes out to the flanks are sublime. Comes deep, wins the ball and immediately spreads it out wide - it's fluid and at pace. Gets us immediately on the attack
 
He wasn't spectacular but he more than played his part. Solid 6 or 7/10

Anyone criticising his performance yesterday had their mind made up before kick-off.

He had a poor pass that resulted in a breakaway and other than that he was fine. He kept their back line off balance all day and he linked well. Can't really blame him that the ball never found him in the box. He had some niggle with Brown but at least he was the one being cute rather than being the one caught retaliating.
 
He was involved in two successive 1-2s on the edge of their box. His second touch was a little lob to Tav who smashed a volley wide. That goes in and Alfie has a wonderful assist. He also drove in from the right smashed the ball across goal right through to Borna on the left side of the box. Borna had a bit of time and a decent look at goal albeit from a tight angle; he smashed his shot miles over the bar. Through no fault of his own Alfie was denied two assists.
As for his misplaced passes he just does not have the ability to play those quick short passes without giving it away now and again, and again. He is playing a style that is foreign to him and making a decent fist of it. Too many people are decrying him for doing exactly what the Manager wants him to do; drift wide and drop deeper.
 
tambourineman said:
Alfie's booking was probably for persistent fouling. Alfie was putting himself about a fair bit, which is fine by me, but he will eventually get booked. And he didn't hip bump the guy he clattered into him late. Towards the end of the first half when he was getting a bit wound up he also had a couple of wild leaps at the ball, or rather in its general direction, where no foul was given as the ball went to their player. Good on Alfie for what he did as both Brown and Duffy were riled, but he could have no complaint about his booking.
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Reasonable response. I still think that was soft and it looked like the classic referee response of “book both players for handbags when there was only one aggressor” that always infuriates me in any game.

The ref didn’t appear to indicate it was for totting up and more the “I shat it and booked them both” that refs always do when there is a flashpoint. Morelos made a legitimate if late attempt to play the ball, Duffy did not.

Either way I respect your opinion and not the standard “I pure hate Alfie and will run him down because I can’t make an objective opinion on him anymore” that is prevalent on here.
 
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I watched the full game again last night. Alfie was a bit hit and miss, some excellent link up play, some very sloppy passing and some downright stupidity. He needs to grow up.
 
Tailwind said:
Reasonable response. I still think that was soft and it looked like the classic referee response of “book both players for handbags when there was only one aggressor” that always infuriates me in any game.

The ref didn’t appear to indicate it was for totting up and more than “I shat it and booked them both” that refs always do when there is a flashpoint. Morelos made a legitimate if late attempt to play the ball, Duffy did not.

Either way I respect your opinion and not the standard “I pure hate Alfie and will run him down because I can’t make an objective opinion on him anymore” that is prevalent on here.
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You could be right, we just don't know what was going through the Ref's head but had he been an opponent I would have been screaming for him to be booked by that point. See my post above where I praise him to the hilt for his successful change of style and for some of his play yesterday.
 
Mearns Ranger said:
I watched it back and overall he had far more good than bad.
First 35 was good apart from 2 slack passes, one across the pitch and one over hit backwards lay off that went in between our defence and midfield.
He then had a wee 5-10 mins of silliness before half time but calmed for the most part second half.
What’s not been mentioned was how well judged or well weighted some of his lay offs and link ups were.
It’s also not been mentioned that Kent probably made more wrong choices in good positions than Morelos did. Nobody wants to put the boot into Kent though.
Alfredo was a solid 7/10 yesterday and played his part.
Just needs a bit of luck in front of goal.
Kent’s volley was deflected about a yard past him which was unfortunate.
Kent should also have been smarter when he got caught by Ajer’s last ditch tackle. He could’ve played Alfie in or scored himself if he’d taken a better touch.
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This illustrates my point about preconceived opinions.

A large portion of our fans start a match assuming Alfie will/has played crap and then go looking for the evidence that “proves“ their preconceived opinion, ignoring evidence that suggests the opposite.

Another fan here in MR, has watched it back objectively and you can clearly see all the positive contributions he made.

Awkward reading (this objective evidence) for those who have decided he was crap before the game was played.
 
bornabluenose said:
He played okay, but he is not the player we saw the first half of last season and the season before.

Even allowing for the fact that he is being played a bit differently by the Gaffer this season.
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Agreed, sensible opinion.

Not at his 9 out of 10 barnstorming best. But still at least a 7/10 in most games and was good yesterday without being outstanding.

said it before on here, you don’t only have a 2 and a 10 to assign to Alfie’s performance out of 10.

