27 minutes ago, General said:

if Morata stays the club had better hold on to Giroud, hes a useful back up as we saw at the tail end of last season, Tammy will be loaned and Mitchy makes # 3 (we need 3 strikers period).

Giroud is just not a Sarri type forward. Sarri’s forwards press very high up the pitch, and don’t play with their back to goal. I would be shocked if he is not gone by the end of the month.

 

 

If you've ever played football in a team, and you had a striker who wasn't slotting home the chances the team creates. You'll know that feeling, heads go down, energy is zapped, the whole team is demoralised. I feel like Morata is that striker, you could see the disappointment on his team mates faces. 

I know a lot of fans want to give him another chance, but you have to remember it could really affect the team if he keeps this up, if it hasn't already.

Alvaro Morata's all goalscoring chances vs. Arsenal

https://streamable.com/5pyyt

 

Alvaro Morata's messes up a pass to Callum Hudson-Odoi after releasing the ball too late

 https://streamable.com/xdsnq 

 

Edited August 2, 20187 yr by Aryagorn

1 hour ago, Aryagorn said:

 

Alvaro Morata's messes up a pass to Callum Hudson-Odoi after releasing the ball too late

 https://streamable.com/xdsnq 

 

That left foot is embarrassing. 

1. Plenty of time to make the right pass on his right foot. 

2. Still got time, CHO onside and clear space in front of him to run into.

3. Now it's on Morata's left foot, CHO offside, chance gone.

Basic football.

You forgot to add that he then shanked the ball 20 past CHO and off the pitch.

3 hours ago, charierre said:

Wonder what happened to @pacquiao who championed his cause in the window last year? Yet again he also firmly on the side of signing Bakayoko. Not his greatest summer.

His profile picture is still taking the piss out of Lukaku lmao. Lukaku who outscored and outperformed Morata in the league and at the WC. Poor @pacquiao, no wonder he's gone into hiding. 

Just watched a compilation for CHO's best against Arsenal. Morata had 4 brilliant chances to score and every time he made the wrong thing. He looks so out of confidence it just reminds me all those times Torres was in agony missing every chance. I don't think it has anything to do with being out of form after summer. 

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

You forgot to add that he then shanked the ball 20 past CHO and off the pitch.

Yes but he was offside by then anyway. But my point was about him having plenty of time to make the right choice and not recognising it until too late, it's a basic error a player of his price tag and branding should not be making.

4 minutes ago, coco said:

Yes but he was offside by then anyway. But my point was about him having plenty of time to make the right choice and not recognising it until too late, it's a basic error a player of his price tag and branding should not be making.

Wait a second, did you just cut Morata a little slack there, regarding the actual pass? 

This is Fernando Torres all over again.

13 minutes ago, Eight Times said:

This is Fernando Torres all over again.

Nah, it's different. Torres wasn't getting as many chances to score as this. Morata is getting loads of chances, he just messes up the finish every single time.

39 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Nah, it's different. Torres wasn't getting as many chances to score as this. Morata is getting loads of chances, he just messes up the finish every single time.

My gosh, imagine Diego back in this team. Jorginho/Costa connection would have been lethal. 

3 hours ago, Theafonis said:

My gosh, imagine Diego back in this team. Jorginho/Costa connection would have been lethal. 

Costa was scoring 20 goals per season in the league and was harrassing enemy back lines so much it made our defense better that played with less pressure.

We don't have that player anymore, it's like Liverpool without Salah last season, they turned into a 30% possession team not capable of getting the pressure off from the opponents...

We scored in total 62 goals last season, 23 goals less compared to the title winning season with Conte and only 3 goals more compared to the horrible season before that...

Edited August 3, 20187 yr by Gol15

20 hours ago, Tea Bar Boy said:

and there lies a poor season ....take Giroud out of the picture we are out the game .... Michy is not good enough and Morata is not willing to work to improve his game 

Agree on Giroud TBB. The fact we are apparently considering selling him is a disaster. He'll work well in Sarri's system. Only question is his ability to press. 

