DMAA

My fellow millenials ?

I said "at least as good as, if not better". It wasn't a definitive claim that we were better because that is impossible to say when the circumstances in each game are so different. The games Morelos didn't start in are, 2-0 Kilmarnock Home 2-0 Hamilton Away 2-0 Livingston Home 8-0 Hamilton Home 4-0 Falkirk Away 1-0 Poznan Home 2-0 Poznan Away 5-0 Lincoln Red Away There is no value in analysing that, it's impossible to prove. To my eye, we progress the ball on the deck better with Roofe, Itten and Defoe in the CF role because they are so comfortable taking the ball to feet and playing one touch football (Roofe in particular). Less attacks break down due to a poor touch or wayward pass etc. That's just the way I see it.

Of course plenty see that it's not specific to Morelos, you are obviously as tactically aware as any, but plenty haven't spotted it. I think he always works hard, many people have criticised his attitude and I haven't. It's not the only disappointing thing though is it. Every game he has at least a few wayward passes and poor touches and they often result in dangerous counter attacks. In some games it seems the only chances the opposition have come from Morelos' mistakes (Aberdeen comes to mind). Roofe played 3 games in a row at CF earlier in the season, starting ahead of Morelos. He was excellent there. The decision has been made to bring Morelos back in and for Roofe to replace Hagi behind him. I like Roofe in this role too. The way I see it, reverting to Roofe, Kent, Hagi is an option, as is something like Itten/Defoe, Kent, Roofe. I think Defoe has earned more game time. With regards to Itten, I find this a bit of a circular argument. He can only warrant it if he plays, and it was no surprise to me that he did so well on Thursday and IMO he showed that he should have had more game time up until now. Even in brief cameos I have felt there has been ample evidence he has the ability to play the CF role well. It is unfortunate from his point of view that he has often been asked to play off the striker. Funnily enough, I have found some of the criticism overblown. Not on this forum, but I have seen words like "rotten" used. His overall play was ok yesterday, I just think others would have offered more, and he did have some very poor moments aside from in front of goal. I can come across harsher on Morelos because I have long believed him to be vastly overrated by our fans, so I do find it a bit frustrating when he gets defended to the hilt when so many of the rest of our players don't get anything like this kind of backing. Almost every other player in our starting 11 has endured a spell of significant criticism from what seemed like the vast majority of our fans and in those cases I was on the side of defending the player each time (Kent the only exception). It comes down to how you view the game and judge a player and I tend to favour more technical players.

I think he was better than some have made out. He was denied a truly outstanding assist by Morelos. It was a sublime pass that set up as good a chance as a striker could ask for. His link up play is underrated too, he was involved in some good one-touch passing moves. 2 of those goals were against part timers in Gibraltar though. Still goals, sure, but I think those goals make his numbers look better than they are. He's scored 3 of our 47 league goals, and 2 of those were at home to St Mirren (again, still goals yes, but in an easy game against a side 2 points off bottom). Up until this season he was reluctant to change the team at all, this season he has been much better but I have still been frustrated by his reluctance to rotate the forwards. Itten, Hagi and Defoe have deserved more opportunities because Kent and Morelos haven't been good enough not to be rotated. Doesn't matter to me if we are winning games, individual performances matter.

There have been 7 red cards in Antwerp's games this season ?

They’ve been excellent in Europe, including a 1-0 win over Spurs, but are on a horrendous run domestically.

Joint on points with Standard Liege, will definitely take that. Could have been better but could definitely have been worse.

It’s echo chamber stuff for me.

I said this at the time on here. It was a huge risk and I was very surprised we took it.

We’ve been just as good if not better without him though, he hasn’t been a key player in our good form. I’d argue he’s been the least important player in the 11 to our form, who would people drop before him?The oft-repeated line about dragging players out of position and making space for others has been exaggerated beyond belief, and it completely misses the fact that it has been a tactical tweak in the team’s system and isn’t specific to Morelos at all. Roofe, Defoe and Itten have all done the same thing well too, and Roofe in particular did it much better than Morelos.

I only meant with regards to the first 11. I’ve seen/heard a lot say he should drop to the bench who weren’t saying it before. I’ve edited my original comment for clarify that.

Didn’t get to see the game yesterday, I’ve reached 60 minutes on catch up so will reserve most of my comments until I I’ve seen it all later tonight. But from what I’ve seen so far on forums/social media etc. it seems this game has been the tipping point for many on Alfie with regards to the current starting 11. I’m not sure why now tbh, probably because Itten was finally given a chance on Thursday so it has gotten that bit harder to deny that Alfie isn’t our best option. Defoe and Hagi have been hard done by up to now too though. The question now is whether Gerrard is prepared to drop his highest paid player who we rejected a £16m bid for only a few months ago, and I’m not sure he will because that performance wasn’t that different to many others this season.

