2 hours ago, coco said:

Strength: About as strong as a wet paper bag.

Shooting: Only on right foot, only in 6yd box, only on left side of 6yd box, only away at Stoke.

Movement: Brilliant at walking back to the bench, love that part of his game.

 

 

Brilliant 

I loved the walking to the bench part too lol

Edited July 19, 20187 yr by Semper Fi

Morata's flopping and weakness is only a result of his upbringing in Spain and he learned from the best in Ronaldo.  Everyone over there flops as it's a huge part of the game.  Flopping and having the rest of your teammates rush the ref for an hour and a half telling them how bad they are for missing the foul (with many many profanities).  Morata saw the best in the business at doing this (CR7) for years and no doubt learned from that entire side. Diego was also a fan of the theatrics and would embellish all the time.  Only difference is he knew how to put his head down and work when he had to.  

At times last year Morata did actually hold up the ball pretty well.  He had glimpses of using physicality to get into good positions and not go down easily.  I think there is a player in Morata if he just settles down and learns how to lead a line with conviction.  A few years in the PL can be a great benefit to a player like him.  If after this year he is still making the same errors well then it is time to seriously evaluate offers for him IMO.  

If i had a quid for every time someone said "theirs a player in there somewhere".....

The problem is we have just tried looking for this player for the last 12 months, he's meant to be our #1 striker, but nobody can bloody find him. Should we continue searching for this player within him for another season ? And what happens if we get the same player, with the same league position at the end of the season.

Imagine a season where Sarri gets the team ticking and playing to his tune, only for it all to break down up front because Morata is not sticking them away. Giroud is no answer, he'll chip in a few, thats it.

If we keep Morata, Michy wont be coming back, its the reason he left the first place.

So then we are stuck with Alvaro and Olivier and expecting things to change, it's just crazy.

People dont understand the fact that if we take a gamble on Morata this year and keep him, if he flops again this year his stock will absolutely diminish. Not only we will lose a ton of money on him, but the worst part is that noone will take him so now we will be stuck loaning him out. We will get no sell on fee, plus we will pay at least half his wages. The gamble is too risky, we need to sell now and get a return of our investment. Plus get him off the wage bill entirely. 

 

To play devils advocate, sure he might bang them in this year but the risk/reward is just too high for my liking. Especially when weve been burned by strikers before. Call it a bit of PTSD if you want from our history 

47 minutes ago, coco said:

And what happens if we get the same player, with the same league position at the end of the season.

The sky will fall in, the world will end in a blaze of molten lava, the zombie apocalypse will kill anyone who survives that, and Jupiter collides with Mars.

OR

Nothing much.

1 minute ago, yorkleyblue said:

The sky will fall in, the world will end in a blaze of molten lava, the zombie apocalypse will kill anyone who survives that, and Jupiter collides with Mars.

OR

Nothing much.

And you finally divulge the product that makes you so cool after the huge wave of suicides in our fan base.

Not a product, just maturity is all.

11 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

The sky will fall in, the world will end in a blaze of molten lava, the zombie apocalypse will kill anyone who survives that, and Jupiter collides with Mars.

If you want to shock me just say FSW is returning instead of writing all that bollocks.

1 hour ago, coco said:

If i had a quid for every time someone said "theirs a player in there somewhere".....

The problem is we have just tried looking for this player for the last 12 months, he's meant to be our #1 striker, but nobody can bloody find him. Should we continue searching for this player within him for another season ? And what happens if we get the same player, with the same league position at the end of the season.

Imagine a season where Sarri gets the team ticking and playing to his tune, only for it all to break down up front because Morata is not sticking them away. Giroud is no answer, he'll chip in a few, thats it.

If we keep Morata, Michy wont be coming back, its the reason he left the first place.

So then we are stuck with Alvaro and Olivier and expecting things to change, it's just crazy.

Coco, I know deep down you're a Morata fan, I can just feel it. You know you look at him and think he's a cutie pie. 

11 minutes ago, coco said:

If you want to shock me just say FSW is returning instead of writing all that bollocks.

Actually, I need to tell you something.  I've arranged for Saint Rafa the Enormous to come and stay in your spare room when ever the geordies are playing south of Leeds.

38 minutes ago, Semper Fi said:

People dont understand the fact that if we take a gamble on Morata this year and keep him, if he flops again this year his stock will absolutely diminish. Not only we will lose a ton of money on him, but the worst part is that noone will take him so now we will be stuck loaning him out. We will get no sell on fee, plus we will pay at least half his wages. The gamble is too risky, we need to sell now and get a return of our investment. Plus get him off the wage bill entirely. 

 

To play devils advocate, sure he might bang them in this year but the risk/reward is just too high for my liking. Especially when weve been burned by strikers before. Call it a bit of PTSD if you want from our history 

 

It's easy saying "It's risky going into the season with Morata" but what's your solution? 

He's been here one season, I think a majority on this forum want to give him another chance despite the horrendous finishing we saw last season. As good as Michy was for Dortmund he has never really hit it off here, I like Michy also. But he has shown a lot more vulnerability to PL defenders than Morata has. It's risky going into the season with our strike force, I've already said this two pages ago. 

