Misfiring Morelos
The striker will have to wait a little longer to notch his hundredth goal for Rangers but it wasn’t Alfredo Morelos’ profligacy that saw him hooked in the second half.
Sure, he missed a couple of half-chances – these things can happen, especially when not in the best of form to begin with – but it is the 25-year-old’s all-round play that will have left his manager disappointed.
There were too many slack passes against Brondby and far too many poor decisions. After improving dramatically in this regard over the last year or two, it will concern Steven Gerrard that he regressed and fell back into bad habits.
Short at the back
Leon Balogun’s goal early on in this contest was well-taken and both the Nigeria internationalist and his central defensive partner, Connor Goldson, can be pleased with their evening’s work.
Balogun was forced off midway through the second half and Gerrard will be praying it is nothing too serious. With Filip Helander already out and Jack Simpson unregistered to play in the Europa League, the Rangers boss cannot afford to be left short of any more bodies at centre-back.
Calvin Bassey came on to replace Balogun and gave a good account of himself but is a left-back by trade and it would be unfair to rely on the youngster when he’s playing out of position.
Rangers finally clicking?
It’s no secret that the Premiership champions have struggled to replicate last season’s form with a handful of key players sidelined through injury, but the win over Brondy was something approaching their best.
There was a confidence in the way the midfield shifted the ball around, the defence looked rock-solid and in truth, the victory should have been more comfortable than the two-goal margin.
There’s still room for improvement but this looked far more like the Rangers we’re used to seeing on the continent under Gerrard’s watch.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel