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 21,751]

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 20,609]

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

[DDA 9,924]

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 21,751]

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 20,609]

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 8,883]

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 30,085]

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 20,609]

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 8,883]

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.