OneMoSalah

Don’t think he means unlimited amounts of money. Just the players he wants. There’s no doubt that City have won the league already regardless of a miracle but their recruitment started last season with recruitment of the likes of Gundogan, Stones, Jesus, Bravo, Sane and also this summer with the likes of Walker, Mendy, Ederson and Bernardo Silva. They weren’t second or third choice buys they were first options of the managers. Even before Pep came in, they signed the likes of De Bruyne, Sterling, Fernandinho and Otamendi too. I’m sure Conte is talking more about his Juventus days but wouldn’t be surprised if that’s was a little bit about last summer too with Luiz and Alonso although he made it work and possibly this summer(who knows?). If the club had signed an amount of players of this quality he wouldn’t complain because he would have a more competitive squad than he does now.

Well depends on how often Conte wants to use a false 9 unless by some miracle he gets someone in who is a bit better than Batshuayi. I doubt hes overly keen with the false 9 as hes repeatedly mentioned a striker being the focal point for the team since coming here. Batshuayi won't cut it for me, think hes not got a bit more to his game, sure he can finish but when your playing with Hazard, Willian and Pedro you need to be able to do a bit more than that as they like to come in interchange, run off you into scoring positions. I doubt Kane would ever come here either, which is a shame but also as many goals as he scores I think he shoots far too often at times, fair enough its better than not enough but still I think if he ever makes the move to a Real or Barca like many suspect to happen he wont have that same sort of authority where he could just ping it from 35 yards. Also if people aren't happy with Morata they won't be with Icardi, hes a good player too but don't think theres much a difference between the two.

Theres a reason why he didn't make it as an attacker anywhere after Wigan. No end product.

When is enough, though? What of Morata being here as first choice? If he has a full season or that where he scores a hugely underwhelming amount of goals like 5 or 6 then I think we would need to re-evaluate but no chance in hell that will be happening. Or if we get a chance to sign a genuinely world class striker that would have to start but honestly how many of them are about and likely to come here. There are bigger problems than Morata. Wing backs could be better, although Alonso is coming up with some big goals and also squad depth could be improved. Lack of players who will get double figures in goals in the league as well, not only a problem this season has been for 4-5 years, the days of Malouda, Anelka, Drogba, Lampard, Kalou all scoring 10+ each at least is well gone.

Its not really though, regarding Eden, hes playing as a second striker more often than not so why can't he not be judged on goals more than anything else as well? Eden puts in same sort of performances playing in front 3 or off the striker, really consistent high level, you get take ons, chances created, key passes, tricks and flicks yes and its obvious hes a level above most of our players and a lot in the PL but yes we have to start being objective and looking at all the attacking players outputs in their goals and assists too when they've not actually contributed anywhere near as much to the point our left wing back is our second top scorer in the league. That is the bigger problem for me. People want to criticise our top scorer who has done relatively well and not look at the others who haven't contributed as much. Eden is a firm fan favourite and I want him to elevate his game to that next level but now hes playing as a second striker and getting more chances in front of goal and can score more than he does. Doesnt have to be Messi or Ronaldo levels but he can get 20 goals a season, he is that good. Even the likes of Bakayoko or Cesc always seems to arrive in the box and dont put it away anywhere near as often as they should Willian Pedro Batshuayi same instances. I don't get this main finisher point, everybody can score goals, the more the better, thats the point. Costa was never world class for me, he was slightly frustrating but there were times where you just knew he was putting the ball in the net be it at 10 mph or 100mph, you just knew more often than not if he got a good chance he'd score it. I think Morata will still mature and get that instinct, he signed a 5 year contract hes only 25, he will continue to grow etc and hopefully develop that killer instinct (hopefully Eden can as well). His price tag is irrelevant because the transfer market is crazy, 50-70m whatever it was he cost is the new 30-35m. It was a critical game where if we defended better or pressed more in MF we would have maybe won too, no? There were lots of reasons we drew tonight, finishing was one of them, goalkeeping was another. Yes hes a striker yes he should score. His confidence is well shot you could tell in his body language after the first one. I thought he was just trying to be too clever trying to place it that well considering Cech was going other side but maybe he was just too nervous? Kane is proven yeah but Morata has shown in Europe and on international stage he is also a good player, the goals will come back again, his finishing can improve and I can see Conte helping him out too, players suffer loss of form, confidence etc. Wouldn't get too concerned after a wee period where hes been playing flat out every 3 days as well bar a few games. The team could do with more goals though, you seen Conte didn't throw Batshuayi on, which shows how much he rates or trusts him and that was after he seen him miss three sitters so what do you think his major concern will be, lack of goals from Morata or lack of quality to change it up? Still think the Torres thing is a bit OTT but lol. Maybe. I dont know, they talked about him having 100m euros clause for foreign clubs outside of Italy. I think Morata will probably bounce back, hes bound to have 0 confidence after that game and I'm sure Conte will have said you should have scored. He probably knows himself he should have scored them. I do think we need better options to bring off the bench than Batshuayi though for the odd chances of off nights from players.

