Verstappen stuns in Silverstone win

Hamilton insists he welcomes chase as Red Bull seal shock victory. Gerrard had a pep talk with Morelos before brace

STEVEN GERRARD held a heart-to-heart with striker Alfredo Morelos before he fired Rangers to a 3-0 win over St Mirren yesterday.

The Ibrox manager claimed after the defeat to Bayer Leverkusen in midweek that Morelos’ head had been “turned” amid interest from Lille and a potential move away from Glasgow.

Gerrard added Kemar Roofe and Cedric Itten – who made his debut off the bench against Saints – to his squad last week and dismissed suggestions that the Ligue 1 side had had an offer for Morelos rejected in recent days.

He was pleased to see his key man back on form as he netted twice in the second half to clinch a comfortable win over the Paisley side.

Gerrard said: “We spoke to the whole group about Thursday’s performance.

“I think you’ve got to take into consideration the level of the opposition and where we’re at. But that’s the level we’re trying to strive for.

“We spoke about the whole group and how the all-round performance had to be better.

“I did have a private chat with Alfredo about his own performance. He acknowledged the fact that he could have been better. But he wasn’t the only one. I think as a group we could have been better on Thursday night.

“He certainly showed a great re-action today, though. From the first whistle until the end, it was a really strong Morelos performance.

“The competition for places in the front three positions is going to get even hotter because we’ve got [Jermain] Defoe coming back into full training in a couple of days.

“We’ve got Roofe coming back in to full training in a couple of days. The competition is hotting up but that’s the way it should be at Rangers. No-one should feel comfortable and feel the shirt is theirs.

“They’ve got to earn it and perform at a level where you make a manager pick you.”