‘WE’LL HELP ALFREDO THROUGH THIS BAN’
SAYS McALLISTER
No 2: Alfredo will bounce back from ban
GARY McALLISTER insists Rangers will help Alfredo Morelos overcome his disciplinary issues as he gets set to sit out the next two Premiership clashes through suspension.
The striker picked up his third red card of the campaign on Wednesday as Rangers were beaten 1-0 by Aberdeen at Ibrox.
Morelos will miss the matches with Dundee and Hamilton in the coming week and Gers assistant McAllister reckons he is paying the price for his moment of madness.
He said: “We have got a young player that is very competitive, he is a goal threat, our main goal threat.
“It is that acceptance that when he does get a yellow card that he has got to change, his whole dynamic has got to
change, because he runs the risk of a second yellow.
“That little switch has to click and we will continue to feed to him because we like him, we care for him and we think he is a massive talent. He has got the respect of the dressing room but he has got to stay on the pitch.
“He is young enough and we are experienced enough, there are enough experienced people on the management team, to help him to get it right.
“The facts are that he is paying the biggest price because he loves scoring goals and when you get red cards you miss games. That is the biggest penalty that any striker can receive because he is not on the pitch and able to do what he does best.”
The red that Morelos received away to Aberdeen in August was overturned on appeal but the forward was then dismissed again in Ufa just weeks later.
He picked up a second booking for hitting out at Dons captain Graeme Shinnie in midweek and McAllister has urged him not to rise to the provocation from opponents in future.
He said: “Mentally there is a switch. I have played with some massively competitive guys with determination and a will to win, but in behind there has got to be some moments of calm. It is getting that process done. That comes with experience.
“Obviously I played alongside Vinnie Jones for a short period of time and everybody… There are players that other players will try and provoke and that is part of the game, it is a compliment.
“That is part and parcel of the game, it is not just Alfredo that has to contest that in a game. It happens all over the park in every league in the world.”
Boss Gerrard warned his players about their disciplinary record after Scott Arfield collected their seventh red card of the campaign against Hearts last weekend.
And McAllister is confident that Morelos will start to take the message on board after also picking up six bookings so far this season.
He said: “I think sometimes his English is good when it suits him! We have got a few Spanish speakers here so we are fortunate that we can get messages and when he has a problem he goes to those people to get his message back to us.
“Communication wise, we will look to improve that all the time. Sometimes it can be difficult but I think we are getting the message to him.
“He is a young player who we value and we want to try and help him through the other side of this.”