DEAL OR NO DEAL?
DEPLETED FRONTLINE HAS LEFT GERRARD WITH DILEMMA AS LILLE LINE UP MORELOS
FOR steven Gerrard, the question of what to do about Alfie shows no sign of abating. The Colombian is his only fit and firing striker. The one man he would lay money on to go to Aberdeen next saturday and grab a goal or two.
Yet, as Sportsmail first revealed last week, French club Lille are now casting covetous eyes in the direction of Glasgow.
With £60million in the bank from the sale of striker Victor Osimhen to Napoli, the Ligue One side have tried in vain to sign Jonathan David from Gent.
They’ve had an unsuccessful tilt at grabbing Patson Daka from Red Bull salzburg.
Now reports in France confirm Morelos is next on the list.
And, with personal terms agreed, it now falls to Gerrard to ask himself a question: with Jermain Defoe out for two weeks due to a hamstring injury, can he really afford to sell his main man now?
And, if the answer is ‘yes’, should Rangers be commanding a significantly higher fee than the £15million Lille would like to pay?
A far better footballer than rival fans give him credit for, Morelos was removed from saturday’s 2-0 win over Coventry after an hour. As is his wont, the Colombian marched straight up the Ibrox tunnel, decidedly unimpressed.
‘We don’t have a lot of options at No9, so I had to be sensible with Alfredo and get him off the pitch,’ Gerrard told Premier sports afterwards.
‘I don’t need an injury or unnecessary suspension, so that’s the reason I took him off.’
Yet the episode was another reminder of the temperament issues which surround the striker. The factors which make him a complex bundle of contradictions.
In season 2018/19, Morelos claimed 31 goals. Last season, it was 29. But for his seven red cards and costly suspensions, it would surely have been more.
The loss of their top scorer has cost Rangers at key moments over the last two seasons.
And if the Ibrox club can use the proximity of the new season to elicit a fee in excess of £15m from Lille and reinvest the money in three or four disciplined players capable of halting Celtic’s march to ten-in-a-row, then the sale of a cult fans’ favourite may be the gamble they have to take.
Gerrard plans to play another friendly game tomorrow in preparation for the new season.
And, whether it’s to protect his legs or merely his transfer fee, wrapping up Morelos in cotton wool now makes perfect sense. Even if the player’s reaction to being subbed on saturday suggests he doesn’t feel the need.
‘What I would say is that Alfredo is a boy who can play week in, week out,’ said vice-captain Connor Goldson. ‘He could go and train tomorrow and go and play another game.
‘He is just one of those boys who doesn’t really get injured.
‘Touch wood, but he is there every single week ready to play every game and he is always firing in goals for us. ‘Listen, until another striker comes in, there is nothing I can say to make that happen. ‘But what I will say is that we have got a striker who can play every single week. I don’t think it’s the biggest problem in the world.’ He may be right. But if Morelos rarely succumbs to injury, the same can’t be said of suspension. And when the back-up options are Greg stewart and Brandon Barker, a degree of concern is natural Conjecture around Anderlecht striker Kemar Roofe will only intensify after the former Leeds striker was omitted from a weekend friendly. And Gerrard has made it clear to the Ibrox board that he needs more players.
That need may be about to become more pressing still.
Rangers don’t simply need to match Celtic. They need to be better.
And for 45 minutes against Coventry there was a reminder of some old failings.
Ask Rangers to play a counterattacking game against Lyon and they will do it brilliantly.
Ask them to break down a welldrilled, organised team at home and they find it significantly more difficult.
For the second game in succession, Joe Aribo looked the real deal.
The quick feet of the midfielder played a deft one-two with Morelos before slotting home the first goal after 50 minutes.
With Coventry boss Mark Robins playing different teams in each half, Goldson finished the game as a contest when he rose to head
James Tavernier’s free-kick into the postage-stamp corner.
After wins over Nice, Lyon and Motherwell, a fourth straight pre-season victory brought with it a fourth straight clean sheet.
‘We look really good, we look strong, we look solid,’ added Goldson.
‘Four clean sheets on the bounce is always a good base to start off from and we are scoring goals.
‘We can be more clinical. We had chances again on saturday against Coventry. The game should have been out of sight.
‘That was a problem in the last six months of last season. In the first half on saturday, our organisation was poor.
‘Without being disrespectful to Coventry, but I feel when we play lesser teams, we feel disrespected if we don’t have the ball and we end up chasing out of position.
‘Whereas if you watch us against the better teams, our shape is perfect.
‘We move together, we slide together. Our shape and our organisation is such that if one person doesn’t get it right the whole team is running.
‘We had some words at half-time and I feel we were a lot better in the second half.’
In central defence, at least, Gerrard now has options. While the loss of Nikola Katic for six months was a savage blow, swede Filip Helander played his first football since the Betfred Cup Final loss to Celtic last December.
And Goldson could soon have yet another central defensive partner in new signing Leon Balogun.
‘I am happy whoever I play with,’ he continued. ‘We have got four good centre-halves, five including the new boy. Whoever plays will know they will have to perform to keep the shirt because there are two other people waiting, wanting to grab that shirt.
‘We’re happy to be keeping clean sheets and, hopefully, that continues into the new season.’