For me any player getting a 6/10 has done fine in a match. Alfie was a 7 yesterday on his football. Many of our fans wont give him any credit unless he plays a 10.
 
GLAGAZ said:
A very mixed performance for me. He's nowhere near his best but still performs a crucial role for the team.

He has to cut out the silliness in his game though because no matter how funny some of the memes etc are, the slap/clipping of Brown's ear on another day could've seen him walk. Refs in Scotland are quick enough to book him just for being on the pitch so he needs to be smarter when dealing with Brown's childish antics.
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Good post. Agree.

See how reasoned criticism can be? A lesson for many on here.
 
GF7 said:
Some of his passes out to the flanks are sublime. Comes deep, wins the ball and immediately spreads it out wide - it's fluid and at pace. Gets us immediately on the attack
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Many people seem to have missed your point, which Mearns Ranger also made.

Yes, not Alfredo at his destructive best, but contributed to us once again outplaying our enemy.

I’ll take this at Ibrox Stadium the next time we play them & it could be league defining.
 
Mearns Ranger said:
Cheers Grigo.
Honestly, I’d advise all bears who can to watch the game back again.
There were things not apparent to me whilst watching the game that were much clearer seeing it again.
The two obvious ones for me were Morelos as I thought he was poor and gave it away too much. He wasn’t poor at all. There’s loads of passages of play he was heavily involved in with great touches and passes. Think of the move which ended in Tav’s volley.
The other was Barker. I was crying out for him to get hooked and thought he was rank.
Watching it back he did little wrong and probably had one of our best bits of play just before he got subbed when he beat the guy in the middle and drifted left, drew their defenders to him and slipped Kent clean through. Barker was nowhere near as bad as I thought he was and played his part.
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Kudos to you, a lesson to us all. Including me. Be big enough to admit when we got it wrong. No shame when emotionally invested in a match to see things “wrong”. Watch with a fresh eye and see how it really was.

The Barker moment you mention. That the one where Ajer is fouling him all the way, 2 arms pulling him back. Ajer getting all the credit for the recovery challenge on Kent. But Barker rinsed him and even with the almost rugbyesque tackling I don’t know Ajer gets too much credit for the recovery challenge that came from his “mistake” ( mistake being getting rinsed by Barker).
 
I dunno what the 693 MW radio station is but caught a bit a wee while ago, English pundits primarily I think. Anyway, Morelos is the one who does the winding up, not the one who gets wound up. HTF are these guys in a job ?
 
I do miss his role as the focal point striker and ragdolling defences. I loved that from him. However I now think it is a very shrewed move to bring him deeper and as you say link up the play and keep the ball moving.

I think Gerrard has drummed into him to get in Brown's face as much as he can. Do to him what he has been doing to you. As H&H pointed out yesterday Alfie lives in their head rent free. They are consumed by him. So rather than disrupt the play in the danger areas of the box where 9 times out of 10 the play breaks down and gives them the restbite from a promising attack...do it further back...get them wound up which will get them focussing on Alfie which leaves the rest of the team to play on and attack while they are still remonstrating.

Don't get me wrong I thought Alfie was doing it too much yesterday and he was making me nervous, however looking back I think he was doing it in a more controlled way. I think he would have kept doing it and doing it for the team and not cared about a booking.

If it was the other way about and all of the stuff Alfie done on Scott Brown was done by the lego muncher they would have been loving it. Including commentators and pundits. All we would have heard was, "Scott Brown just doing what Scott Brown does and letting him know he is there". Is that right? Aye?

Get it right up them cos I have been desperate for Brown to get a taste of his own medicine season upon season.

No Surrender.
 
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Krissie said:
I dunno what the 693 MW radio station is but caught a bit a wee while ago, English pundits primarily I think. Anyway, Morelos is the one who does the winding up, not the one who gets wound up. HTF are these guys in a job ?
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That’s Radio Scotland. 909 & 693 mate.
 
GF7 said:
Yes but he was booked for it whether you feel it was legitimate or not. If you make contact with a player after ball is gone you run the risk of a yellow, Morelos is always treading that line. If he is picking up pointless yellows for the likes of cuffing someone's ear then he is on a tightrope thereafter.
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You were playing the ifs buts and maybes game first. If he got booked earlier he would have got sent off for the Duffy challenge. Well he wasn’t.

So I can play the ifs buts and maybes game too. If we had a better ref he wouldn’t have got booked for the bump of Duffy.

Either we can both play ifs buts and maybes or we can’t. Can’t only allow hypothetical situations that suit you own POV.

And I guess the biggest thing is he wasn’t hypothetically sent off and contributed well to a massive Rangers win.
 