That's how I'm looking at him now because hes playing as a second striker. Hes always going to beat men, make something happen but playing in this more central position he needs to do a bit more in terms of his performances in front of goal. I think regardless of where he plays he will beat men, link well with Alvaro and create chances so if hes not scoring more goals why play him more centrally? I thought it would be to get him closer to the striker and the goal. I had a post in Morata topic, Marcos Alonso has more league goals than him and hes playing as a wing back. Not sure how I feel about this because hes obviously more key to us than Alonso is and theres no doubt hes on another level to some of his team mates but there is always room for improvement and for Eden its becoming clinical and getting more goals.

Costa was a huge loss, despite various complaints about his lack of link up play etc, he was a ruthless finisher on his day and a real presence. Although he was the same when he scored goals nobody said anything and when he didn't he was overly criticised, like Morata is getting now. People seem to forget already that 6 months into his Chelsea career he is really carrying the burden of providing the goals for us on a regular basis, sure strikers are meant to score goals but I'm more concerned about the lack of goals from Batshuayi, Willian, Pedro, Cesc, even Hazard to a certain extent in some games or coming off the bench because I think it was obvious that somebody who in their first season in the PL would maybe struggle around Winter time to maintain his form after he had quite an impressive start to his Chelsea career and no winter break like he was used to in Spain and Italy. I mean everyone taken away by City but look at the goals that De Bruyne, Silva, Sterling, Sane, Jesus and Aguero have all gotten in comparison to our attacking and midfield options. Liverpool as well with Salah, Firmino, Coutinho, Mane... its that bad that Marcos Alonso has gotten more goals for us than Hazard, Batshuayi, Willian and Pedro have all managed themselves in the PL. To win titles, you need a supporting cast for your striker that if there not firing will chip in, we used to have Lampard, Malouda, Anelka, Drogba, Kalou all scoring 10+ a season for years. Morata missing 3 sitters in one game is not as big a problem as the lack of goals from other players. Talking about Costa I'd of loved to see him and Morata playing together, thought it would be an excellent combination of sorts, physical presence in Costa and the more technical sort of player in Morata next to him. Morata can work on his finishing yes and I think he will, his confidence is likely to be shot but I think Conte will pick him up. I'd hate to see where we would be if Morata hadn't done so well and gotten as many goals as he has because we'd be nowhere near the position we are. I doubt we'll see anybody miss 3 sitters like those again for us. It really was poor finishing but it won't happen again. If he isn't much better than Lukaku then I don't know... because he offers 10 times more for me, Lukaku is a flat track bully but has a poor record against top 6 teams. Kane, Aguero, Salah (hes not even a striker no idea why youve brought him into this)... fair enough but Kane didn't score for a whole month at the start of the season but did you see Tottenham fans saying Llorente was better or Morata was better or Lukaku was better or what not? Not a chance in hell. Salah is on fire but Liverpool still won't have better chances of competing for the title, Aguero like Kane, top class player but when he goes on a run of a few games do you think City fans start complaining about his finishing? No way. Yes we can criticise Morata's finishing because it was poor tonight but there will be many folk come the end of the season who will look back and think my god did I really say that about Morata and regret it. The new Torres or worse than Batshuayi crowd particularly. Belotti at a cut price? 4 goals so far this season. For Torino. Last year was impressive for him but he has been nowhere near the standard this time round. Release clause of 100M euros as well. No thank you. Well if people are here because they love the club and the players who represent that club then they could do with reviewing some of the posts, not even just on here but on twitter/facebook and whatever else I've seen shit that makes me embarrassed to be a fan alongside these people, 'new Torres'? Really? I'd really like to see what would happen if Hazard missed 3 guilt edge chances like that. Would really be interesting.

