4 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

We've gone from having the likes of Drogba and Costa to now having Giroud as our best striker. Worrying. 

Giroud as your number 1 striker for next season.

5 hours ago, didierforever said:

I dont think people are "scapegoating" him. 

Given the stakes and the situations we were in, there was a level of performance which was expected out of him today. Sprinting to close down was one of them. No one is expecting him to that like Pedro for 80mins, but given that he was on the pitch for 10 mins, he could have busted a lung trying to close down rather than just jogging around. If there was anyone that you would expect to know the value of a game against barca, it would be Morata (being a madrid boy). I dont mind the yellow, but I would want something (anything) to go with that. Currently, just seems like our 2nd striker. Giroud should be ahead.

Conte's instructions were for him to drop in and be wary of Busquets. 

You can't have Eden and Morata on the pitch not doing any defensive work, if Morata started sprinting chasing after everybody in the last 10 minutes then it would have opened more space for Barca to play. 

Hazard reluctantly tracks back so we would have risked giving Barca's midfield more space to run. 

13 hours ago, Davey Baby said:

Comes on and gets booked immediately for dissent.

 

I'm really tiring of him.

Must be his 5th or 6th booking for dissent this season. It makes you wonder what he is actually saying. He wasn't the only one complaining about that decision last night, so what he said must have crossed the line. 

Needs to cut it out and get on with the game. 

I understand conte going with hazard up top last night. Hazard has to play, but there's no way he would've pressed aswell as pedro or Willian, so it meant he had to play up top. It hurts hazards game when he's not on the left though, and we also struggled to get up the pitch without a target man. 

Giroud is a quality target man, but he is also slow, which would've hurt our counter attack game, and would've let the Barcelona defence push higher up, as we would have had no threat in behind. 

Morata needs to up his game and get back to scoring goals and holding the ball up, because the rest of the team are now having to compensate for not having a top striker. 

 

Edited February 21, 20188 yr by big blue

Lacks discipline. 

I reckon he's had more yellow cards this season than Costa got in any of his three seasons at Chelsea. 

6 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Lacks discipline. 

I reckon he's had more yellow cards this season than Costa got in any of his three seasons at Chelsea. 

Diego is at 9 / 9 / 10 in his thread seasons (counting only UCL and EPL) but Morata has time lol

(Alvaro is at 8, 5 PL then 1 in each cup.) 

Edited February 21, 20188 yr by Stim

1 hour ago, JMaher94 said:

Conte's instructions were for him to drop in and be wary of Busquets. 

 

How the hell do you know ?

10 minutes ago, Stim said:

Diego is at 9 / 9 / 10 in his thread seasons (counting only UCL and EPL) but Morata has time lol

(Alvaro is at 8, 5 PL then 1 in each cup.) 

Considering the amount of football Morata as missed this season he's doing his part for accumulating bookings. 

Looks pretty likely to surpass Costa's 10 yellows in a season. 

Just needs to learns to stop whinging so much and he'll be the better for it. 

3 hours ago, coco said:

How the hell do you know ?

Woah, calm down.

Conte was on camera shouting at him telling him to drop back and gesturing to drop in. 

Tactically, we couldn't afford to leave just Drinkwater and Kante in midfield so it's pretty obvious. 

If Conte wanted Morata to press then he would have done, it's simply tactics. 

38 minutes ago, JMaher94 said:

Woah, calm down.

Conte was on camera shouting at him telling him to drop back and gesturing to drop in. 

Tactically, we couldn't afford to leave just Drinkwater and Kante in midfield so it's pretty obvious. 

If Conte wanted Morata to press then he would have done, it's simply tactics. 

I didn't mean to sound harsh  Makes no sense to bring on a center forward to drop back into midfield. We had other options for that. It looked like Conte wanted the winning goal and knew we needed the ball to stick up front to give us more chances. Either way i won't judge Alvaro on 8 minutes of play.

he needs to come back to form, he has been  really good against big teams specially against Man Utd, Atletico earlier in the season 

really need  him in the next few weeks

 

Well he should be quite fresh, i can't remember the last time he has done anything of note.

did anyone see Morata lift Pedro's keys after the Barca match? Very funny

Good to see him back in the 11, hope to see a fresh and hungry striker out there today.

Side note—Kane just missed an absolute sitter, it happens to the best of them!

3 minutes ago, mwblue10 said:

Good to see him back in the 11, hope to see a fresh and hungry striker out there today.

Side note—Kane just missed an absolute sitter, it happens to the best of them!

If Morata had 149 Chelsea goals, he could miss a sitter every game.

22 minutes ago, coco said:

If Morata had 149 Chelsea goals, he could miss a sitter every game.

He does miss a sitter every game 

1 hour ago, coco said:

If Morata had 149 Chelsea goals, he could miss a sitter every game.

That’s why I said the best of them, sometimes I wonder if you actually read the full post.

Back to rolling around half the game again.

Adrian Mutu in disguise.

I guess getting your GF preggers is one hell of a drug, too.

I beg someone to try to defend him now. Absolute sh*te again today. Wouldn’t mind him going 10 games without a goal if he was hassling defenders or bringing others into play but he’s doing less than nothing now. Looking as bad as Bakayoko on the pitch, he just had a bit of early season form to mask it. 

2 minutes ago, opinionsarelike said:

Adrian Mutu in disguise.

I guess getting your GF preggers is one hell of a drug, too.

He’s knackered from all the shagging, he needs a lie down somewhere!

He 'scored' but general performance was the same as usual, if Giroud started we might've won, probably quite easily as well. At this point I think he's not going to change unless a new manager is able to improve him.

He falls down way too easily and that completely goes against what we need in a striker for this system to work. Costa may have been overly aggressive at times, but that aggressiveness was a key part of this system working since it pulled defenders away and opened channels for the wingers. We saw that when Giroud played in the FA cup game and it pretty much shows that our team is crying for a striker that shows strength up front.

Pathetic today. He doesn't have any stomach for any kind of physical battle. How he stayed on for the 90 minutes is mind boggling.

Just doesn't seem to know what to do when the ball is at his feet, spins around, gets it stuck under there, tries to make the perfect space for a shot and usually ends up losing it.

Costa had his flaws, but how many times did he step up and get us an important goal? Morata is awful in comparison.

If he has to produce something he is just awful, i mean, wow Costa was miles ahead.