BBC pundit tears shocking Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos apart as he is bullied by Celtic
Alfredo Morelos produced a “shocking” display as Rangers were held to a draw by Celtic in the Old Firm derby, according to Neil McCann.
The Colombian was heavily involved from the off, but nearly all in a negative fashion, as he gifted the visitors yet another early lead in this fixture with a blind pass across the midfield that was seized upon by Daizen Maeda after five minutes.
He did pressure Joe Hart into almost conceding an equaliser to Ryan Kent in the first half, in arguably his only positive contribution, but headed two corners wide before the break that he should have buried, and McCann destroyed him for his performance.
Speaking on BBC Sportsound, as per the BBC Sport liveblog, the former Gers player said following the early error: “Morelos has started shockingly. He has been bullied by [Carl] Starfelt and [Cameron] Carter-Vickers.
“I don’t know why he plays that blind pass, because everyone and their dog knows that Celtic smother that area.”
Later in the half he added: “Morelos’ show has just been shocking today. He’s got no confidence, he doesn’t look at it.
“I’m not sure how fit [Antonio] Colak is, but he must be a better option because Morelos is showing no application at all.”
Poor
In Morelos’ defence at least he didn’t let the game pass him by, but unfortunately his contributions largely didn’t help his side.
It is a measure of this side’s growth under Michael Beale that they didn’t capitulate to finding themselves in a hole in the opening minutes, but they didn’t need to be in that hole at all.
Why the striker played the ball aimlessly across the middle only he will know, and while James Tavernier didn’t cover himself in glory either, the captain played himself back into the game and scored an excellent penalty.
Had Morelos put away either of the headers that he should have scored late in the first half then he would have redeemed himself in the same way, but both went begging.
Michael Beale will be kicking himself that a victory over Rangers’ biggest rivals was lost so late on, and there will be some who second guess his decision to shut up shop with his substitutions.
But the Celtic equaliser was fortunate in that multiple deflections saw a bouncing ball land nicely for Kyogo, and it has to be encouraging that the Bears largely took charge in this game after being second best too often in recent meetings.
In other Rangers news, the player ratings from the performance saw some major stand-outs, but Morelos was poor.