Even Giovanni van Bronckhorst isn't having the Morelos excuse vs Celtic

By David Walton

April 5, 2022

Not even Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst is entertaining the Alfredo Morelos excuse we all knew was coming after their defeat to Celtic.

Kenny Miller stated on Sportscene on Sunday night that Morelos could’ve changed things for Rangers and that he was a “huge loss”. Mark Hately, meanwhile, gave a similar comment to Sky as he said you need “everyone fit that’s going to have an impact on winning stuff” [Sky Sports]. Clearly of course forgetting that we were missing Kyogo and James Forrest.

It’s a narrative you knew would’ve been pushed after Celtic won 2-1 at Ibrox on Sunday. Given how easily Cameron Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt dealt with Kemar Roofe, the Morelos nonsense was always going to rear its head.

But even van Bronckhorst himself has stated that it’s no excuse. As quoted by the Scottish Sun, the Rangers boss said: “It was just the way we had to handle it.  He wasn’t here. I don’t want to find any excuses. He wasn’t available, Hagi wasn’t available either. 

“There are no excuses in football. There are not excuses for Rangers or me as to why we lost today. I don’t want to find excuses, I just want to play as good as we can with the players we have available. 

“That is my job and that is my task. Of course we are very disappointed that he is not here, that is a different story. Of course we want Morelos to be involved but he isn’t and that is a fact.”

Giovanni van Bronckhorst isn’t wrong; Celtic also competed without our own first-choice

It feels as though it’s forgotten about that we didn’t go with our own first choice. Morelos was a loss to Rangers, no doubt about it. But we also decided to play it safe with Kyogo and therefore he was a loss for us too.

There’s nobody that would dispute that if Kyogo had been 100% fit then he would’ve featured. Ange clearly felt he needed to rest him further. So let’s not pretend Morelos playing would’ve helped them get a result.

The truth is that There was a lot more wrong with our rivals than Morelos simply not playing. You can’t just dismiss the fact that Roofe was being bigged up in the build-up to this one.

Going to the Morelos excuse says a lot about where our rivals are. Remember, this was a club that was meant to have terrific strength in depth at the start of the season. All we were hearing about was how much quality this Rangers squad had.

Yet it still feels as though when they’re without their first-choice centre-forward that they crumble all over the place. That was proven again on Sunday.

For once we’ll say fair play to the Rangers manager for coming out and dismissing the excuses. It’s tiresome nonsense, and if Rangers were as good as their support thinks they are, they would have a lot more weapons in their arsenal that should’ve been stepping up.

In other news, Ange’s Kyogo and O’Riley remarks are a slap in the face for Celtic rivals