Álvaro Morata

[El P. 1,354]

Improved in staying at his feet a bit, yes, but THAT missed chance at the beginning. I know ref called offside (LATER), but that doesn't matter. He missed whole goal in 1-on-1, AGAIN!

[kobematabryant 400]

Well and truly the worst signing of the Abramovich era.

[Tomo 21,733]

1 hour ago, kobematabryant said:

Well and truly the worst signing of the Abramovich era.

He's not even the worst Spanish signing of the Roman era.

[The Skipper 20,593]

No title challenge for us with him spearheading the way unfortunately guys. 

[DDA 9,690]

3 hours ago, Tomo said:

He's not even the worst Spanish signing of the Roman era.

Who is? Shaun Wright-Phillipe?

[Mufassir08 2,400]

5 hours ago, The Skipper said:

No title challenge for us with him spearheading the way unfortunately guys. 

TBF he played really well yesterday. Held the ball well, linked up nicely and made some good passes. The only thing missing was a goal.

[Tomo 21,733]

7 hours ago, DDA said:

Who is? Shaun Wright-Phillipe?

Torres obviously, he was the worst striker in the league while with us.

[The Skipper 20,593]

5 hours ago, Mufassir08 said:

TBF he played really well yesterday. Held the ball well, linked up nicely and made some good passes. The only thing missing was a goal.

He plays like an inexperienced 19 yo sometimes. I’d only say that this was a devent performance if he was actually that but he isn’t. He cost us 70m, and is 26 now, supposed to be hitting his prime but he’s just not good enough atm. You can’t say that yesterday was a performance where played really well. The bar is so low for Morata, honestly. Why? He was not too long ago our record signing, I don’t understand why people give him a pass all the time. 

He’s so average right now that any half decent performance where he isn’t totally anonymous or shit gets praise. I gave him a pass last season as a bedding in season but this season there’s not as much mercy from me. 

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

11 hours ago, The Skipper said:

No title challenge for us with him spearheading the way unfortunately guys. 

We were never going to realistically challenge for the title regardless if we had Aguero upfront or Morata. Our defence is still a big big problem still. Left full back will be an issue eventually. I like Alonso and think he can do a job but against the bigger and better teams he might find himself targeted along with David Luiz because when we don't have the ball he tends to do stupid things, always has and always will just the way he is. We will be a good team to watch when everything clicks, its going to be a good change but at the same time we won't be title challengers in Sarri's first season. Top 4 has to be the most realistic target but again if hes thinking we need 2 or 3 months to be a very good team then who knows. Morata's performance yesterday wasn't awful, like many have said missing a goal and a goal can change his fortunes perhaps but no Higuain was a huge mistake, hes guaranteed to score goals.

[Vesper 28,789]

1 hour ago, Tomo said:

Torres obviously, he was the worst striker in the league while with us.

Yes, everyone knows Wright-Phillipe is French, Louis Philippe I's distant relation,  lololol.

[The Skipper 20,593]

36 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

We were never going to realistically challenge for the title regardless if we had Aguero upfront or Morata. Our defence is still a big big problem still. Left full back will be an issue eventually. I like Alonso and think he can do a job but against the bigger and better teams he might find himself targeted along with David Luiz because when we don't have the ball he tends to do stupid things, always has and always will just the way he is. We will be a good team to watch when everything clicks, its going to be a good change but at the same time we won't be title challengers in Sarri's first season. Top 4 has to be the most realistic target but again if hes thinking we need 2 or 3 months to be a very good team then who knows. Morata's performance yesterday wasn't awful, like many have said missing a goal and a goal can change his fortunes perhaps but no Higuain was a huge mistake, hes guaranteed to score goals.

Basically, sometimes there are players that can carry you to a title challenge. Guys like Hazard, Kanté... Morata isn’t that sort of player. My point is, if Morata was the best 9 in the league we’d have an outside shot at the title imo. Of course there are further weaknesses we need to address but sometimes some players transcend that and can cover those weaknesses (if you have enough difference makers in the 11). 

