Morelos Performance

Nothing to do with lack of goals ( his finishing has been poor) but his all round contribution has been at very best, average. He looks sluggish and doesn’t put in a fraction of the work others do. I don’t doubt there’s a player in there but on the basis of form, he should be dropped. I think the decision seems to have been made to let him play through it. I hope he comes good soon.
 
Tailwind said:
Let’s just call it what it is, there’s a large selection of our support who sit there waiting for him to misplace a pass or lose possession once and the. That’s it. That’s the piece of info they wrap themselves in like a comfort blanket to confirm he’s shit and had a bad game.

Morelos has to play an infallible game. Never lose possession once or misfit one pass. Otherwise these fans now have all the ammo they need to confirm the opinions they constructed of his performance before the game was played.

Look at the sun for example who gave him a 7 in the match ratings. They are hardly fair and generous with rating our players.
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Stop talking absolute pish, you've littered this thread with absolute nonsense.
 
Joebones said:
I thought he linked the play well, nice touches and one-twos but.......if he’s going to be our main striker he’s going to have to start scoring goals. Pretty simple.
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You must be able to see the system has changed to have him dropping deep to create space for Kent/Barker/Arfield.

Yes, he will have chances and he will get goals, but not when he's so deep all the time which is clearly what he's been asked to do.
 
CaptainHolt said:
I've only read a couple of posts in this thread but I genuinely can't believe people thought he played poorly on Saturday. He battered their defence yet again and left Shane Duffy broken. Plays a big part in the second goal as well and gives the ball to Kent to win the free kick in the first.

Swear some people think if a striker doesn't score it means he had a bad game. He was at least a 7/10.
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Absolute drivel.

Morelos done well off the ball in stages, but his performance was much like his season so far - bang average.

It was a long time ago now that he was running amok domestically and in Europe. He is so far off they levels right now its worrying.
 
MSF said:
Absolute drivel.

Morelos done well off the ball in stages, but his performance was much like his season so far - bang average.

It was a long time ago now that he was running amok domestically and in Europe. He is so far off they levels right now its worrying.
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If Cedric Itten (who I’m a fan of) put in a performance like Morelos this place would be creaming themselves. Because Morelos has gone from 9/10 or 10/10 every week to 7/10 he’s shite. He played a big part in our win and if you can’t see that you’re either blind, stupid or both
 
I thought Morelos played ok, 6-7 out of 10

Link up play was decent again, he’s clearly been asked to play a slightly different role this season for the benefit of the team

Especially with Arfield, 2nd goal and also the one that led to Tav’s volley first half
 
Still think he was our weakest link along with Barker, although that doesn't necessarily mean he had a bad game. He was ok, nothing more. If we want to win the league then our main striker needs to up his game sharpish.
 
CaptainHolt said:
If Cedric Itten (who I’m a fan of) put in a performance like Morelos this place would be creaming themselves. Because Morelos has gone from 9/10 or 10/10 every week to 7/10 he’s shite. He played a big part in our win and if you can’t see that you’re either blind, stupid or both
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He has been 6/10 at most all season, sometimes even lower like v Gala. You can pretend there isn’t an issue with his performance levels all you want, but its nothing but denial and he’ll be the first one to get it in the neck if our results suffer.

His unprofessionalism at the turn of the year has bit him on the arse big time, just hope it doesn’t effect us.
 
knightswood_bear said:
He was also a big part of why Celtic couldn’t build up any real passages of play. The front 3 put a shift in off the ball which often goes unnoticed.

I feel like the lines have been drawn from some on here and they have been so critical of Morelos that they feel they can’t back down on it.
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This. It's the off ball work that has laid the groundwork for our good results this season.
 
MSF said:
He has been 6/10 at most all season, sometimes even lower like v Gala. You can pretend there isn’t an issue with his performance levels all you want, but its nothing but denial and he’ll be the first one to get it in the neck if our results suffer.

His unprofessionalism at the turn of the year has bit him on the arse big time, just hope it doesn’t effect us.
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On Saturday he knocked their CH silly and eventually Duffy lost the plot and raised two hands, not Alfie, Duffy. He played a 1-2 with Arfield from which Arfield set up the second goal. Another 1-2 in a very tight situation saw him dink a lovely lob to Tav in space and he volleyed well wide. He also came in from the right, drilled the ball low across goal and it ran through to Borna on the left hand of the box with a decent chance albeit from a tight angle. He smashed it miles over the bar. That is two excellent chances he set up. If Kent did not over-run the ball and let Ajer make that sliding tackle he can set up Alfie for a tap-in.
Assisting a goal, setting up two good chances, battering their CH and a lovely ball out to Kent when he switched play as well as some other link up play and dropping deep and wide (as per our game plan) to create space for others is not a bad days work.
The biggest disappointment was he didn't boot Brown up his jacksie again. Ya useless bassa Alfie!!
 