For me Michy is the guy who is unknown. He didn't suit Conte's style but noone has ever doubted his ability to finish.  He could work well in this system. 

Depending on price, a fit Belotti (he was injury central last year) is the best option. Good finisher who puts himself about without the ball. I like Icardi as a finisher but he is a bad fit for our culture.

The other option is to build goals in other positions. Get a right winger who can finish or buy a Fekir to play 4231 and get goals from that attacking midfield.

1 hour ago, Spiller86 said:

For me Michy is the guy who is unknown. He didn't suit Conte's style but noone has ever doubted his ability to finish.  He could work well in this system. 

Depending on price, a fit Belotti (he was injury central last year????????????) is the b?est o?ption.?

Totally, Belotti is like Aguero built and he would have been our perfect target after Costa.

Lol at selling a world champion for this... 

3 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

Depending on price, a fit Belotti (he was injury central last year) is the best option. Good finisher who puts himself about without the ball. I like Icardi as a finisher but he is a bad fit for our culture.

The other option is to build goals in other positions. Get a right winger who can finish or buy a Fekir to play 4231 and get goals from that attacking midfield.

Belotti had some injuries, sure. But he was not playing anywere near as well as the season before, and he doesn't seem like a very clinical finisher. He's strong and so, but I doubt he'll give us anything Michy can't. Looking at last seasons stats for Belotti and Morata, you'll see that Morata played 600 minuted fewer in the league compared to Belotti. Belotti only managed 10 goals and 5 assist. One worse than Morata in both categories. He's not worth the £80M or so Torino are reported to want.

I'm not even trying to defend Morata here, but we must have known what we bought, when we decided to splash that amount of money on him. He's fast, technically gifted and decent in the build up - and link up - play. I mean, I've just been looking at his stats throughout his career. He's never been a 20 goals per season player. The only time he has done so was for Real Madrid in La Liga. In Juve he only managed 15 goals and 13 assist in 63 games. Tbh, his statistics are better in Chelsea. 11 goals and 6 assists in 30 games.

He's been missing a lot of clear cut chances, and against Arsenal he was simply embarrassing. I'd really hoped he scored that penalty. It could have been a perfect start to his new season, with new born twins, a goal and confidence. Instead he missed with a poor kick, followed by 3 other good opportunities. I think we have to wait patiently and see whether he's still in Chelsea by the end of august.

42 minutes ago, Hanzen said:

Belotti had some injuries, sure. But he was not playing anywere near as well as the season before, and he doesn't seem like a very clinical finisher. He's strong and so, but I doubt he'll give us anything Michy can't. Looking at last seasons stats for Belotti and Morata, you'll see that Morata played 600 minuted fewer in the league compared to Belotti. Belotti only managed 10 goals and 5 assist. One worse than Morata in both categories. He's not worth the £80M or so Torino are reported to want.

I'm not even trying to defend Morata here, but we must have known what we bought, when we decided to splash that amount of money on him. He's fast, technically gifted and decent in the build up - and link up - play. I mean, I've just been looking at his stats throughout his career. He's never been a 20 goals per season player. The only time he has done so was for Real Madrid in La Liga. In Juve he only managed 15 goals and 13 assist in 63 games. Tbh, his statistics are better in Chelsea. 11 goals and 6 assists in 30 games.

He's been missing a lot of clear cut chances, and against Arsenal he was simply embarrassing. I'd really hoped he scored that penalty. It could have been a perfect start to his new season, with new born twins, a goal and confidence. Instead he missed with a poor kick, followed by 3 other good opportunities. I think we have to wait patiently and see whether he's still in Chelsea by the end of august.

Fair points on Belotti particularly re: price.

That said, even when considering similar goal returns it's about attitude. Belotti puts himself about consistently, he presses hard, he makes runs off the ball. He contributes when he isn't scoring. Morata does little of that and largely sulked for last season, his head dropped the moment his drought began and it hasn't bounced back.

Michy/Giroud for me should lead the line until January then we should reassess. Morata I think it's best we let him go.

6 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

Fair points on Belotti particularly re: price.