Of course his performance wasn’t awful but it wasn’t good either. This is starting to feel Torres esque almost - praising him for having a 5 or 6 our of 10 when it’s the very minimum we should be expecting. 

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

3 hours ago, The Skipper said:

Basically, sometimes there are players that can carry you to a title challenge. Guys like Hazard, Kanté... Morata isn’t that sort of player. My point is, if Morata was the best 9 in the league we’d have an outside shot at the title imo. Of course there are further weaknesses we need to address but sometimes some players transcend that and can cover those weaknesses (if you have enough difference makers in the 11). 

Of course his performance wasn’t awful but it wasn’t good either. This is starting to feel Torres esque almost - praising him for having a 5 or 6 our of 10 when it’s the very minimum we should be expecting. 

True but I think when everything clicks in MF and attack we will manage to get a top 4. Maybe not having a 20 goal a season striker will prevent us from going further than where we will this season, some people will say as well that we might not make top 4 just because we don't have a top CF but I generally don't think that will make a difference and wasn't the reason we didn't get it last season (defensively we weren't as good last season and there was a run of 2 or 3 games against smaller teams - over Christmas time I think - that I feel ultimately cost us because we gave up far too many stupid goals and some players seemed to down tools). As well as that, if we don't get trampled over in the bigger games against teams who will be trying to get top 4 as well, we should be fine but I don't want to get this idea of us having to score 5 to win 5-3 or 4 to win 4-2 etc because we've given up stupid goals, which with the style and individuals who could potentially make errors (particularly Luiz and Alonso defensively) will maybe happen sooner rather than later. 

Regarding Morata and the Torres feeling I'm getting the same one sometimes but still think there is something there that wasn't with the whole Torres situation, hopefully he can get a few goals in the next games and get the monkey off his back so to speak because its an inevitable comparison if he continues to struggle although they are different players. 

[Tomo 21,733]

3 hours ago, The Skipper said:

Basically, sometimes there are players that can carry you to a title challenge. Guys like Hazard, Kanté... Morata isn’t that sort of player. My point is, if Morata was the best 9 in the league we’d have an outside shot at the title imo. Of course there are further weaknesses we need to address but sometimes some players transcend that and can cover those weaknesses (if you have enough difference makers in the 11). 

Of course his performance wasn’t awful but it wasn’t good either. This is starting to feel Torres esque almost - praising him for having a 5 or 6 our of 10 when it’s the very minimum we should be expecting. 

But thats where he differs from Torres, he actually gets the basics right. Torres just stood around like a prize lemon and defenders could ignore him and focus on Hazard, Mata etc because they knew he posed no threat not only on the ball but tactically aswell. Alvaro even when poor atleast gets the basics and doesn't get in everyones way, im not saying that's praise worthy in itself but we can still create chances and play good football with/around him because he atleast keeps the CB's honest from a tactical POV.

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

16 minutes ago, Tomo said:

But thats where he differs from Torres, he actually gets the basics right. Torres just stood around like a prize lemon and defenders could ignore him and focus on Hazard, Mata etc because they knew he posed no threat not only on the ball but tactically aswell. Alvaro even when poor atleast gets the basics and doesn't get in everyones way, im not saying that's praise worthy in itself but we can still create chances and play good football with/around him because he atleast keeps the CB's honest from a tactical POV.

Yeah 100%.

Having a striker in the team who's not scoring, ok he isn't scoring that is an issue but hes not exactly letting the team down because hes doing everything else you'd expect. I watched the City game today, ok Aguero didn't score but he did everything else you'd want him to do, fair enough its not exactly a perfect comparison because Aguero is an elite striker, one of the best finishers I've seen and will get goals but he contributed without scoring today. If Morata can manage to get goals (I'm honestly thinking he can get 10-15, some might agree I'm sure some will disagree but no doubt there's plenty of ability in him although I think mentally somethings not quite right) but lets say the games he doesn't score and do what he did the other day, fair enough. I think people are under the impression hes not got anything else to offer but goals, where as we've all seen he can play a bit as well.