Number Six said:
I thought Morelos played ok, 6-7 out of 10

Link up play was decent again, he’s clearly been asked to play a slightly different role this season for the benefit of the team

Especially with Arfield, 2nd goal and also the one that led to Tav’s volley first half
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This is where I am.

He played a commited role for the team on the day, and made himself available constantly.

Not the Alfie of Maribor or Austria Vienna no doubt, but played an important role in a vital win for our club.
 
Grigo Yossarian said:
This is where I am.

He played a commited role for the team on the day, and made himself available constantly.

Not the Alfie of Maribor or Austria Vienna no doubt, but played an important role in a vital win for our club.
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It’s obvious he is being asked to play a little deeper, to drag markers out the way and to create space for Kent / Barker / Arfield (from midfield). And it’s working.

I also mentioned earlier in this thread the almost obsessive, rent free headspace that Alfie has got inside the heads of opponents. It actually gives us a tactical potential advantage. Whilst they're all obsessing over Alfie, Kent & Barisic & Tav & Arfield & Kamara are running riot in all the space they've vacated.

I’m perfectly happy with the new role Gerrard has given Alfie. It also means we are nowhere near as reliant on his goals alone. Last season, you stopped Alfie, you stopped us.
 
I thought Alfie done well first half.

Second half a lot quieter but his work rate over 90 minutes was positive.

What I would say about this season is we aren't reliant on his goals, other players have stepped up which is long overdue.

However if the wee man starts banging in goals again along with others we'll be hard to stop.
 
Arminius said:
It’s obvious he is being asked to play a little deeper, to drag markers out the way and to create space for Kent / Barker / Arfield (from midfield). And it’s working.

I also mentioned earlier in this thread the almost obsessive, rent free headspace that Alfie has got inside the heads of opponents. It actually gives us a tactical potential advantage. Whilst they're all obsessing over Alfie, Kent & Barisic & Tav & Arfield & Kamara are running riot in all the space they've vacated.

I’m perfectly happy with the new role Gerrard has given Alfie. It also means we are nowhere near as reliant on his goals alone. Last season, you stopped Alfie, you stopped us.
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Can’t argue with any of that

People just need to look at us as a team rather than Alfie’s numbers as an individual
 
Arminius said:
It’s obvious he is being asked to play a little deeper, to drag markers out the way and to create space for Kent / Barker / Arfield (from midfield). And it’s working.

I also mentioned earlier in this thread the almost obsessive, rent free headspace that Alfie has got inside the heads of opponents. It actually gives us a tactical potential advantage. Whilst they're all obsessing over Alfie, Kent & Barisic & Tav & Arfield & Kamara are running riot in all the space they've vacated.

I’m perfectly happy with the new role Gerrard has given Alfie. It also means we are nowhere near as reliant on his goals alone. Last season, you stopped Alfie, you stopped us.
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Absolutely agree Arminius. We were a bit predictable.

Morelos this season reminds me of Serginho, the Brazilian centre forward in the 1982 WC in Spain.

I watched him at first & thought ‘he’s rubbish, what’s he bringing’ ? After watching them a half dozen times I realised his job was mainly to create space & pull defenders everywhere so that Socrates, Zico, etc could run into very central & threatening forward areas to score.

It was a football lesson for me to be honest.

Given Beale’s Sao Paolo experience, I can’t help think that this is his strategy.

And we are looking good.
 
tambourineman said:
On Saturday he knocked their CH silly and eventually Duffy lost the plot and raised two hands, not Alfie, Duffy. He played a 1-2 with Arfield from which Arfield set up the second goal. Another 1-2 in a very tight situation saw him dink a lovely lob to Tav in space and he volleyed well wide. He also came in from the right, drilled the ball low across goal and it ran through to Borna on the left hand of the box with a decent chance albeit from a tight angle. He smashed it miles over the bar. That is two excellent chances he set up. If Kent did not over-run the ball and let Ajer make that sliding tackle he can set up Alfie for a tap-in.
Assisting a goal, setting up two good chances, battering their CH and a lovely ball out to Kent when he switched play as well as some other link up play and dropping deep and wide (as per our game plan) to create space for others is not a bad days work.
The biggest disappointment was he didn't boot Brown up his jacksie again. Ya useless bassa Alfie!!
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He did not batter Duffy at all. Duffy won most of the duels between them, Alfie left wee kicks on him a few times & Duffy took the bait. Both booked. If that equates to “Battered their CH” then OK.