That said, even when considering similar goal returns it's about attitude. Belotti puts himself about consistently, he presses hard, he makes runs off the ball. He contributes when he isn't scoring. Morata does little of that and largely sulked for last season, his head dropped the moment his drought began and it hasn't bounced back.

Michy/Giroud for me should lead the line until January then we should reassess. Morata I think it's best we let him go.

Completely agree!

I'm still naively praying that out of nowhere we move Morata on to Monaco, or somewhere in Italy...or anywhere and Roman weighs in big time and totally under the radar we go large and land Paulo Dybala.

I can almost see Jim White foaming at the mouth now as he melodramatically informs us all that Dybala is at SB having a medical.

Yes I know. I can still dream though for another week.

14 hours ago, Davey Baby said:

 

This isn't Torres. Torres was declining when he came to us, on the back of a bad injury. Similarly Shevchenko, a terrible injury. Morata's problems are all mental and that can be resolved, with the right management, although I'd agree Fernando's problems were psychological as well.

 

Morata scored 15 for us last season. A goal every 3 games. He missed a fair few games through injury and suspension. If he hadn't, we'd be talking 20 goals, in his debut season. It's not bad. He wasn't good enough, that much was clear. When the going got tough he went missing, and that angered me. Giroud was rightly played instead of him. It wasn't a disaster however. Far from it. There's room for improvement. I'm confident he'll improve. A new manager who allegedly improves players and who really works wonders with his strikers. A season under his belt in England. A point to prove. Age is on his side. I'm confident he'll improve.

 

Look. It was a bad penalty last night but had it gone in, and he'd done his little baby celebration, he'd have had his tail up and he may have gone on to score a couple more. We'd have people on here going over the top, just like they're going over the top now. It was a warm-up game, his wife's just given birth, he's just flown back. We have to cut him a bit of slack. 

 

Don't get me wrong I was cursing him last night. Mentally he's too weak. When he misses the pen the rest is inevitable, because he needs things to be going his way, he can't change things when they're not. He's a confidence player in other words. He's too fragile, mentally. Sarri will work on that. I believe him when he says he's not too concerned.

 

Morata's movement is excellent. That's why so many chances fall his way. Torres never got chances. I just don't think this is comparable.

I really hope you are right. 

I don't really disagree with anything you are saying specifically, I guess it just comes down to whether we can actually see Morata leading the line successfully for us. I do struggle with that. Trying to play your main striker into form is a delicate & potentially painstaking process, and we have all seen it before...... how long do you give him, how many games/points do you allow to slip through your fingers before you consider plan b (presumably Michy). And then if you do drop him (as we had to last season), it only further knocks the confidence. 

I agree though, had he converted the penalty, we would be talking about him having a decent pre-season on the back of a respectable performance against Inter. It's fine margins, but crucial margins never the less.

I really hope he gets a goal soon and it kick starts his season. He needs it soon though. 

I don't know why ....but I still like him....but we can't afford another season of failure and missed chances that impact on whether we win or lose games.  Hopefully a couple of goals and an arm around his shoulder will kick start his season....it appears that Sarri likes him, probably because he can be quick, so I don't see him leaving before January unless a great offer happens in the next week. 

Need to get Drogs back coaching him, his one touch finishing was superb at times....oh and Zola will help, he wasn't to shabby in front of goal.

If we can keep teeing Morata up with enough chances then hopefully he will turn the corner and come good.

Most people would probably swap him with Harry Kane in a heart beat, and yet Morata's conversion rate is not actually much worse than Harry's ... Kane converts about 1 in 6 (last season 30 PL goals from 184 shots on goal), and he is a "goal a game" striker because he does actually get enough chances to score that goal in every game.

Morata was 1 in 7 (11 goals from 79 goal attempts), plus 6 assists (Kane had 2).

If we'd played more attacking football, then I dare say Alvaro would have had sufficient chances to get to that benchmark of 20 PL goals.

Kane actually missed more "big chances" than Morata ... 18 to 17.

(Stats from official Premier League web site).