A tame ending if this is Alfredo Morelos’ Rangers swansong

Another game without a goal for the Lille target as Ibrox side bow out of Europe

Alfredo Morelos vies with Edmond Tapsoba during Rangers' defeat by Bayer Leverkusen at the Bay Arena. Picture: Sascha Schuermann/Pool via Getty Images

As a Rangers swansong for Alfredo Morelos – or, at least, the Colombian’s latest predicted swansong – Thursday night’s Europa League tie in Leverkusen would be entirely apt.

Morelos, pure and simple, is the reason Steven Gerrard’s men found themselves contesting a last 16 decider against the Bundesliga side. Equally, the bluntness that has stalked the 24-year-old striker in 2020 might equally account for the fact the Ibrox team were tasked with a mission impossible in the delayed return leg of the tie.

Even at his most lethal though, Morelos would have been unable to dig Rangers out of the hole they have sat in for almost five months following the Covid-19 lockdown a day on from their 3-1 loss at home to Leverkusen in mid-March.

However, they only earned that tie because Morelos had previously created a new European record for goals scored in continental competition before Christmas courtesy of a remarkable 14 strikes. To put that in context, he scored more in Europe than in the curtailed league campaign as he racked up 29 goals in total.

In truth, that Morelos has not reappeared since last December’s winter shutdown. He has only one goal to his name since then, a late counter in a 4-1 Scottish Cup victory over Hamilton Accies in February. His potency has dropped off so precipitously that Rangers will now be praying Lille pony up with a much-touted £15 million bid for the formerly irreplaceable forward, on the back of the Ibrox club parting with £7m to recruit Kemar Roofe and Cedric Itten. They did not lavish such eye-catching sums on two strikers to support Morelos.

They are replacements – and will be expected to contribute more than Morelos has in latter stages of his three seasons since he joined from Helsinki for £1m. All that said, the bustling frontman was on a hiding to nothing against a superior Leverkusen side. He had one break, in the opening minutes but his poor control prevented him having a sighting on goal. Yet, the fact is that when he was withdrawn in the 77th minute – typically putting on a petted lip as he trooped off – it made for a ninth straight appearance for Rangers without a goal.

Hardly the form of a man who can boast 59 goals in the past two seasons. More like the form of the Morelos who arrived in Scotland in June 2019, and endured a ten-game barren period across his early months.

Back then, Morelos was an irascible character who seemed as capable of claiming yellow and red cards as he did goals. And who just couldn’t score against Celtic, no matter how hard he tried.

The middle period Morerlos was a player who proved so prodigious that disciplinary problems, and the absence of derby goals, became secondary to his penalty box instincts. Latter period Morelos, alas, has proved tame in too many respects , as cards and goals disappeared against all clubs, never mind Celtic.

If he does depart, it has been some arc for a headline act.

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