Griffiths and Morelos lockdown’s big losers
WHEN the football writers on this newspaper got their heads together during the summer and came up with a Greatest Premier XI, it is fair to say passions ran high and working relations became strained.
Previously mild-mannered colleagues became like rutting stags in the Wester Ross wilderness that Prime Minister Boris Johnson set up camp in last week as we debated who deserved to make it into the starting line-up. It was really just as well everyone was working from home or blood could have been spilled.
Thankfully, some selections were, as the Americans say, no brainers. Picking Andy Goram in goal, Danny McGrain at right-back, Paul Gascoigne in the attacking midfield role and Henrik Larsson and Ally McCoist up front was easy.
There wasn’t much discussion over the left centrehalf slot either. Virgil van
Dijk received an honourable mention. Willie Miller, though, quickly got the nod and was the unanimous choice to captain the dream team. The Aberdeen legend is one of the greatest players, never mind defenders, this country has produced.
But ask anyone who was lucky enough to call Miller a team-mate during their careers what he was like in training and they will all tell you the same thing. He was terrible, uninterested, lazy even.
The man who skippered Sir Alex Ferguson’s side to myriad major honours – most notably the European Cup-Winners’ Cup in 1983 – thrived in the heat of that battle. There have always been, and always will be, footballers like him.
Maurice Malpas, who pipped Arthur Numan to the left-back berth in the Greatest Premier XI, made an interesting point as we chatted about Premier League matches in England being played behind closed doors after he was informed he had made it into the side. The Dundee United and Scotland stalwart felt the lack of atmosphere inside stadiums would prevent certain individuals performing at their very best.
“Some players come alive in front of a crowd,” he said. “You can look at someone training and think they are rubbish. The second they get a bit of abuse from supporters they raise their game to another level.”
Would Miller, who made a record 797 appearances for the Pittodrie club between 1972 and 1991, have allowed his weight to balloon and his fitness levels to drop if he hadn’t had a game to play for nearly five months? Not a chance.
Yet, there are many who have struggled badly not having a competitive fixture to take part in since early March because of the coronavirus pandemic and football shutdown. Like
Leigh Griffiths of Celtic and Alfredo Morelos of Rangers.
The future of both strikers at their respective
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However, Griffiths and Morelos are mercurial and brilliant predators. Sports scientists can give them healthy dietary regimes and demanding training programmes to follow in their homes if they like. But they need the roar of a packed ground, the close attention of an opposition centre-back and the sniff of a scoring opportunity with an empty net beckoning to function and flourish.
It shouldn’t be overlooked, too, that Griffiths has struggled with mental health problems and took a lengthy sabbatical from the game last year to address issues he was experiencing. Lockdown won’t have been pleasant or easy for him.
Still, there is no excuse for either man not to be tormenting rival rearguards in their usual menacing manner just now. They are, after all, paid huge salaries to do so.
The nurses, labourers and students who spend small fortunes to follow the teams they represent home and away, or did before the Covid-19 outbreak at least, would give anything to be in their privileged positions.
Morelos in particular needs a boot up the backside. The size his posterior is at the moment would make it hard to miss. His lack of endeavour and sullen demeanour have been a disgrace. The Buff? More like The Huff. If he isn’t careful interest in securing his services will dry up.
But I strongly suspect both of these marvellous mavericks will – not necessarily for Celtic and Rangers – return to what they do best as the world slowly but surely returns to normality and fans are allowed to file back through the turnstiles once again.
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