Laff should’ve been aff too
Max claim after McKenna stitches ordeal
ABERDEEN ace Max Lowe reckons Rangers’ red-card count should be nine after Kyle Lafferty left his teammate Scott McKenna bloodied and needing stitches. Dons defender McKenna was grounded during his team’s 1-0 win at Ibrox after a clash with the
They need to manage Morelos in a similar way to the famous moment in Italia 90 when Lineker had to stop Gazza losing the plot
ALFREDO MORELOS is a young man with serious anger management issues. And I say that on the basis that it takes one to know one.
I’m only half joking when I say I’ll gladly give him the phone number for my therapist but this is hardly the time for cheap gags – not now that his problems are endangering Rangers’ chances of winning their first Premiership title in eight long years.
My old club simply can’t do it without him so if they are serious about going the distance with Celtic then the penny is going to have to drop and Morelos is going to have to learn to control all that aggression and channel it in the right ways.
I’ll be honest, I’m between a rock and hard place where Morelos is concerned.
I truly believe if you take that fire out of his belly then you run the risk of losing what makes him the player he is. And so far this season he has been by far and away the best performer inside Steven Gerrard’s dressing room after Allan McGregor.
The last thing Rangers can afford to do is put the shackles on him and stop him from being himself.
But, at the same time, they also can’t allow him to undermine the team by constantly getting involved in silly flashpoints and himself into trouble with the officials for no good reason.
The bottom line is Gerrard is taking a massive gamble every time he sends Morelos out over that white line. All the manager can do about it is keep his fingers crossed and hope it pays off.
I look at Morelos and can’t help seeing a bit of myself in my younger days. That moany wee face, the bad attitude, the petulance – a wee guy who wants to fight the world every time he steps on to a pitch. God knows I was all of that. I love seeing it in him too so I can’t be hypocritical about it now and hammer the guy for allowing the red mist to get the better of him as it did again the other night against Aberdeen.
But what I can say, with the benefit of my own experiences, is that he needs to learn from it. Quickly.
I’ve heard people saying Morelos’ behaviour is selfish and self-centred and maybe they have a point.
It does look as if he puts himself before the team when he gets involved in one of these incidents and leaves the rest of them in a hole.
But the guy runs himself into the ground for the good
of the team so I struggle to accept that he’s out there purely for himself.
And that’s why one or two of the more experience players need to sit him down and tell him straight that his behaviour needs to change.
They need to point out to him that Rangers have an incredible opportunity to have a real go at winning this title. But that they can’t do it if he’s sitting in the stand.
I remember being on the receiving end of the same talk from guys such as Arthur Numan and Ronald de Boer when I was guilty of letting my team-mates down in much the same way.
I’d get myself involved in silly scraps, leave a foot in or flick out an elbow. So these guys would speak to me afterwards and ask, ‘Why do you do it?’
And my first response was, ‘Because I enjoy it!’ But they made it clear that my actions were hurting every other player in the dressing room. They gave direction and guidance in how to keep my emotions in check.
They also explained that the guy I was lashing out at was laughing at me as I made my way up the tunnel for an early shower. That he’d won.
They made me realise the best way of getting one over any opponent was to stay on the pitch and dictate the game from the middle of the park.
That the guy wouldn’t be laughing at me when we walked off at the end with another three points. That’s the conversation someone has to have with Morelos. The best way for him to get one over on the other guy is to stay out there and score the winner.
I’m sure that my old mate Greegsy will be having that chat with him because he’ll have spotted this a mile off after so many years in a dressing room with me.
The likes of Gareth McAuley or Connor Goldson need to keep an eye on Morelos at all times during games.
They need to manage him in a similar way to the famous moment in Italia 90 when Gary Lineker had to stop Paul Gascoigne losing the plot against West Germany.
I was watching the Motherwell-Celtic match and when the news came through that Rangers had gone down to 10 men my first thought was, ‘Don’t tell me... it’s Morelos!’
And that’s why I find him such a frustration. I love him as a striker and would want him in my team all day long. He’s an absolute menace.
But Rangers need him fighting all the right battles and he’s hurting his own prospects into the bargain. A lot of big clubs around Europe will be taking note but why would they take a multi-million pound risk on a player who can’t be trusted to stay on the pitch? It’s good to talk about these things and get them out in the open. Don’t take my word for it, take it from my therapist!