As for the rest, it shows how far his levels have dropped thats what you’re mentioning.
 
I think a lot of the frustration or anger at his recent performances has been the result of talking him up too much in the first place.

Some of the hyperbole about him on here last season was just ridiculous.

When someone that you deem to be as good as he was last season isn't delivering this season, it's only natural that people are going to be really annoyed.

Temperate responses to performances are important after good ones, not just bad ones.
 
So far this season, Morelos has been a complete shadow of what he was during the first half of last season.

He’s playing a slightly different role but it’s not like he’s a striker being asked to play left back so it shouldn’t be completely alien to him.

I’m confident he’ll hit the heights again.

However there’s no point pretending that the garden is all rosy with him. If we’d spent between £8m-£10m on him during the summer or in January (which is only about half of what most fans want to sell him for) - we’d be saying we’ve got poor value for our money.
 
Even if he's dropping deeper or roaming from his position, Morelos needs to carry a goal threat. We made it look easy on Saturday - Celtic never really tested McGregor and we controlled the game - but other than the 2 Goldson goals, we never really carried much of a goal threat. That Celtic team were there for more than 2 but Morelos' play didnt bring others into good scoring positions often enough and he again threatened to let the stature of the game get on top of him by resorting to a few sly and not so sly digs at opponents.

A £20million player, as many people on here see Alfredo Morelos, needs to show up in OF games and offer a genuine goal threat. We didnt test their piss poor keeper often enough and a big part of that was the disconnect from midfield to attack. Kent had a quieter game than expected and Barker didnt do nearly enough so it wasnt just Alfredo, but our forward options were arguably our weakest players on Saturday.
 
iaatpies said:
Even if he's dropping deeper or roaming from his position, Morelos needs to carry a goal threat. We made it look easy on Saturday - Celtic never really tested McGregor and we controlled the game - but other than the 2 Goldson goals, we never really carried much of a goal threat. That Celtic team were there for more than 2 but Morelos' play didnt bring others into good scoring positions often enough and he again threatened to let the stature of the game get on top of him by resorting to a few sly and not so sly digs at opponents.

A £20million player, as many people on here see Alfredo Morelos, needs to show up in OF games and offer a genuine goal threat. We didnt test their piss poor keeper often enough and a big part of that was the disconnect from midfield to attack. Kent had a quieter game than expected and Barker didnt do nearly enough so it wasnt just Alfredo, but our forward options were arguably our weakest players on Saturday.
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I think as a team we just cruised Saturday, once we got in front and were never in danger we just sat in 2nd gear and that had an impact of the attacking players in the side

A lot has been made in the past about ‘game management’ Saturday was a perfect example of game management - we were 2-0 up at Parkhead after 50 odd minutes, it wasn’t a game we had to go and try get more in
 
I see this altered position as bit of a challenge for Morelos, he always thrived when our play was direct and focussed on finding him but now his role is bit more nuanced. Alfie was the first over to Goldson after his 2nd, he's clearly enjoying things at the moment and that can only help him get back to scoring ways.
 
ssblue said:
I thought the majority of his link up play was good although when it goes wrong it is really noticed.

Definitely seems to be playing deeper. Maybe he has been told to in order to try and drag the opposition out of their shape.

We are still scoring plenty even if he isn't.

His celebrations with his team mates show he is still up for it.
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all this for me...
more often than naught he’s 1st to congratulate the goal scorer and surely SG has asked him play a different role this season.... defences are still keying on him which allows more space for the likes of goldson and tav to ghost into
 
Tailwind said:
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.
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I'd like to take that back. I watched the game again and i was talking pish, sorry pal :))
 
The thing is Alfie has brilliant positional play which brought defenders out of there positioning he was rag dolling creating space in the penalty box look at the space Connor Goldson had .Their defence were rushing back into position when it was too late. .That's the trouble in Scotland people think its all swashbuckling attack .We now play a different game to keep possession and create space in points on Sunday we had them chasing shadows with less effort. They didn't know how to counter this because we now have a plan A ,B and C.
 
Since Morelos scored on Boxing Day last year he has played 27 competitive games and he’s only scored 6 goals.

1 vs Hamilton in cup
2x vs st mirren
2x vs red imps
1 vs hibs

It really isn’t good enough and he needs a spell on the bench.
 
Arminius said:
It’s obvious he is being asked to play a little deeper, to drag markers out the way and to create space for Kent / Barker / Arfield (from midfield). And it’s working.

I also mentioned earlier in this thread the almost obsessive, rent free headspace that Alfie has got inside the heads of opponents. It actually gives us a tactical potential advantage. Whilst they're all obsessing over Alfie, Kent & Barisic & Tav & Arfield & Kamara are running riot in all the space they've vacated.

