ALFREDO MORELOS’ reputation went before him and counted against him at Pittodrie last week. I don’t think there is any doubt about that.

When the incident with Scott McKenna happened, you watch it for the first time and you think that he has kicked him. When you see it again, it is as if he is trying to take his leg away and there is no malice in it.

He has realised what is going to happen and tries to stop it and then he gets caught in the face by McKenna. He went down holding his face to get McKenna sent off, but that was always going to happen because there was intent when he lashed out.

Rangers fans feel that Morelos has been treated unfairly this season and the problem for him is that, whether it is right or wrong, he now has this reputation. That is an issue for Steven Gerrard.

If he listens to what Steven is saying to him and takes on board the coaching and the chats, there is no doubt he will get a move for serious money in the future.

This is where you will see Steven’s abilities as a man manager come in. It can be difficult when you have a big personality and big figure like that in a dressing room.

From my own playing career, the one that stands out like that is El Hadji Diouf when he came in under Walter Smith. That was a ticking time bomb!

Diouf was quite a character. His situation is different to that of Morelos but the predicament is the same for Steven as it was for Walter in terms of man management.

He liked to go out and do whatever he was doing. In training, he was quite huffy but he wanted to play every game.

The big thing we had at Rangers at that time was a really close-knit dressing room and you didn’t want a big personality changing that dynamic.

Walter managed him tremendously. He had him in one-on-one and spoke to him in front of the rest of the players.

He was a different personality to a lot of that squad but the boys helped Walter manage him as well. Now, I am sure the likes of Allan McGregor and Steven Davis will be helping Steven manage Morelos in the dressing room.

The players know that they need Morelos on the pitch. So the messages don’t always come from the manager, they can come from big figures in the dressing room as well.

As a manager, you don’t want to change Morelos because he is an unbelievable talent and his goal scoring record is terrific. He is strong, powerful, he works hard and he can finish.

But he needs to go through a run of games of not making daft fouls and getting involved in silly incidents. Then, people might look at him differently.

The danger with that is that you take the fire out of his belly and you might not get the same player, so it is a tough one for Steven to manage.

If he tells him to calm down too much, he loses a bit of the player. If he lets him go, you run the risk of losing him through suspension.

When Morelos is on the pitch, he is unplayable at times. So Rangers need him to be on the park as often as possible in what is left of the season.

The incidents he gets involved in at times aren’t exactly heinous crimes and there is no dangerous streak to him when he is on the park. It is daft things, though.

I don’t think he will be like this for the rest of his career. He is still relatively young as a player and he still has time to grow as a person and a professional.

People and players mature at different rates on the football pitch. I am not saying he is immature, but he will realise that he has this reputation and he needs to stop the petulance.

He is not getting sent off for elbowing people in the face or flying into lunging tackles that threaten careers. It is just petulant, and he has that in him.

Steven has got to try and manage that side out of him while not taking the edge off his game. That could be a slow process.

The manager said after the game at Pittodrie that Alfredo had to control his aggression if he wanted to reach the level that he thinks he can play at and prospective buyers will be looking at him in terms of his temperament and his disciplinary record.

Nobody is perfect. That is a flaw that Alfredo has in his game but it can be worked out of him with the help of those round about him.

He seems like the type of boy that wants to get better. He listens and he has that work ethic to improve, which he has done a lot this season.

That side of the game can’t be taken out of him completely. When you are playing up front yourself, you have got to be aggressive when you have big centre-halves breathing down his neck.

There is pressure on him to get goals for Rangers every single week and he has done extremely well once again this season. If he can get that petulance out of him, what a player he could become and he would then be the all-round package.