To be fair we all seen his finishing wasn't particularly amazing back when he was scoring regularly. But yet again he is being overly criticised by various fans, some of them who were probably the idiots who waited half a year for Torres to score his first goal against West Ham for us, there is no doubt hes on a bad run, I still think hes the best striker we could of bought in terms of current ability and room for growth. Hes got everything you'd want from a striker, sure he bottled 3 chances and has missed a few others but the one thing hes doing for me is: continuously getting chances to score which Batshuayi hasn't done to the sort of level Morata has. Even last year Costa was criticised by various fans despite scoring 20 goals? Its the same shit every year there is always some sort of complaint, I mean other than tonight (if we won nobody would give a fuck in all honestly anyway) he has missed a few sitters yes but he has got a healthy goal total for the season unlike our other attacking players, which doesn't help because already 6 months into his Chelsea career he and Eden are basically shouldering the responsibility for the whole team in terms of goals and even then they could do better at times yes. Hes hardly awful with his feet just look at his hattrick with Stoke he scored a really top class goal.

Doesn't apply to everyone but does to some Chelsea fans: Morata before December: Good player. Glad we never paid 75M for Lukaku. Morata after December: New Torres/worse than Batshuayi, needs to be upgraded on. Make your minds up eh?

Tbf we didnt lose the game. We probably could have lost. If that was Jose we'd have lost because once we conceded under him playing poorly we rarely ever got a look in. Bad conceding the second but it was coming, I'm generally surprised it didnt come earlier, before we even got our second. I think 352 was good formation to start with but Xhaka, Wilshere and Ozil dominated in there. I think changing to 343 could have been done but even then we had enough chances. Over the festive period we are unbeaten, conceding only 2 goals, dropping 4 points (tonight and at Everton), not all doom and gloom. This month will be huge now because we will sign some players after Conte's said that if players aren't happy with not playing they will be allowed to leave as long as they are replaced. Batshuayi, Musonda, Kenedy... reckon all will be gone come the end of the month (probably all on loan) and replaced with better quality.

That's true but there was games when Torres was generally a disaster, like the net would be half empty and all he'd have to do is touch it and it would end up smashing his shin and flying over the bar or something. I doubt we'll ever have to experience shit like that again although tonight was pretty bad for Alvaro. Really if he'd scored at least one it wouldnt have been that bad, think last one was most difficult cause it has to come down, its obvious hes not confident after the other two but even then he just needed to lift it over Cech. Costa would have got 2 out of 3 at least.

He really is starting to wear my patience thin as well. Matic had a shocker for United the other week but I'd take him back without a doubt in his place. It seems a long time since Baka put in a good performance. The United game probably wasnt that long ago but that was last time he impressed me.

He missed about 100 sitters thats why. There is no comparison between Torres and Morata, Torres took about 6 months to get his first Chelsea goal, Morata took about 10 minutes. Moratas finishing shadows a match where he did everything else to a decent standard. Ultimately you judge strikers on goals so that won't be talked about and after the chances he had rightly so but hes not even on the same page as Torres.

About every performance Torres put in bar maybe 10 games under Rafa. Not even a competition. Torres is the worst striker I've ever seen play for us in recent times. Maybe Falcao actually could compete too...

Terrible. Thought first one he was trying to be too clever but he had 3 one on ones, just shat himself basically as soon as he got clean through. Dont think hes needing to be sold or that but just needs a bit of practice with finishing. I think under another coach we wouldnt have even got any points though, I know this aint the Conte thread but...

Fucking hell. Morata should of at least scored 2, you can put one bad miss down to bad luck but three? No way. Draw probably about fair.

What do you expect? It was always going to be Pedro or Willian on for Hazard...

Would be soft if we conceded one like that but yeah thats true saying he doesn't get many for big fouls but was pretty soft. Although still a pen. Yeah it was but just saying was soft!

Good penalty. Pretty much bought that though, minimal contact, pretty soft. Game on though cmonnnnnn

Lucky ball makes it through to Wilshere, Kante poor there following runner, which is uncharacteristically poor by him.

He did score tonight for Atletico.

Playing poorly but only one in our MF whos making 3rd man runs into the box to support Morata and Hazard/be another option for players crossing. Could have scored one too.

Fucking hell didnt think it was that bad that we need to replace him. Think hes made his mind up far too early, everything in run up to that chance was good, didn't take ball too wide, was always in control against defenders coming back to him, got it onto his best foot but like I said I think hes just over thought it and put it too far wide... trying to be too clever. Costa would probably have just fucking rammed it into the net haha.

Great prospect, think staying in Italy best thing for him though, although he'd be a good player to come off the bench for us and make an impact.

Cesc has given ball away fair amount too though. Not exactly Bakayoko's fault that.