‘That is what you will get with Alfredo .... you get those moments’
Parlane welcomes new centurion Morelos to pantheon of Rangers’ greatest goalscorers
ECSTATIC Rangers fans charged to the front of the North Stand en masse at the SMiSA Stadium on Sunday afternoon to celebrate with Alfredo Morelos after the striker finally netted his 100th goal for the Ibrox club.
For Derek Parlane, the Ibrox great who is a fellow member of the illustrious Centurion Club, manager Steven Gerrard deserved to be congratulated by supporters for the achievement every bit as much.
Parlane, who scored 111 times in competitive matches and on 134 occasions in total during the nine seasons that he spent in the first team at his boyhood heroes, is a huge admirer of Morelos.
He was pleased to see the diminutive Colombian get on the end of a James Tavernier cross, nod a downward header beyond Jak Alnwick and put his old club 2-1 ahead against St Mirren in the cinch Premiership match in Paisley.
“It was fantastic,” said the former Scotland internationalist. “I’m sure Alfredo will be as proud as punch. You saw what it meant to him when he leapt into the crowd. It was massive for him.”
Yet, Parlane was pleased for Gerrard, whose team moved three points clear of Hearts and Dundee United at the head of the Premiership table thanks to Morelos’s landmark goal, as well.
The Rangers Hall of Fame inductee feels the Liverpool and England legend has improved the South American forward greatly during his time in charge in Govan and has smoothed out many of the rough edges in his game.
“I like the presence that Alfredo has on a field,” he said. “If I was an opposition defender I would never want to see Morelos in the team that I was up against.
“He has great physicality. When he gets a ball played into him he holds it up, knocks defenders about and is hard to get a hold of. He is such a wellbuilt lad.
“He is a smashing striker. He is always capable of scoring. His team mates can feed off the knock downs he plays to them and exploit the holes he creates up front.
“He has taken some stick in his time and in some instances he has brought it on himself. But you sometimes get a little baggage with great players.
“I don’t think he will ever lose that passion that he has got. But I don’t think you would ever want him to lose that attitude he has. He has got that winning mentality.
“You can see it in him when, for example, he gets substituted. He often doesn’t want to come off. He doesn’t take it well. But that is what you will get with Alfredo. You get those moments.”
Parlane continued: “But I think Steven
Gerrard has
done a magnificent job with Alfredo. He is the player he is now because of his manager and has scored 100 goals because of him.
“The manager and his coaching staff have worked well on his weaknesses and have improved him greatly. I think they have cut those moments of indiscipline out of his game in the last couple of seasons. They deserve a lot of praise for what he has done too.”
Morelos passed up three gilt-edged scoring chances – including one from just a few yards out - in the 1-1 draw with Hearts in a league game at Ibrox earlier this month and was severely criticised by supporters and media pundits alike in the aftermath.
However, the 25-year-old retained his place in the Rangers starting line-up in both the Europa League match against Brondby in Glasgow last Thursday and the Premiership encounter with St Mirren in Paisley on Sunday and helped his side win both of them.
Parlane, who lifted every honour in the Scottish game three times over and was a member of the squad that won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1972, knows that having a manager’s backing is important to a striker during a fallow spell.
“Forwards need to be scoring goals for their confidence,” he said. “I was very much like that. Alfredo does go through periods where he doesn’t score. But that’s football. You can’t score every time you go on the field.
“I went through spells when I didn’t score goals. I can remember once going five or six games without scoring
- and then scoring five at Dunfermline one day.
“A lot depends on the manager sticking with the striker when he is having a dry spell. Steven has certainly
done that with Alfredo over the seasons. He has reaped the rewards of that loyalty more often than not.”
Parlane, who is now 68 and living in Lytham in Lancashire, appreciates that he benefitted greatly from the expert advice and encouragement of others during his own time at Rangers.
“I had great support from John Greig when I first came into the team,” he said.
“Jock Wallace was a fantastic father figure for me as well. He helped me tremendously.
“I was just a young lad when I broke through. I was only 18 when I made my European debut against Bayern Munich (the teenager scored in the
European Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final second leg at Ibrox as Rangers beat the German giants 2-0).
“I was still learning too.
I had never really been a centre forward. When I joined I was more of a midfield player.
“But if I was having a hard time on the field then Greigy would sort it out. I think you know what that means! Sometimes he would take me to one side and have a quiet word with me. Sandy Jardine, another experienced player, was great with me as well.
“Jock was a brilliant manager too. He would give me a boot up the backside when I needed it, but he would put his arm around me when I needed it.
“In many ways, that is what the current manager and coaching staff at Rangers have done with Alfredo. They have worked very hard with him. He is a smashing all-round player now. I would rather have him in the team than not in the team.”