Taken from The Guardian

Quote

Álvaro Morata has revealed his confidence hit rock bottom towards the end of his first season at Chelsea when his form fizzled out as he laboured with a back injury. But the Spain striker is now more at ease in body and mind and reaping the benefits.

Two goals against Crystal Palace on Sunday swelled Morata’s recent tally to five in six matches, a burst more reminiscent of his prolific start at Stamford Bridge following a £58m transfer from Real Madrid in the summer of 2017. His previous 31 matches had yielded four goals after a back injury, which flared in January and initially baffled the medical staff, blunted his impact. 

The forward is now restored to fitness but a player whom Maurizio Sarri acknowledged as “fragile” after the weekend’s 3-1 win admits his real battle has been to recover mentally from last season’s toils.

“The most important thing is that, finally, I have found the right way and my head is OK,” Morata said. “In football physical condition is veryimportant but the head is the most important thing.

“If you don’t have the head, if the mentality is not good, then you are in trouble. I’m better.

“No one, only my wife, knows how big the last year was. Now it’s OK. In the last month of last season I was down, down, down, down. I cannot be more down. When you touch the limit, the only thing you can do is to come back.

“It takes long because I had an injury, I was not fit when playing, but now I feel good. I had a period where everything … if it was raining, I was angry because it’s raining; if I miss, it’s because the pitch is too wet. It was only excuses. It is not good.

“Honestly, last year I was always joking in the dressing room at the beginning because I started well and was scoring goals. But the injury, it killed me, because the doctors didn’t know what I had. It was strange. Sometimes when you know you are out for one month, it’s OK in your head, because you know it is one month. But when you are trying to give your best and you are not in your best moment, it’s difficult. Now, that’s the past.

“Everyone can have a bad period in their life. But we are famous, we have a lot of things. Sometimes people think we are not human, with no feelings, with no problems. The important thing is to find the right balance.

“Now, I have, and I am very happy. The important thing is the team. I know that sometimes I am in the middle of all the criticism when the team drops [points] or when the team loses. But it doesn’t matter. I want to win with this team and we have a very good chance.”

Morata, whose wife gave birth to twins in July, might have completed a hat-trick against Palace only to opt to chip Wayne Hennessey, at 6ft 6in, from close range after sprinting through on goal in stoppage time. “I suffered a lot in the past and needed to score three for myself, for my team and for the supporters,” he said. “It was very important for me. Honestly, I think I missed because I had only this in my head.

“If I don’t think, probably I score. In the last 10 minutes I only have in my head ‘I want to bring the ball home’ and that’s why I missed. The goalkeeper did well. I thought he’d go down and I forgot he’s a keeper who is two metres tall and that’s why I failed. But I’m improving and this is the important thing.”

 

20 hours ago, Slojo said:

Embarrassing comment if you're referring to Torres's Chelsea days. 

But if you aren't then why even bring it up? Completely irrelevant to what Torres did at Liverpool, I only care about his career here and it was a very bad career he had.

I agree that the one v one moment was a terrible moment for him despite having two goals, it shows that he still lacks confidence or isn't good enough (hopefully it's not the latter). Usually, he tries his hardest to place the ball and it's so one dimensional, the keepers can see it coming a mile off, this time he tried something different but did it for the sake of it, because the keeper hardly even rushed out of his box. 

Why he can't just take the keeper on (which is how most goals are scored in a one v one situation) I'll never know, he needs to start doing that. 

I think you should read my posst again, never would i or did i compare to say 'Torres at Chelsea, i actually tongue in cheek mentioned he blew his 'Torres' moment so i could post that immortal video, but he has a lot to do to hit those heights he hit in his pre cfc days, so toddle off and shout at someone else

9 hours ago, Ballack & Blu said:

I think you should read my posst again, never would i or did i compare to say 'Torres at Chelsea, i actually tongue in cheek mentioned he blew his 'Torres' moment so i could post that immortal video, but he has a lot to do to hit those heights he hit in his pre cfc days, so toddle off and shout at someone else

But then you went on to say "I said was, Torres was actually a good player js" when that's completely irrelevant, nobody cares about what Torres did at Liverpool, at Chelsea his career was abysmal with only Chris Sutton topping his mediocrity with expectations. 

So the Torres comparisons just need to stop end of, that goal right there had nothing to do with Morata, Torres was very rarely one v one in his Chelsea career because the bloke would barely even move or get into the right position. So no he didn't have his "Torres moment" cancelled, how is scoring a one v one in a game where we were already winning 3-1 comparable to a Semi-Final against Barcelona where another goal would save us all the anxiety attacks we were having that game and definitely put us through to the final? 

Just a stupid comparison, as I said, quit with the Torres stuff. 

Its a forum pal, not some totalitarian regime, freedom of speech and all that, or don't comment and move on ok!

3 hours ago, Ballack & Blu said:

Its a forum pal, not some totalitarian regime, freedom of speech and all that, or don't comment and move on ok!

Alright, and I'll happily use my freedom of speech to say you were chatting absolute w**k. 

Torres was w**k, Morata is w**k. Next.

