CHRIS SUTTON

ALFREDO MORELOS will carry the hopes of most Rangers fans tomorrow. He’ll have all eyes on him as he looks to break his Old Firm duck.

But it’s not the Colombian who could have the biggest impact on the game for Steven Gerrard’s side.

As far as I see it, it’s Connor Goldson who needs to show up if the Ibrox side are going to win a game they simply can’t afford to lose.

Odsonne Edouard has been too hot for him to handle since he’s been at Rangers. The Celtic striker’s movement, pace and finishing ability has terrorised the centreback and various partners he’s had since the start of last season.

Edouard punished Goldson’s mistake for the opener in the first league clash this term. The defender’s lazy pass out from the back was picked off by Mikey Johnston and in a flash the striker was in behind him and away to score.

And after coping without issues against Lewis Morgan for almost an hour in the Betfred Cup Final, the sight of the Frenchman changed the game at Hampden.

Within seconds of his arrival off the bench, Edouard had drawn Goldson into a wide area and into conceding a free-kick that led to Christopher Jullien scoring.

Edouard has that something that Morelos misses in the Old Firm games, the ability to make the key difference, to score the big goal or to make the big goal with his outstanding all-round play.

At 22 there’s so much for him to achieve in his career and he’s got all the ability in the world.

Celtic are a different team when he plays. Of course he’s a terrific goalscorer and he can finish with real aplomb in pressure situations.

But it’s his ability to make runs, take defenders into areas they don’t want to be and bring team-mates into play with intelligent front-work that makes him a top-class player.

Look at a couple of games recently when he hasn’t managed to score. It’s a miracle he didn’t net against Hearts at Tynecastle 10 days ago with the chances he had.

But the link-up play and exquisite flick that set Ryan Christie away to score the opening goal was a piece of skill and awareness no other striker in Scotland has in his locker.

Against St Mirren on Boxing Day his direct thrust led to Callum McGregor’s opener and his run and deft pass for James Forrest to score the second goal of the game was sublime.

This is a guy who brings the best out of others, who puts them into positions to score goals.

McGregor and Forrest made 50-yard runs in support of him in Paisley for their goals because they knew if a pass was on to them he’d find them.

Edouard has the lot. He’s not just a goalscorer. He’s a striker of talent and creativity and Goldson has to somehow find a way to put the clamps on him.

If he doesn’t, Rangers will lose and they can’t afford that.

Morelos kept the gap at five points when he came off the bench to score against Kilmarnock on Boxing Day and in terms of goals he’s as vital to Rangers on that score as Edouard is in all-round play to Celtic. The Colombian will be desperate to bury the nightmare of his Betfred Cup Final disaster and it’s hard to imagine he won’t be in the starting line-up.

I know Gerrard opted for Jermain Defoe in the league game at Ibrox, but that didn’t really work and Morelos has 28 goals. That’s some return. If he’d taken half the chances he had at Hampden he’d already have 30 in the bag.

But there’s another school of thought that is just as plausible. Over that 90 minutes Rangers could hardly have played any better and Celtic’s outfield players could hardly have played any worse for the first hour and then they had 10 men for the last half-hour. Yet still Rangers couldn’t win.

It depends on whether your glass is half-full or half-empty.

However, although predicting Old Firm games can often be seen as an act of madness, I’m confidently predicting there’s no way Celtic will play as poorly as they did for 60 minutes at Hampden.

If they turn up on full power I’m sure they’ll win. And like Hampden, if they don’t it’ll be anyone’s game.

Rangers simply can’t afford to lose. Game in hand or not, eight points is too big of a gap to overcome in the second-half of the season. It just wouldn’t happen, so they simply have to get something out of the game.

And to do so, Goldson and the other Rangers defenders are going to have to find a way to pin down Edouard.