FORMER Ibrox star Jonatan Johansson insists Alfredo Morelos is not solely to blame for Rangers’ Premiership collapse following the winter break.
The Colombia internationalist was in blistering form prior to January, notching 28 goals in all competitions as the Gers matched Celtic stride-for-stride at the top of the table.
However, his form fell of a cliff once the club returned from their warm weather training camp in Dubai - and Morelos rippled the net just once more before the SPFL was shut down due to the Covid-19 crisis on March 13.
That was a major factor in Celtic comfortably seeing off Rangers to claim their ninth title in succession when the top-flight was called last Monday.
Ex-Rangers captain and assistant manager David Weir was the latest man to lay the blame at Morelos’ door, stating ‘the thing that changed was Morelos stopped scoring’ and describing that as ‘make or break’ in the battle with the Bhoys.
However, Johansson, who was the man who recommend the Gers sign Morelos in 2017 following a goal-laden spell in Finland with HJK Helsinki, believes that is too simplistic.
Johansson said: “I didn’t think Rangers’ team played as well and as a striker you are very dependent on how the team plays and how many chances they create.
“[The dip in form] is a combination of a lot of things - the winter break, the sharpness, the confidence and Rangers not playing as well as they did before the break.
“I think confidence is a big thing, if you lose that.
“With the winter break, you maybe lose a little bit of sharpness which can be tough to get back. Alfredo was suspended for the first couple of games after the break and then all of a sudden, the story is ‘he hasn’t scored in one, two, three games’.”
Johansson, meanwhile, insists Morelos is in no rush to leave Ibrox despite continued speculation regarding a potential big-money summer switch.
He told BBC Sportsound: “I think Alfredo is ambitious and any player has a price. Rangers will have a value for Alfredo and if that’s met I’m sure Rangers would be happy to wish him well.
“But the one thing I do know is that he loves to play for Rangers, he loves the fans and playing at Ibrox really excites him.
"So, if that bid doesn’t come then I think he would be happy to continue playing for Rangers in the coming season.”
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