But can we do? Giroud at the moment is probably the player to sell if we are going to sell a player, and the only striker we are looking at in the market is Higuain and that's a whole other gamble we would be taking on for a big transfer fee. I guess I'll trust in what Sarri chooses to do, I wouldn't write off Morata completely just yet, but that's only because it's his first season, if we see more of the same from him this season then I'll definitely be on the Morata OUT wagon. 

5 minutes ago, Slojo said:

It's easy saying "It's risky going into the season with Morata" but what's your solution? 

He's been here one season, I think a majority on this forum want to give him another chance despite the horrendous finishing we saw last season. As good as Michy was for Dortmund he has never really hit it off here, I like Michy also. But he has shown a lot more vulnerability to PL defenders than Morata has. It's risky going into the season with our strike force, I've already said this two pages ago. 

But can we do? Giroud at the moment is probably the player to sell if we are going to sell a player, and the only striker we are looking at in the market is Higuain and that's a whole other gamble we would be taking on for a big transfer fee. I guess I'll trust in what Sarri chooses to do, I wouldn't write off Morata completely just yet, but that's only because it's his first season, if we see more of the same from him this season then I'll definitely be on the Morata OUT wagon. 

Michy should be hauled back in and given #1 spot, Giroud #2, Morata #3. I know it seems mad to put a WC winner 2nd, a RM sweetheart 3rd, and a Belgium bench warmer 1st. But Michy is the quickest of them, the more reliable finisher, and more suited to Sarri ball. But i may have this wrong and Sarri will make Morata #1 and get him scoring, i really hope so, but i think theirs more chance of it failing and it bringing down Sarri before he even gets going.

11 minutes ago, Slojo said:

It's easy saying "It's risky going into the season with Morata" but what's your solution? 

He's been here one season, I think a majority on this forum want to give him another chance despite the horrendous finishing we saw last season. As good as Michy was for Dortmund he has never really hit it off here, I like Michy also. But he has shown a lot more vulnerability to PL defenders than Morata has. It's risky going into the season with our strike force, I've already said this two pages ago. 

But can we do? Giroud at the moment is probably the player to sell if we are going to sell a player, and the only striker we are looking at in the market is Higuain and that's a whole other gamble we would be taking on for a big transfer fee. I guess I'll trust in what Sarri chooses to do, I wouldn't write off Morata completely just yet, but that's only because it's his first season, if we see more of the same from him this season then I'll definitely be on the Morata OUT wagon. 

I think the main point here, is that the only reason some of us want Morata to stay, is that it most likely means Higuain will not come.  It doesn’t necessarily mean that Morata is the answer, but I think we can all agree that Higuain is most definitely not the answer, especially at his age.

2 minutes ago, coco said:

Michy should be hauled back in and given #1 spot, Giroud #2, Morata #3. I know it seems mad to put a WC winner 2nd, a RM sweetheart 3rd, and a Belgium bench warmer 1st. But Michy is the quickest of them, the more reliable finisher, and more suited to Sarri ball. But i may have this wrong and Sarri will make Morata #1 and get him scoring, i really hope so, but i think theirs more chance of it failing and it bringing down Sarri before he even gets going.

Morata is much quicker than Michy, no way Michy scores that goal that Morata did against Stoke.

Michy is a brilliant poacher but the rest of his game is lacking, in my opinion.

12 minutes ago, coco said:

Michy should be hauled back in and given #1 spot, Giroud #2, Morata #3. I know it seems mad to put a WC winner 2nd, a RM sweetheart 3rd, and a Belgium bench warmer 1st. But Michy is the quickest of them, the more reliable finisher, and more suited to Sarri ball. But i may have this wrong and Sarri will make Morata #1 and get him scoring, i really hope so, but i think theirs more chance of it failing and it bringing down Sarri before he even gets going.

Giroud had an awful World Cup though, say if Morata does have a good season and scores 20+ what will you say then? Because I don't think that's as unlikely as you think it is, it's in the realms of possibility. 

3 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Giroud had an awful World Cup though, say if Morata does have a good season and scores 20+ what will you say then? Because I don't think that's as unlikely as you think it is, it's in the realms of possibility. 

Giroud WON the World Cup, and I think he played in nearly every match.  He did exactly what his manager had asked of him and that enabled Griezmann and Mbappe (and Matuidi to a degree) to do what they do best, so it's not right to say he had an awful  World Cup.

Now, I'm not saying that would work for us,  but Giroud most definitely has a place for us.

11 minutes ago, JMaher94 said:

Morata is much quicker than Michy, no way Michy scores that goal that Morata did against Stoke.

Michy is a brilliant poacher but the rest of his game is lacking, in my opinion.

I think Coco does have a point, Michy should probably be number 1 given his goal record. But Michy's overall play has been disappointing whenever he has started a game, and it's obvious why he was benched a lot of the time.

Will he get more game time in a Sarri set up? We'll wait and see. 