What a completely pointless discussion.

 

Torres wasn't great, but he was actually great in Europe for us. 14 goals in 26 appearances in his last 2 seasons. He was fantastic in Europa league. 

He also tried hard. He was always trying - he just had lost something when he came. I'll never forget his absolutely ridiculous first goal for us against West Ham when we all went completely barmy. 

I wouldn't describe either player as w**k. Just not quite good enough. I also don't see the point in comparing them. 

On 07/11/2018 at 22:50, Slojo said:

Alright, and I'll happily use my freedom of speech to say you were chatting absolute w**k. 

And in return i think you're a Pr*ck

On 09/11/2018 at 13:50, benjsross said:

Torres wasn't great, but he was actually great in Europe for us. 14 goals in 26 appearances in his last 2 seasons. He was fantastic in Europa league. 

He also tried hard. He was always trying - he just had lost something when he came. I'll never forget his absolutely ridiculous first goal for us against West Ham when we all went completely barmy. 

I wouldn't describe either player as w**k. Just not quite good enough. I also don't see the point in comparing them. 

 

Sorry but that is a complete misrepresentation of the truth. 

He's offside rather a lot.

44 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Sorry but that is a complete misrepresentation of the truth. 

I think it's more an opinion than a fact. In my opinion, and a lot of the Chelsea fans who went every week, he did try. He did run.

Just didn't have the confidence or the yard of pace. Something was off but I didn't think it was a lack of trying.

Saw he was getting quite a bit of grief in the match day thread but didn’t think he was that bad today. 

Was unlucky not to score start of the second half. Should have had an easy tap in if Willian squares to him instead of dragging a shot wide and should arguably have had a penalty when dragged to the floor. 

Just don’t think we’re getting the ball wide often enough, when we are getting crossing in Morata is causing problems. 

4 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

He's offside rather a lot.

Yeah. And oblivious to it. That goal he was standing offside. He didn't run offside. And he then complained that he wasn't. Basics.

3 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

He's offside rather a lot.

On the bright side, most of them were him trying to make runs in behind rather than being lazy getting back... so they were errors of aggression. But yes, he and the officials did not see eye to eye today. Overall, I didn't think he played poorly today (other than said offsides).

I don't think he had a bad game, certainly players worse than him. Issue being there are a couple of times the last few games with him being offside now. Its like he doesn't realise.

8 minutes ago, benjsross said:

I think it's more an opinion than a fact. In my opinion, and a lot of the Chelsea fans who went every week, he did try. He did run.

Just didn't have the confidence or the yard of pace. Something was off but I didn't think it was a lack of trying.

Every time i went to games with him playing he made Berbatov look like Kante on speed work rate wise.

Morata goes down way too easily. Three times today he did it, and it works against him, like the boy who cried wolf. The one which might have been a penalty, where he was grabbed at the far post, that was a great opportunity to score, or win a definite pen, if only he's stronger and makes a genuine attempt to hit it home. 

4 minutes ago, Davey Baby said:

Morata goes down way too easily. Three times today he did it, and it works against him, like the boy who cried wolf. The one which might have been a penalty, where he was grabbed at the far post, that was a great opportunity to score, or win a definite pen, if only he's stronger and makes a genuine attempt to hit it home. 

To be fair i think one of them was a penalty. The Mina one in the second half where Mina wasn't even looking at the ball.

3 minutes ago, Davey Baby said:

Morata goes down way too easily. Three times today he did it, and it works against him, like the boy who cried wolf. The one which might have been a penalty, where he was grabbed at the far post, that was a great opportunity to score, or win a definite pen, if only he's stronger and makes a genuine attempt to hit it home. 

Real Madrid really did a number on him.

dont think hes right for the english game, sucks

good sell on value still young etc

Let's call a spade a spade...he's fcuking sh*t and is not good enough to be leading the line for chelsea and never will be

7 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Saw he was getting quite a bit of grief in the match day thread but didn’t think he was that bad today. 

Was unlucky not to score start of the second half. Should have had an easy tap in if Willian squares to him instead of dragging a shot wide and should arguably have had a penalty when dragged to the floor. 

Just don’t think we’re getting the ball wide often enough, when we are getting crossing in Morata is causing problems. 

Exactly this, but then again you cant reason with the majority on here who just come on to moan, about most of our players, game in game out.

16 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Willian squares to him instead of dragging a shot wide   beating the keeper at his far post and missing the goal by the width of a goal-post

There you go mate, fixed up your balance for you.

5 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

There you go mate, fixed up your balance for you.

I mean however you spin it, if he's going to take that shot on rather than squaring it to Morata for a simple finish by not hitting the target he's wasted one of the best openings we had in the game. 

True, but your way was a negative description of what he actually did, and deliberately chosen to be so to emphasise a particular criticism of a specific player and  mine was a more balanced, objective view of what, had it been 6 inches to the right, would have been our  opening goal.

And also, it sorta blows the argument of those who are more virulent in their Willy-whingeing than either you or I, that he doesn't get into positions that an attacker would be expected to get into.  That and the wrongly disallowed goal last week, obviously.