Stevie says Morelos can keep head in Old Firm
STEVEN GERRARD insists he trusts Alfredo Morelos to handle the Old Firm cauldron against Celtic despite his red card moment of madness in Ufa.
The striker was sent off in the first half of the 1-1 draw in Russia last night as Rangers progressed through to the Europa League group stages.
Morelos picked up two yellow cards for dissent after kicking the ball away and remonstrating with the linesman.
But Gerrard won’t hold the 23-year-old culpable when he picks his team for the showdown with Celtic on Sunday.
He said: “I’ll have no problem trusting him there at all. I trust the player. I love the player.
“You’ll see pretty soon how much I think of him. In the coming days, I hope we will manage to get the deal signed.
“But what I do need from Alfredo – and what the players need – is for him to take a bit more responsibility.
“The players love him. He’s a joker in the pack and they know what he gives them.
“But he just needs to keep channelling it in the
right way because otherwise these referees won’t keep you on the pitch.”
Rangers had to play the final half an hour with nine men after Jon Flanagan followed Morelos up the tunnel when he was shown a second booking.
But the dismissals didn’t prove costly for the Gers as they produced a resolute and determined display to clinch a Europa League berth.
Gerrard said: “We don’t seem to want to do things the easy way or in a controlled way.
“I think up until the first red card we were in a good place, leading in the game and in control and I really liked the shape about us.
“I actually thought the game was won and we could go on and build on it. But obviously the first sending off changes it a lot. Whether it was the right decision or not I will have to have a look.
“I have already spoken to Alfredo about learning from these things as quickly as possible and the same with Jon. That made the job doubly hard for the team.
“I mention discipline before every game and you need to focus on it even more in Europe.
“I don’t want to criticise anyone tonight because it is a really big achievement and the players should be congratulated. Jon and Alfredo have played a big part in getting us to where we have got to.
“The player will know himself. He is still young, he is going to make mistakes, he is a human being. I love him, I’ll back him.
“But, at the same time, he needs to help me now, he needs to really not get involved and just focus on his football because he is a helluva player.”