GRAEME Murty has no concerns about Alfredo Morelos’s form and is confident the Colombian striker can end his goalscoring drought - once his team mates start supplying him with chances.

Morelos, a £1 million acquisition from HJK Helsinki in Finland during the summer, started his career in Scotland in sensational style by netting eight goals in his first nine appearances.

However, since then the 21-year-old predator has struggled and he has now failed to hit the target in any of his last eight matches for the Ibrox club.

His dip in form has led to online speculation that he may be dropped for the Ladbrokes Premiership match against Hamilton at Ibrox this afternoon.

But Murty, who has taken charge of the first team on a temporary basis following Pedro Caixinha’s sacking last month, has been pleased with how Morelos has applied himself both in training and matches.

The caretaker boss reckons his other players need to do better teeing him up with shots at goal if he is to add to his eight goal haul against Hamilton at home this afternoon.

“He’s not lacking any support from myself or the squad,” he said. “He’s working hard, he’s holding the ball up really well and we possibly need to be better at feeding the ball where he wants it.

“I’m relaxed about it. You see the work he does in training, you see him finishing in training. We just need to get him in that position to score more often.

“He’s a lad that just wants to score goals. He wants to play and score. He’s still a young guy. But he gets his joy from playing and from scoring.

“It’s not about building guys up when they do well and then kicking them when they’re down. You have to support these guys, through the good times and the bad.

“Handling good bits is as difficult as handling the down time. You can get far too far ahead of yourself and start thinking different things.

“We just need to make sure he’s focused on what he has do, put him through the process and get him into a position where he’ll score. I saw him finish today and his finishing was outstanding.”

Murty added: “Communication has never been a problem. If there’s anything complex to go over you have Bruno (Alves), Fabio (Cardoso) and Eduardo (Herrera) who all speak excellent English.

“You have to understand he’s a young lad who is dealing with lots of different things. We are quite relaxed because he knows he has a really good staff behind him. We just need to make sure he’s relaxed, prepared and ready to go.

“If we can get him into a goalscoring position more often then he’ll find the net. Centre forwards like him are always up and down. If they score they are on top of the world and if they don’t some of them can be quite hard work. The level of support they get from us doesn’t change.

“I played with Jamie Cureton, who is still playing. He’s the best natural goalscorer I have ever seen. If he had trained well but hadn’t scored he’d be the moodiest wee guy ever. But if he hadn’t trained well and scored two goals he’d been the happiest guy ever.

“He was just built to score goals, some guys are like that. You have to take the guy for what he is and you need to be open and honest with them. It’ll be an indication.”

Murty has a difficult decision to make over who to select at centre half this afternoon. Does he keep faith with Ross McCrorie after three impressive displays? Or does he recall the vastly-experienced Bruno Alves?

However, the former right back revealed that Alves, the 94-times capped Portugal internationalist, had accepted being left out of the side and continued to work hard in training.

“It could be difficult if Bruno chose to be, but he has been brand new,” he said. “He has been a consummate professional, he’s been a man by speaking with me about it.

“He’s easy to deal with, he’s just up front and honest and open and he hasn’t been an issue in any way, shape or form. If I’m honest that’s what I expected from a guy of his experience and international class.”

Murty believes working with a player of Alves’s ability will help 19-year-old McCrorie, who was tipped to become one of the best players in Scottish football history by Caixinha, fulfil his potential.

“You won’t be able to gauge the full extent of Ross’s learning from Bruno for a few years,” he said. “It will inform his daily habits, which are improving all the time. He knows the standards that he has set have to been maintained, even exceeded.

“But that’s what this club needs to be about. You need to be at the top of your game or someone’s going to take your shirt. It’s not personal, it’s professional. It’s all designed to drive this football club forward so that’s what we need to be like.”

Murty is hopeful Rangers can build on the progress they have made under him and win three games in a row for the first time since last December this afternoon.

“The last two games are great but they are just an indication of what the squad is capable of," he said. "They are moving in the right direction but they are not there yet. This game could be another good step in the right direction, but that’s all it is.”