Egt said:
I think Morelos is doing ok with contributing to the build up, but I suspect Roofe will be better at this deep-lying striker role than he is.
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You could absolutely be right, and I’m hoping it too, but Roofe is of no use to us injured.

Morelos has hardly missed a game through injury for us, including after that horrific Dundee United tackle.
 
Mosschops said:
I thought he was awful yesterday. Passed the ball directly to a celtic player twice in 5 mins, was playing wide right for some reason and then he started fannying around doing his usual stupid off the ball stuff
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Watch the match back like MR and you might see it was your assessment of the match was awful.

Also, 2 bad passes in a match does not constitute awful for any player.

As MR points out watching back, Kent wasted the ball more, was he awful? Was Davis awful as he turned over possession a couple of times. Goldson should have given up and embarrassing goal, was he awful? No. Because it’s about looking at a performance as a whole and not just hunting for the negative moments that support your predetermined analysis of a performance.
 
Tailwind said:
You were playing the ifs buts and maybes game first. If he got booked earlier he would have got sent off for the Duffy challenge. Well he wasn’t.

So I can play the ifs buts and maybes game too. If we had a better ref he wouldn’t have got booked for the bump of Duffy.

Either we can both play ifs buts and maybes or we can’t. Can’t only allow hypothetical situations that suit you own POV.

And I guess the biggest thing is he wasn’t hypothetically sent off and contributed well to a massive Rangers win.
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He was very disruptive yesterday and deserves credit for breaking up concentration of Brown an Duffy for sure. What is never mentioned is the amount of abuse he gets on the pitch trying sneakily to wind him up. Some in the media think this is perfectly acceptable. I actually think he played his part yesterday pretty well.
 
tambourineman said:
You could be right, we just don't know what was going through the Ref's head but had he been an opponent I would have been screaming for him to be booked by that point. See my post above where I praise him to the hilt for his successful change of style and for some of his play yesterday.
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Yeh, as I said, we don’t see that one moment exactly the same. But I appreciate you have an honest and reasonable assessment of him and that moment. We just see that one situation different. But fair play, you are clearly objective in your views on Alfie. Just a shame many others no longer can be.
 
If Brown goes down and makes and meal of the slap and it cost us 3 points he should never play for our club again, I love him to bits but he really can’t control himself at times, like Suarez and Costa except not as good a footballer as them that’s why they got away with it.

He never had his best game yesterday but still done well at times and link up for the second goal was class.
 
Tailwind said:
You were playing the ifs buts and maybes game first. If he got booked earlier he would have got sent off for the Duffy challenge. Well he wasn’t.

So I can play the ifs buts and maybes game too. If we had a better ref he wouldn’t have got booked for the bump of Duffy.

Either we can both play ifs buts and maybes or we can’t. Can’t only allow hypothetical situations that suit you own POV.

And I guess the biggest thing is he wasn’t hypothetically sent off and contributed well to a massive Rangers win.
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Well no, we know exactly the situation with the referees; there's no if or maybe about that. Cuffing someone's ear and it being seen is risking at least a yellow and so is barging someone after the ball is away - sometimes you will get away it, sometimes you won't. Morelos always plays on that edge, I don't actually have a problem with it as long it's not combined with risking other cautions for pointless stupidity. Might be hypothetical but Morelos has proven time and time again that being on a caution won't stop him still playing on the edge.

I also don't think it was a particularly harsh booking, he was after a reaction from Duffy and got one.
 
Grigo Yossarian said:
Good point about Barker too mate.

I have to say that’s where I was with him, having only watched live, but I respect your knowledge & objectivity.

We’ve now totally outplayed them three times in a row, with Morelos leading the line, beating them twice, yet still we see so much negativity by some.

Not so long ago we were lucky to have only lost 5 to them at Parkhead & it’s easy to forget the progress we have made, with Morelos an important part of that, despite his fragilities discipline wise.
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Not just parkhead either, same at Ibrox or hampden for that matter.

This team has came a long way since gerrard arrived. Something we would do well to remember when people have a meltdown at having a couple of draws away from home.
 
dereksmallsloyal said:
The issue is he’s used up a lot of people’s goodwill with the whole circus this year. Unless we see a return to form, he’s still going to get stick, justified or not. I agree some of it is unfair but if he’s become the whipping boy for a section of (online) fans after being the golden boy, he only has himself to blame.
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You need to understand he’s in good form. Not his best. But good.

You’ll never be happy with him again so it’s pointless anyway.

A return to form, hilarious ....
 
I thought he was our weakest like along with Barker, despite some nice touches.

He's going to have to buck his ideas up, we can't afford passengers this season.
 
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