DEFOE Gerscangoall thewayand compete inEurope aswell
Jermain backs strike pal Morelos to screw the nut
JERMAIN DEFOE is convinced Rangers can halt Celtic’s 10-in-a-row charge and also hit new heights in Europe.
The former England star knows the importance of stopping their rivals from making history and has urged his team-mates to share his belief they can dethrone their Glasgow rivals.
Defoe reckons Steven Gerrard has
JERMAIN DEFOE reckons Alfredo Morelos has to show he has cleaned up his act if he wants to convince top clubs to splash out on him. The former England star is in no doubt the Colombia striker can play at the highest level but knows a lot of clubs will have been put off by his on-field indiscipline. Defoe is well aware Morelos, who hit 29 goals for Gers last season, has made big strides on that side of his game but believes he has to continue to show he can keep a lid on things. Rangers are also desperate to keep their prize asset so if they are going to sell him it will take a big-money offer. And to get that, Morelos has to show that he is the complete package. Defoe said: “It is up to him really. He scores a lot of goals up here. He gets himself into good areas and he is hungry to score goals and has an appetite, which I like. “The thing that goes against him is his reputation. You would like to think people would take a chance on him but it is his reputation! “You don’t want to get a player who gets sent off and misses games when you have invested so much money in somebody.
“He has to get his head down this season, kick on and show people he has changed because the football side is fine. It is the other side.”
Morelos received only two red cards last season and that was a vast improvement on the previous campaign where even Steven Gerrard’s patience ran out with his volatile star.
Defoe thinks the penny has dropped with his strike partner since then and he has made huge strides forward on keeping his cool .
Defoe, speaking on The Beautiful Game podcast, said: “We all try to help him and talk to him.
“When I first came he was suspended for six games and we won all six games. He probably sat there and thought, ‘I can’t be missing games, if I’m missing games and the team is winning then I’m not going to get back in the team.’
“He came back last season and I saw a little change in him.
“His game improved, he was scoring goals consistently in Europe, he was on fire and a lot of people were talking about him. I thought, ‘He is not getting involved in the other side of things’ and he has changed a lot in my time there.
“Before, he would just lose his head too quickly and I’d say, ‘Buf stay calm and focus on goals.’”
A lot of people have been quick to criticise Morelos but Defoe knows it has been something of a culture shock to adapt to the pressure of Rangers and the media spotlight.
He said: “The higher up you go the more switched on you have to be in the game and you can’t get frustrated. It is difficult for him, I feel sorry for him at times. Remember, this is a kid from Colombia, sometimes he is home alone, his English isn’t the best and he probably misses his family.
“The only time he feels himself is when he is on a football pitch then he gets frustrated.
“But it is deeper than him going on to the pitch and wanting to fight everybody. It is deeper than that. Sometimes it is difficult for him because he’s on his own. It’s hard.”
Morelos could be key to stopping Celtic from making it 10 titles in a row. Defoe knows the
Rangers squad has the quality to win the league but it is just a case of proving it over the course of the season.
They’ve been neck and neck going into the last two winter breaks before their rivals have raced away.
Everyone has tried to put a finger on why the Light Blues stalled after they came back from Dubai and the veteran believes a combination of factors left Gerrard’s team short.
Defoe said: “When I sit and look at the players and the squad we have, there is some unbelievable talent in that dressing room. We just need to believe we can do it this year.
“We have to see what happens and learn from our mistakes. We had a few bad results but the first part of the season I was thinking, ‘No one is stopping us. If we’re playing like this, putting in these performances not just the 11 but the squad.’
“There were times when I wasn’t playing but I knew the team was going to win because everyone was confident and I thought nobody was going to stop us.
“We had the winter break and it was a mixture of things. “We came back from the winter break, a few players were out of form, which is normal in football because you get ups and downs, and we got a few injuries. I had my injury and was out for six weeks. “Then you had key players a little low in confidence and it was difficult but we all stuck together and kept going to see what was going to happen.” There were times Gerrard started to show the strain and he cracked after a defeat by Hearts but Defoe reckons there was never a chance his former England teammate would walk away. He added: “Emotions are high, you are p **** d off and that is how he felt at that moment. “That is an honest man but after that, when he came in the next day, everything was back to normal and it was a case of let’s go again. “Remember, we are talking about someone who is a fighter. “If anybody has watched his documentary and the pressure that was on him all those years to fight all the way through it and to achieve what he has achieved, it shows he is a fighter.”