9 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

Giroud WON the World Cup, and I think he played in nearly every match.  He did exactly what his manager had asked of him and that enabled Griezmann and Mbappe (and Matuidi to a degree) to do what they do best, so it's not right to say he had an awful  World Cup.

Now, I'm not saying that would work for us,  but Giroud most definitely has a place for us.

I understand, but Giroud was very disappointing whenever I watched him play for France. What was the statistic, he didn't have one shot at goal or something crazy like that? I don't think using him as a World Cup winner is a good argument as to why he should be above Morata in the lineup. I would much rather use the argument of Giroud playing well for us last season, not his WC performance because I thought it was lacklustre. 

The reason why I say if we are looking to sell a striker it should be Giroud is basically because of his age. With Morata we might still get a long term project, with Giroud we might get one good year left. 

Edited July 19, 20187 yr by Slojo

2 minutes ago, Slojo said:

say if Morata does have a good season and scores 20+ what will you say then? Because I don't think that's as unlikely as you think it is, it's in the realms of possibility. 

It's all good throwing out a suitable number of goals, but the team needs to be winning games from those 20 goals, now 15 match winners, yes that's acceptable, but 20 goals divided between Stoke and other relegation fodder is not 15 match winners is it.

His hold-up play is good, anyone who thinks otherwise hasn't seen enough of him. 

His pace is decent and is good in the air.  

The end-product of his game is what needs dramatic improvement. And his rolling over with the faintest of touches is almost Neymarish at times. 

That said, I see a lot of similarity between him and “prime” Liverpool Torres minus the end-product. Unfortunately, that is the only thing that matters for a striker. 

I kept hoping that Torres would come good one final day, which never arrived. But even then, I can’t stop hoping that Sarri can turn Morata’s fortunes around. A good striker is gold-dust in today’s market. 

 

Edited July 19, 20187 yr by Lord

2 minutes ago, Lord said:

His hold-up play is good, anyone who thinks otherwise hasn't seen enough of him. 

His pace is decent and is good in the air.  

The end-product of his game is what needs dramatic improvement. And his rolling over with the faintest of touches in almost Neymarish at times. 

That said, I see a lot of similarity between him and “prime” Liverpool Torres minus the end-product. Unfortunately, that is the only thing that matters for a striker. 

I kept hoping that Torres would come good one final day, which never arrived. But even then, I can’t stop hoping that Sarri can turn his fortunes around. 

 

Someone on the Higuaín thread called Higuaín a bottler in big matches, I haven't followed his career in that much detail yet see he scored over 20 goals in his last season. Morata appears to be the bottler though I think that is actually an emotional block and think it is family related. For me he needs to go.

22 minutes ago, Slojo said:

I understand, but Giroud was very disappointing whenever I watched him play for France. What was the statistic, he didn't have one shot at goal or something crazy like that? I don't think using him as a World Cup winner is a good argument as to why he should be above Morata in the lineup

True,  he wasn't threatening Kane fore the Golden Boot,  but I believe that was down to the tactics and his instructions from Deschamps.  And I'm not saying he should be above Morata or not, just commenting on you saying he had an awful  World Cup and I thought he played his part very well,  despite not scoring.  That's all.

I'm very much in the "give Morata a chance" camp  here.  We don't want the whiney girls starting on again that he's another Kdb that "it wasn't fair,  he didn't have a chance (except against Swindon and Hull and some other teams we should have been beating by a cricket score) when Morata gets sold on and becomes a World Beater like De bruyne did at the World Cup.  Oh,hang on a minute. That didn't happen, did it?

Never mind. If we were all willing to give a  piss-poor performer more game time and more chances last time (and Salah/Lukaku/Scott Sinclair/etc) with 20/20 hindsight,  then we should be willing to give our most expensive player a chance  as well, surely.

10 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

Someone on the Higuaín thread called Higuaín a bottler in big matches, I haven't followed his career in that much detail yet see he scored over 20 goals in his last season. Morata appears to be the bottler though I think that is actually an emotional block and think it is family related. For me he needs to go.

I have been following Higuain’s career with a lot of interest ever since his Madrid days. Even during his prime in Madrid, he missed a number of straightforward goals. His chance:conversion ratio was/is very average. He would be only a slight upgrade on 2016 Morata, IMHO, and given his age and the price-tag should not be anywhere near our radars. 

In this rumoured Higuain transfer, I see the repetition of the  Shevchenko debacle. 

 

1 minute ago, Lord said:

In this rumoured Higuain transfer, I see the repetition of the  Shevchenko debacle. 

 

Another unfortunate blast from the past, I've a strange feeling in this new set up under Sarri our target man will be Hazard. If it happens, see it working under Sarri though it was ineffective under Conte.

43 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

Giroud WON the World Cup, and I think he played in nearly every match.  He did exactly what his manager had asked of him and that enabled Griezmann and Mbappe (and Matuidi to a degree) to do what they do best, so it's not right to say he had an awful  World Cup.

Now, I'm not saying that would work for us,  but Giroud most definitely has a place for us.

Agree. He did the "dirty work" for the team, which contributed in team winning the WC.