ALFREDO MORELOS RANGERS RELIEF AS COLOMBIA REVEAL THEIR CURRENT SQUAD
Gio van Bronckhorst wants to get his talismanic striker up to full sharpness during international break. Rangers are breathing a sigh of relief with the news that Alfredo Morelos has not been called up by Colombia this international break. New boss Nestor Lorenzo has named a 26-man squad for friendlies against Guatemala in New Jersey on September 24 and Mexico in Santa Clara, California, three days later with top stars like Olympiacos midfielder James Rodriguez and Rayo Vallecano striker Radamel Falcao along Eintracht Frankfurt’s Rafael Santos Borre who scored against Ranger in last season’s Europa League Final.
However, Lorenzo has resisted the temptation to ask Morelos to fly across the Atlantic to be part of his plans as Colombia regroup after failing to qualify for the Qatar World Cup this winter – and that’s music to the ears of Gio van Bronckhorst. Morelos made his first start of the season in the 3-0 defeat by Napoli in the Champions League on Wednesday having been publicly rebuked and dropped by his manager for having the wrong attitude and being in poor physical condition.
Rangers, who take on Dundee United tomorrow, face a massive October with nine matches in the month including a Champions League double header with Liverpool, a trip to Naples without any supporters and a League Cup quarter-final against Dundee as well as five key league matches with trips to Tynecastle and Fir Park among them.
Van Bronckhorst has praised the Colombian for knuckling down and he showed in spells against Napoli what he can bring to the Rangers side. Now the Dutchman wants Morelos to be ready to rock after the international break. Rangers supporters were seething last season when the striker was called up by Colombia and missed the massive Old Firm clash at Parkhead on February 2 which was lost 3-0 – and he didn’t even make the match squad for the games with Argentina and Peru.
