Gary McAllister explains why Alfredo Morelos’ return is key for Rangers and why they cannot afford any more red cards

Exactly a month after he left the pitch at Celtic Park drawing his finger across his throat, Alfredo Morelos will return to action for a Rangers side desperate to prove they are not choking in the title race.

Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos at training ahead of tonights match against Ross County. Picture: Bill Murray/SNS

It is no criticism of Jermain Defoe, who has contributed significantly to the Ibrox club’s cause this season, to assert that Steven Gerrard’s side are a very different and often lesser proposition without Morelos in their ranks.

The Colombian international striker has had plenty of time to reflect on his disciplinary regression, which saw him needlessly sent off twice in December, against Motherwell and then Celtic, to book himself a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

If Rangers are to respond to the jolting setback of Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at bottom of the table Hearts, in which the physicality and dynamism of Morelos might have made such a difference, they will require their 28-goal top scorer to steer clear of further trouble in the remaining months of the campaign.

It’s a reality which Gary McAllister makes no attempt to shy away from as the Rangers assistant manager relishes Morelos coming back into the fray against Ross County at Ibrox tonight.

“Hopefully Alfredo has got the message again,” said McAllister. “I honestly felt that the penny was dropping with him this season and then he had those two slips at Motherwell and Celtic.

“But he is key for us. I can’t hide that fact. He’s a key player for the team and the tactics. Now we have two forwards available again.

“He’s itching to play. He’s been working hard in training, to be honest. He’s been put through it as well. So he’ll be ready.

“I’m sure he’ll come back firing. Any team would miss him. It underlines that discipline has to be spot-on as well.”

Having dropped five points behind champions Celtic at the top of the table, albeit still with a game in hand, the pressure is firmly on Rangers to kick off another winning in the Premiership.

“Even prior to the result on Sunday, we knew we would have to be pretty perfect in the league for the rest of the season,” added McAllister.

“We’ve got a rough idea of the points tally it will take to be successful and there is very little wriggle room left. We take the games in little batches, we now have three home games in a row against Ross County, Aberdeen and Hibs, and there is no room to slip up.

“That result on Sunday against Hearts has wiped away the victory we got at Celtic Park. We’ve just got to build and go again.

“We had been on a tremendous run of results which I thought would continue but it hasn’t, so we’ve got to start again.

“Against Ross County in particular, we need to get back to the basics of winning individual battles and winning the loose balls. It’s as simple as that, then all the good stuff we had produced previously will fall back into place.”

The nature of Rangers’ display at Tynecastle prompted manager Gerrard to admit it was legitimate for questions to be asked of his players’ collective bottle under the strain of sustaining a title challenge.

Connor Goldson, currently captain in the absence of James Tavernier, insists he and his team-mates are ready to pick up the gauntlet.

“We will see, won’t we?,” said the central defender. “We had a blip on Sunday and we understand the manager’s frustrations after the game, doing the media straight away. I don’t think he means it how it’s been portrayed but, at the same time, we can’t let one bad result define our season.

“You guys in the media will do that and say that we haven’t got the bottle because we lost one game but if you look at the whole course of the season so far, we have shown on many occasions that we have been up to the task, big tasks, and our record away from home has been brilliant.

“We have to not dwell on it, move onto Wednesday and go and get three points against Ross County.

“The league is still in our hands. If you look at it, we have got a lot of games left and we know that if we win all of our games, we will win the league. It is as simple as that.

“I know everything doesn’t look rosy after a defeat, especially at this football club, but if we win our game in hand we are two points behind and we know we still have to play Celtic twice. We just have to go from now until March and literally be as perfect as we can.”