I’m perfectly happy with the new role Gerrard has given Alfie. It also means we are nowhere near as reliant on his goals alone. Last season, you stopped Alfie, you stopped us.
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Serious question, how is it obvious he's being asked to play a little deeper? I could understand your point if he had a proper 9 playing alongside him doing all the work inside the box or if we had seen Itten play a similar type role when he's featured, but he hasn't.

With the amount of goals Morelos scored last year and given that on form he is the best goalscorer at the club, I can't see why Gerrard would ask him to play in less dangerous areas of the park.

For me I think it's a case of Alfie wanting to be involved more often in the play which, whilst isn't necessarily a bad thing per se, comes at a detriment of him not being where you want your main striker playing in such big games.
 
wilso10 said:
Serious question, how is it obvious he's being asked to play a little deeper? I could understand your point if he had a proper 9 playing alongside him doing all the work inside the box, and I could understand if Itten played a similar type role when he's featured but he hasn't.

With the amount of goals Morelos scored last year and given that on form he is the best goalscorer at the club, I can't see why Gerrard would ask him to play in less dangerous areas of the park.

For me I think it's a case of Alfie wanting to be involved more often which, whilst isn't necessarily a bad thing per se, it comes at a detriment of him not being where you want your main striker playing in such big games.
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It’s pretty evident he’s being asked to drop deeper, thus dragging defenders out and allowing Kent into the space.

Notice the long through ball Goldson plays most games, it seems Gerrard has taken a further Liverpool like approach to his system and it’s working. It’s allowing us to be less reliant on him (a good thing.)

Alfie isn’t backing into defenders anymore is a constant criticism I hear from my dad mainly when it is pretty obvious he’s playing more as a false 9. I’m not meaning to be rude mate but I genuinely don’t understand how people can’t notice it.

Think of him as playing a Firmino like role now, if Gerrard didn’t want him doing this I’m sure he would make sure it’s rectified. This is also a guy who loves scoring goals, I don’t think he’d openly lower his chances to do so by his own accord.
 
erskine bear said:
It’s pretty evident he’s being asked to drop deeper, thus dragging defenders out and allowing Kent into the space.

Notice the long through ball Goldson plays most games, it seems Gerrard has taken a further Liverpool like approach to his system and it’s working. It’s allowing us to be less reliant on him (a good thing.)

Alfie isn’t backing into defenders anymore is a constant criticism I hear from my dad mainly when it is pretty obvious he’s playing more as a false 9. I’m not meaning to be rude mate but I genuinely don’t understand how people can’t notice it.

Think of him as playing a Firmino like role now, if Gerrard didn’t want him doing this I’m sure he would make sure it’s rectified. This is also a guy who loves scoring goals, I don’t think he’d openly lower his chances to do so by his own accord.
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I think we see those tactics more so in the games against the lesser teams when they adopt the low block against us, but you don't need your main striker dropping deep to create space particularly not against a back line who aren't exactly sitting back against us as was the case on Saturday.

The key distinction between our setup and Liverpools, despite the obvious, is that in Salah and Mane you have two other "strikers" who will often occupy the area departed by Firmino when Liverpool are building through the flanks or centrally. We don't really have another recognised striker playing alongside Morelos and I think that's evident at times when you see Tav or Barisic bombing forward sometimes having little to target in the box.

Barry Ferguson hit the nail on the head in the OpenGoal podcast, when you have someone with the goalscoring ability Morelos has you don't want to see him doing most of his work outside the box.
 
CaptainHolt said:
I've only read a couple of posts in this thread but I genuinely can't believe people thought he played poorly on Saturday. He battered their defence yet again and left Shane Duffy broken. Plays a big part in the second goal as well and gives the ball to Kent to win the free kick in the first.

Swear some people think if a striker doesn't score it means he had a bad game. He was at least a 7/10.
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No offence meant here but he literally passed the ball 5yards for our second goal lol
 
govanite said:
The thing is Alfie has brilliant positional play which brought defenders out of there positioning he was rag dolling creating space in the penalty box look at the space Connor Goldson had .Their defence were rushing back into position when it was too late. .That's the trouble in Scotland people think its all swashbuckling attack .We now play a different game to keep possession and create space in points on Sunday we had them chasing shadows with less effort. They didn't know how to counter this because we now have a plan A ,B and C.
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That’s a very under rated point you make about this season Govanite.

We have a number of very subtle positional options we are now using eg the deeper wing backs at Motherwell & the Gadd Arena.

Not only is our squad deeper, but our management team are now much more detailed in their tactical approach.
 
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