They are very exciting. I think they all play it as well as Morelos or better. Roofe is the best IMO, I really like him playing up front. Defoe, I would disagree. I think his technique, link-up play and passing are great and he is excellent dropping deep. He just can’t shake the poacher tag for many though. Think of the Hamilton game, he didn’t even score, but as I said in the match thread I don’t believe we would have scored 8 goals if he hadn’t played because he was really good. Itten, when played in his preferred position looks to me like he might just have all the abilities to play it. I think his technique and link-up play are good and he played the role really well on Thursday. We need to see more of him of course before making definitive comments. The tactical tweak brings us much closer to Liverpool’s system now, not least with a goalscorer like Roofe beside the CF.

You asked why it is has changed but it’s perfectly natural to discuss whether it has been successful. But the question also takes for granted that it is Morelos-specific and as I said I don’t think that’s true, Roofe, Defoe and Itten do the same thing. It’s just a tweak to team’s strategy and it’s about bringing more fluidity to the front 3.

This has Morelos in third place for xA, which is quite astonishing. 4 Rangers players in the top 5. Quite a disparity between xA and assists per 90 though which suggests to me a higher number of lower quality chances being created.

Here it is. If you look through it you will maybe see why I am a bit skeptical as to how useful it is. It is intended to judge overall positive impact on the team I think, so covers everything from interceptions, tackles, shots on targets etc. I think I just feel shots on target alone for example shouldn’t necessarily be counted as a positive impact. But that’s just my surface level impression, I haven’t had a chance to really look into it.

He did surprisingly well (for me at least) in these stats in previous seasons, often out performing his xG. I am pretty sure he has been top for xG per 90 for a long time in this league, but he definitely didn’t have this deficit between XG per 90 and goals per 90. Well, the stats I remember from last season were probably from before the slump, there would almost certainly have been a deficit by the end of the season. In terms of goal creation, there is a new stat Rangers Report have been putting out called “Win Impact Rating”, and Morelos always scores highly. But his WIP has been falling gradually through the season for some reason. I am a bit skeptical of this stat.

The honest reason it gets a reaction out of me sometimes is just that what I see on the pitch doesn’t match the level of praise I see, i.e. I believe he is being overrated (same happens with Kent). If it wasn’t for this, I wouldn’t be reacting the same way. I know that it can go too far the other way because that’s human nature. It could be a similar thing with Ally. But, I praised him very highly after his away performance in Lisbon where he just raised his game beyond recognition (on this season’s form).

And it doesn’t suit the narrative but it simply isn’t true that he just isn’t get many chances this season. He has had more/better chances than anyone else in the league this season, he just isn’t scoring them. Compare that to Roofe who is scoring way more than he should given the number/quality of the chances he is getting.

He’s just giving his honest opinion and I agree with him.

This isn’t Morelos-specific though. It is a team tactic and every forward has been coached to do the same thing. I’ve seen people mention Morelos’s role in the first goal countless times since Sunday but nobody seems to have noticed that Roofe did the exact same thing for the third goal. If anything, Roofe’s role in that goal was more impressive because he dragged his defender out of position off the ball, and I am sure he knew exactly what he was doing, saw Tavernier’s run, and didn’t expect for one second to receive the ball but made that run back inside anyway as if he was expecting to receive it.

Frankly, I think we are playing him because he is an asset and we need to get his value back up. He isn’t a better option than Defoe or Itten in my eyes, especially in the new role involving dropping deeper. I have said for a very long time I just don’t see what others seem in him though and people don’t like it when I say it. The number of times people said he was our best player “by a mile”, he never was and people have finally noticed we have a team full of very good players and not a couple of forwards (Kent too) who are miles ahead of the rest.

You can just click the link through to Twitter and zoom from there. Not that it sheds a whole lot of light on it. Basically measuring who is conceding less than you would expect based on the shots they have faced by the sounds of it.

Kamara. Just what a player when he is brimming with confidence. But I could have gone for Itten who was excellent. He did everything well. Held the ball up, found players with passes, ran in behind, worked back and won the ball back several times. He offered much more than Morelos often has recently and he’s surely put himself in contention more more regular appearances. Not a MoM contender IMO but delighted that Hagi got minutes in a big game. Another player who has been left out a bit unfairly recently for me. We are better at many things when he plays, especially those passing interchanges which are so good to watch. He also brings that threat from long shots which is very useful to have in your team. I’m going to mention another of my favourites too, Aribo. He’s just such a good player. Brilliant in possession and brilliant at winning it back too. The ball sticks to him.