Perception is everything in football. Fans know all too well how effective the “penalty to Rangers” campaign has been with the media playing their part in controlling another narrative recently too.
Under Steven Gerrard, the Ibrox outfit mastered playing with 10-men, purely because the squad came so used to having to put it into practice.
At fault more times than not was Alfredo Morelos, with the Rangers striker long reported as the bad boy of Scottish football.
Why does Daizen Maeda not get the same treatment as Rangers star?
During his time in Glasgow, Morelos was sent off for diving and celebrating, he was also sent off because an official thought they saw him do something rather than because they actually had, an opinion that was later changed on appeal.
By then though, the damage had been done and the points had been lost.
Morelos was hard and physical, but he wasn’t malicious, he wouldn’t two foot players, make dangerous late tackles or injure players by charging into them.
Compare and contrast to Daizen Maeda.
The numbers behind Maeda’s discipline
The Celtic forward now has as many straight red cards (two, with three in total) for Celtic in 131 less games than Morelos got his tally in playing for Rangers – the Colombian having had two rescinded.
Out of Morelos’ eight in total, two were rescinded and three were for second yellow cards that nobody else would ever get sent off for.
Remember Motherwell away for celebrating a goal, UFA and Parkhead when Kevin Clancy had the red card out before Gers striker even hit the deck?
So, the same number of “fair” red cards than Maeda currently has.
There have never been any targeted posts by ex-players, pundits or journalists slamming the Japan international for his behaviour or how reckless he is.
Not a single peep about how much he is letting his teammates down.
No reputation with officials, who book him for his first challenge of every game or referee him based on what they thought they saw, rather than what actually happened.
This is one of many small differences between Rangers and Celtic in terms of public relations and the media, and one of many things that Patrick Stewart needs to get on top of.
