Álvaro Morata

[Jase 43,479]

8 hours ago, Rapkun said:

I think Jose wanted both actually. He wanted Griezmann for a long time and the Morata rumours started to emerge after Zlatan's injury. Griezmann's alternative was most likely Perisic.

Doubt it. Think the plan for Mourinho with Perisic was to play him out wide. Why would he do that with Griezmann, who is more of a striker these days and is half the player when pushed out wide?

[Tautvix 1,321]

Morata is so wasteful...

[Blusan Alamb 295]

Morata and Lukaku competing for the no. of sitters that can be missed it seems.

[Leif 6,006]

I like him a lot, though more as a person than player - but remember we didn't sign a great striker here. We signed a very good one, given the current landscape of the game, because we were desperate. We went home with a 7 simply because we had no hope of securing a 10. The only way this deal proves to be of value is if we revert to a 4-2-3-1, keep him & Hazard central, but also add 2 incredible wingers who make up for when Morata doesn't score, and at the same time, make the chance of him scoring increase tenfold. 

[LAM09 7,043]

His finishing on the ground is something else.

[The Skipper 20,609]

On 23/11/2017 at 11:38 AM, The Skipper said:

Always did say he isn’t clinical enough, it’s one thing Lukaku is better at - but he can improve. He needs to do extra finishing work at training, especially finishing after relatively long (or bursts of) dribbles. 

He gets himself into excellent positions. Better off the ball movement than I thought. 

.

[El P. 1,354]

Next time Fabregas should aim at his head, there is no use of feeding him with balls like this.

Goalkeeper actually spread his legs wide open, but Alvaro wasn't even looking at the keeper, he was just watching the ball and got keeper in his leg.

Still hope that he can make it as a top striker, but that hope is really thin now.

[Leif 6,006]

As many chances as he'll miss, and as many chances as Lukaku will score, 10 times out of 10 I'll still take Morata with a spoonful of sweetness - which says everything about Lukaku. He may help you get goals, but my god, even if he's missing chances it's far more palatable to watch Morata for 90 minutes. 

90 minutes being part of the problem - too many times has he played the full 90 this season. That's simply another blunder by the board - this need for a clear striker hierarchy. If we were to accept two number 1 strikers, I imagine our fortune would change. I don't think someone like Morata would throw a hissy fit at playing 65% of our games, maybe even some percentage more if partnered with that other striker. That other striker, while i call him a number 1, would be content with being on the bench considering Chelsea's stature, but leave us with no doubt regarding his ability like Michy does, or even Llorente would. 

It's no good that without Morata our strike force goes from B+ to C-. Similarly it's no good that without Hazard, his role in the team drops from A+ to C+. What's wrong with genuinely great back-up options? Why are we addicted to ensuring our back-up options are barely fit to sit on the benches of teams below us? (I'll need to use this emoji a lot more often to cope) 

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

10 goals this season and superb all round play. He's allowed to miss from time to time. He's not a cyborg. More importantly he's clearly better than Lukaku and Costa. His all round play is so much better and pleasing to the eye and he's just the most talented of those three. In this game he created a shot from himself from literally nothing that almost went in.

Our best players are allowed leeway from time to time. 

[The Chels 2,502]

Thought he was excellent today. Problem is if you miss a chance as important/big as that, that's all anyone will remember.  

[El P. 1,354]

3 minutes ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

10 goals this season and superb all round play. He's allowed to miss from time to time. He's not a cyborg. More importantly he's clearly better than Lukaku and Costa. His all round play is so much better and pleasing to the eye and he's just the most talented of those three. In this game he created a shot from himself from literally nothing that almost went in.

Our best players are allowed leeway from time to time. 

I think we all know this. It's just, he never really proved himself. If he had scored some good number of goals with his feet, no one would mention his tonight's miss. It's just game after game, him missing sitters.

[Leif 6,006]

To add to those, yeah, I don't think it's beneficial or deserved to get on Morata's back. He gets us a goal every 2-3 games, and in a manner which is more attractive than Lukaku/Costa/etc. Then again, it's totally acceptable to expect a striker to strike goals with his feet.

His goals may sometimes not come, but at least because of him, Hazard looks twice as likely to score this season. He's more than just a striker, so when the goals don't come, there's still plenty left to compliment.

So, good movement. Good determination. Good mentality. Good link up play. None of which we've had in our past few strikers. Closest to Drogba we've had actually, though I doubt we'll see a goal like Drogba's vs Milan 

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

1 minute ago, El P. said:

I think we all know this. It's just, he never really proved himself. If he had scored some good number of goals with his feet, no one would mention his tonight's miss. It's just game after game, him missing sitters.

Honest question. What do you expect his conversation rate to realistically look like? Stikers miss and convert chances all the time. Maybe I might change my opinion later in the season but I'm yet to see a pattern. 

[El P. 1,354]

9 minutes ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

Honest question. What do you expect his conversation rate to realistically look like? Stikers miss and convert chances all the time. Maybe I might change my opinion later in the season but I'm yet to see a pattern. 

It's not about conversation rate, that number is ok. But you can't expect every single game him to get good cross so he can score a header, you know.

All attacks are built mostly in hope for one thing - every action, almost every move from Fabregas and Hazard - to give your number 9 good ball so he could score, that's the plan A. And I don't mean cross from the wing, but that can be useful sometimes too, yes. But not as a main source of our scoring. Our plan A sucks, and because of that we must always look for alternatives, which is not good.

I don't expect him to be next Shevchenko, or I don't know. I just want that part of his game to be a little better, it must be.

[manpe 10,861]

13 minutes ago, El P. said:

It's not about conversation rate, that number is ok. But you can't expect every single game him to get good cross so he can score a header, you know.

All attacks are built mostly in hope for one thing - every action, almost every move from Fabregas and Hazard - to give your number 9 good ball so he could score, that's the plan A. And I don't mean cross from the wing, but that can be useful sometimes too, yes. But not as a main source of our scoring. Our plan A sucks, and because of that we must always look for alternatives, which is not good.

I don't expect him to be next Shevchenko, or I don't know. I just want that part of his game to be a little better, it must be.

Our plan A is solid, entertaining and efficient, only the finishing sucks. Actually I don't know if you can call it efficient if you lack the most important ingredient, but everything before the finish is better than anything we've seen in the last I don't know how many years.