Alfredo Morelos’ battle with the Scottish media and public in general has been a tough one for him.
Arriving last summer in Pedro Caixinha’s batch of foreign hopefuls, there were big question marks over his pedigree. A good spell at HJK Helsinki certainly wasn’t enough to be sure of him being a success at Rangers.
The little striker had his spells last season where he would hit a purple patch. Caixinha had him as his number one striker, and was the man to bring him to the club. For that alone, Rangers could at least thank Caixinha for that if nothing else.
Starting the season on fire, it looked like Rangers had bagged a gem. Except it didn’t take that short a time for Gers fans to realise that in the first place. When Rangers hit a dip in form, this coincided with Morelos having a big dip in form. For every five goals in three games there were 10 games without one.
Added to that, his build-up play certainly wasn’t the best. It was a running joke with the amount of times he found himself off-side last season. Even at the start of this term it was slightly frustrating, but it’s an aspect of Morelos’ game that he’s improved upon.
His mood-swings were an extreme frustration to the Rangers support also. It came across as though he was just an immature little boy, and it felt as though Rangers needed new blood going forward.
The sacking of Pedro Caixinha saw Graeme Murty integrated into the manager role. This was almost like the worst thing that could’ve happened to Morelos, as it led to the worst spell in his short Rangers career.
A series of Old Firm matches against Celtic brought miss after miss after miss. The most iconic one being an open goal when he could’ve given Rangers a last-gasp equaliser against 10-man Celtic at Ibrox. In the end, the Gers lost 3-2 and their title-challenge crumbled from there.
Another several misses in a Scottish Cup meeting with Celtic and another league game at Parkhead saw him down in the dumps to say the least. The season ended uncermoniously, and Morelos had a lot of making up to do.
So how incredible it’s been that the forward has managed to become the best striker in Scotland over the last few months. Almost immediately after Gerrard’s arrival, Morelos improved ten-fold.
His build-up play has been second to none in the Rangers squad, and he’s showing a lot more selflessness this season. Granted, he still manages to look dour when he doesn’t get on the scoresheet. But his decision-making in the final third is certainly not full of selfishness.
Yet it’s not his build-up play that everyone’s been focusing on, it’s his remarkable goal return. At such a young age, 22, Morelos is a sensational goalscorer. 11 goals in 20 appearances so far this season has him sitting pretty as Rangers’ top goalscorer. The exact same accolade he ended last season with.
A couple of early red cards under Gerrard didn’t help the supporters’ affection for him, but now people are seeing the quality he holds. He’s now scored in massive European matches against Marbor, Osijek, and Rapid Vienna. Added to that, he’s netted in crucial domestic matches against Hearts, St Johnstone, and a hat-trick against Kilmarnock.
He’s growing in confidence, and starting to realise that defenders are always out to wind him up. He knows how much of a threat he is to the opposition, and is thriving with that responsibility on his shoulders. He’ll be hoping that elusive Old Firm goal is just around the corner.
He’s even managing to keep new-man Kyle Lafferty out of the side. The Northern Irishman was an exciting signing when he arrived, but he’s struggling to displace the Colombian forward.
When it comes to big games, Morelos has now become undroppable. You expect him to score every time he’s through on goal, which isn’t something you could say last season.
Such a huge increase in work-rate and improvement this season has led to Morelos being the main man. He deserves huge credit for that, and hopefully now there are medals to come for the young strike sensation.
In the mean-time, he can be happy being labelled as the best striker in Scotland. At the moment, it’s certainly true.
