Empty jersey rather than a False 9- devastating verdict deliver on Alfredo Morelos

Charlie Nicholas has carried out a brutal assessment of Alfredo Morelos.

The Colombian striker looks certain to leave Ibrox as a free agent in the summer with very little added to his CV over the last 18 months.

After 11 transfer windows full of moonbeams there seems to be little interest in Morelos other than the favoured ‘Galatasaray poised to swoop’ which tends to be a 48 hour wonder.

At Aberdeen on Sunday Morelos was barely able to get into a scrap with the Dons defenders with Nicholas offering a radical solution for Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden.

Picking up on his Daily Express column, the Daily Record reports the former Arsenal striker saying:

Rangers need to go with a false nine if they are to have any chance of upsetting Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final. At the moment, Michael Beale has an empty nine.

Alfredo Morelos makes the team so predictable and, as first-choice centre-forward, he is not offering enough. He is a physical battler but he can’t run past opponents.

Morelos plays on the edge of the game because he can’t get involved in the basics. Having found the net just 12 times in 42 appearances this season, he is on course for his lowest goals return in six seasons at the club.

The Colombian can’t be relied on any more and he has become a burden for Beale, so the Ibrox manager should try something different at Hampden on Sunday.

I would leave Morelos out of the starting line-up and see if he can make an impact coming off the bench. If Antonio Colak isn’t fit then deploying the likes of Malik Tillman or Scott Arfield as a false nine could be Rangers’ best weapon because, as it stands, they don’t really have anything else.

Morelos has scored three goals against Celtic since his move from HJK Helsinki in July 2017.