Alfredo Morelos was Rangers' top scorer in 2019/20 (Getty Images)
Alfredo Morelos is currently one of the hottest properties in the Scottish Premiership. Plying his trade with Steven Gerrard’s Rangers, the Colombian youngster has racked up goals at an alarming rate, having already accumulated 12 goals and 7 assists from 18 appearances.
A youth product of Colombian club Independiente Medellin, Morelos made his debut as an exciting teenager in 2014 but he failed to make an impact. Having made only 12 starts for his club over one and a half seasons, Morelos was loaned out to Finnish club HJK Helsinki in February 2016 and it was in Finland that he realised his true potential. The Colombian scored 46 goals from 62 appearances for HJK, including 4 goals from 6 games in the Europa League qualifying stages. However, his heroics were not enough to propel the club to the group stages of the competition.
After a successful spell in the Finnish top flight, Morelos was snapped up by Rangers in the summer of 2017 and the Colombian carried on his merry way in the Scottish Premiership. He scored 18 goals across all competitions for Rangers in his debut season and has hit the ground running this term as well. The 22-year-old has already racked up 12 goals and 7 assists in the Scottish Premiership in the ongoing campaign.
Standing at 5ft. 9 inches with a stocky and powerful frame, Morelos is a wonderful athletic striker whose main attributes are his pace, power and physicality. He has a low centre-of-gravity which allows him to keep good close control and take on the defenders with his trickery.
A fast and agile attacker, Morelos combines his superior upper body strength with his pace and trickery to terrorize the opposition. The youngster also has a deadly right foot that is capable of finding the net with powerful shots from outside the box.
The 22-year-old is also a potent threat to the opposition off the ball as he keeps lurking inside the penalty area to capitalize on any half-chance that comes his way. Furthermore, he is also good at holding the ball up for his teammates to get into the game and has the ability to time his jump to perfection to win the aerial balls.
To put things into perspective, he would be a good buy for Crystal Palace. The Eagles have resurrected their campaign with some positive results in recent weeks.
Having steered themselves to safety, Palace should look to make more of an impact in the second half of the season. And a major part of that would be to score goals and Morelos could certainly help them out in that aspect.
Andros Townsend and Wilfried Zaha have found some form in recent weeks but Palace have missed the services of Christian Benteke, who has been on the sidelines for a long time. Swansea loanee Jordan Ayew and youngster Alexander Sorloth haven’t really made much of an impact, leaving Hodgson short of options up front.
That said, they need an in-form striker to turn their fortunes around and Alfredo Morelos is definitely a good choice for that purpose.