Obviously as well his price will never help him. People probably automatically expected he was close to being the finished article when we got him, which when you spend 50-60 odd million on a player who scored 21 goals for Real Madrid the season beforehand, its a very fair assumption but many also knew he was still a project because he had never actually been the lead guy for any other team in his career (bar maybe half a season at Juventus?), again it shouldn't be an excuse good players can play anywhere but we seen at the start of last season he definitely can play and can score goals.. he missed some big chances, maybe affected his confidence, maybe hes not as good a finisher, maybe not ruthless enough but this sort of thing reminds me of Edison Cavani at Napoli (I think when we played them he could probably have scored 4 in that game in Naples but he missed some big chances) and even now he still misses some big sitters but it doesn't affect him, he just gets on with it and goes and scores another fuck knows how ever many he gets in a season now a days haha.

I think its mentality that's the problem for Morata, I think if he had that sort of mindset and confidence these guys have he'd be fine, its all in all being a clinical finisher yes and we've seen it with Costa, Drogba, Anelka, even Lampard guys like these over the years but how often do you think they let a miss get them down?  

[The Skipper 20,593]

4 hours ago, Tomo said:

But thats where he differs from Torres, he actually gets the basics right. Torres just stood around like a prize lemon and defenders could ignore him and focus on Hazard, Mata etc because they knew he posed no threat not only on the ball but tactically aswell. Alvaro even when poor atleast gets the basics and doesn't get in everyones way, im not saying that's praise worthy in itself but we can still create chances and play good football with/around him because he atleast keeps the CB's honest from a tactical POV.

That’s my whole point - it’s what Torres used to get praised for as well. If he had a game where he did the basics right he’d suddenly have played a good game. 

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

23 minutes ago, The Skipper said:

That’s my whole point - it’s what Torres used to get praised for as well. If he had a game where he did the basics right he’d suddenly have played a good game. 

Torres would get praised if he could complete a 5 yard pass because he was that shite but for me Morata had a decent enough game, except for not scoring (if it happens for the rest of August then yeah I'd say we maybe have a problem) and its not the same context to say its a Torres situation that we are praising him for doing "nothing". If Morata had played shit but had scored it wouldn't be an issue because hes done what people expect him to do. Its a tough life for a striker in terms of being criticised (same with goalkeepers), play alright no goal = bad performance, score a goal but play bad = done the job. Fair enough 60m or whatever you want more, we all do, still wouldn't say he let anybody down yesterday or played so much worse than anybody else who had a bog standard game.

Lets not kid on Torres got every excuse under the sun, from memory heres some of the classics: team plays defensive football, team doesn't create chances for him, system doesn't suit him... its not going to ever get that bad for any other player. Some of the shit people would say to defend him were quite embarrassing, the guy went through about 6 managers and not one of them could get him scoring regularly except Rafa Benitez, who generally decided to build the team around him and Mata more or less. I wouldnt say that was a mental problem, the way his career panned was more physical because he lost like 5 yards of pace in the space of 2 years. Morata on the other hand I think its just a mental problem, he gets over that he'll be fine.

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

So pissed we didn't sell him to Milan when we had the chance. Was done with this man after he missed a hat-trick of 1-on-1's against Arsenal. 

Will never challenge on the big stage with Morata leading the line - I've never seen a striker who has such limited shooting technique.Every shot from Morata has to be inside right-foot, it's so frustrating. 

 Was hoping we would have signed Gonzalo Higuain when we were heavily linked from him. Shame. 

[Thor 2,392]

He really had to score in the first game, preferably first half for all of you to get off his back. He is doomed with this board. 

Doesn't score? Shit game. 

Realistically, had some great link up, provided good movement, and drew players away from Pedro for the easy goal. Hazard could have gone either way almost.