Ibrox View: How good was Alfredo Morelos in Rangers clash v Aberdeen?
Alfredo Morelos was always likely to be the centre of attention when Rangers faced Aberdeen on Saturday.
The Colombian has been heavily linked with a move to French side Lille in recent days, and his inclusion against the Dons was always going to bring heightened scrutiny.
In some respects, he really didn’t look on top of his game at all either.
The striker had a shot accuracy rate of 0% from four efforts, and a dribble completion rate of 0% from five attempts, as per Wyscout.
But there was one particularly interesting detail in Morelos’ performance.
The forward completed almost seven passes more than he usually does on average, and it’s no coincidence that this improved creativity came alongside a notable habit of dropping into a deeper position to receive possession.
Above, for example, is Morelos’ heat map from the clash against Hamilton earlier in the season.
As you can see, it’s heavily focussed around the opposition box, and is clearly aimed towards him getting on the end of deliveries into dangerous areas.
By contrast, this is Morelos’ heat map against Aberdeen.
You can quite blatantly see that he is operating predominantly in a role that is more akin to an advanced midfielder.
And while that might make little sense at first, it actually led to a fairly interesting variation in the way that Rangers setup.
With Morelos dropping deep, we saw Ianis Hagi and Ryan Kent pull into more central areas much more often.
With one defender generally occupied with keeping tabs on Morelos, that ultimately left them with more space than usual in the final third.
And so it proved for the goal – a strike which Morelos assisted, by the way.
As the ball breaks to Morelos in the centre of the park, you can quite clearly see not only how deep he has dropped to receive it, but how far his defender has followed him.
That leaves Kent, on the right of the image, with a one-on-one situation, provided the pass from El Bufalo is good enough.
Of course, it was, and Kent is left with a full half of space to scamper into.
Based on his stats alone, it would be completely understandable to knock Morelos for his performance yesterday.
But the reality is that this was a different sort of display from the Colombian that showed versatility, intelligence, and ultimately won Rangers the game.
In other Rangers news, ‘Talented lad’ – Darren Fletcher backs Joe Aribo for big season at Gers in 20/21.