Gerrard: Morelos has had his head turned

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard believes star forward Alfredo Morelos has “had his head turned” by speculation over his future.

Morelos played 77 minutes against Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday but was unable to add to his 14 goals in this season’s tournament as Rangers’ lengthy Europa League run came to a close.

Moussa Diaby scored the only goal at the BayArena to conclude a 4-1 aggregate passage into the quarter-finals for the hosts.

Morelos has been heavily linked with a move to Ligue 1 side Lille, with Rangers’ moves to sign attackers Kemar Roofe and Cedric Itten on Tuesday widely interpreted as them preparing for life without the 24-year-old Colombian.

Asked by BT Sport whether he expected Morales to be at the club next week, Gerrard replied: “I don’t know, I can’t control what goes on outside.

“Everyone knows he’s had his head turned, for sure. There’s no denying that.

“But we just move forward. My focus is on the team and the players that want to be here and my focus is certainly on [Rangers’ next game against] St Mirren.

“If a bid comes that the board like and are interested in, and the player tells me face to face he wants to go then we’ll see what happens.”

Our @EuropaLeague campaign began 395 days ago, as we travelled to Gibraltar to face St Joseph’s in the First Qualifying round.

We’ll be back and ready to go for more special European nights at Ibrox  pic.twitter.com/60qtSWOj6T

— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) August 6, 2020

Gerrard refuted the suggestion that Morales’ performance against Leverkusen had been compromised by the prevailing uncertainty.

“I don’t think so. I think Alfredo’s professional enough to block the noise out and focus,” he said.

“He hasn’t had the best of games tonight but we haven’t as a team either.

“There are no fingers pointed at anyone. We’ve given it our best shot and unfortunately we fell short.

“We all have to improve, but Alfredo needs to remain focused.”