For those who have seen Morata play a lot - is he the kind of striker where we can go fast with Martial/Rashford/Morata/Mikhi/Herrera or go big with Pogba/Fellaini/Lukaku/Valencia if we want to switch it up? Just trying to figure out if there is any sense in us going for both aside from Morata playing behind Lukaku.
Álvaro Morata | Chelsea player
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Yes, he is the perfect striker in world football right now to be able to play both roles. I dont think theres anyone else with such a combination of speed, ball control and physicality atm aside from I guess Ronaldo and Aubameyang. He isnt incredibly fast, but quick for his size
A bit of both. He's quite fast (not as fast as Martial, of course), and can even operate in slightly wider areas to bring the wide attackers or central midfielders towards the goal:
But he can also act as a more direct target in the box with his 189 cm frame - like traditional center forwards:
Decent from outside the box, too:
If everything goes well, you'll have a slightly faster, but less in-your-face physical version of Diego Costa with a bit of Aritz Aduriz thrown in. So you can see why he would appeal to Mourinho - whose teams often rely on quick, simplistic vertical counters as the standard attacking template.
No it's not because Pogba wants to get involved in the game all over the pitch. A good example was the League-cup final when he was all over the pitch leaving huge gaps in the area which he should defend. So in theory, yes he probably can - but he is still not mature enough to do it.
Probably that is his strength, being able to play both play style rather than stuck with certain style making him unpredictable unlike someone like Chica for example.
Why do you ask about Italians?
This Pogba left huge gap in defense in league cup is narrative made by the English pundits. The problem with our defense was the Mata had a meh game. Perhaps due to his family issue before the game. Bertrand & Redmond combination couldn't be handled by Valencia himself. Then our CB pair had below standard game. Our tactic was similar to that of EL final that we tried to stiffled them by man marking them in midfield and forced them go long to Gabbiadini who should be taken care well by our CBs, especially Smalling for his man marking style. It failed.
You must not watch Pogba enough to say he always wants to get involved all over the pitch. He can play very disciplined. If anything as I put it in previous post & many time regarding different matters, many positions in our teams underperform throughout season leading to some players having to do too much on their own. Pogba has football brain to know when & what to do. It's not theory or anything like that, toward the end of the season, his defensive game visibly improved. The Ajax game (not midfield 2, but Pogba played deep in double pivot role for huge part of game) he man marked perfectly. VS England in that friendly, he outperformed Kante defensively IMO.
None of that really explains the relevance of bringing up Rooney's average tally. Clearly Morata would be the spearhead of the attack, a role Rooney only played infrequently. When Rooney did play there he scored 20 + league goals. The same would be expected of Morata.
As for there being more pressure on the today's No.9 the easiest way I can explain it is because there's now only one striker in the average starting XI. If Cole, RvN, Shearer etc were having a dry spell it was no big problem as they had a strike partner or No.10 still banging them in. They also had two wingers expected to hit double figures and possibly a goalscoring midfielder. For most teams that simply isn't the case today. More than ever the team is set up around the No.9.
i don't know where your confusion is coming from, someone asked if people would be happy if morata had a morientes like career with us scoring 12 league goals a season, and i brought up a club legend that has averaged like around 14 goals a season to highlight the fact that it isn't really as bad as it sounds. I further elaborated on how Morata would contribute more than just goals by speaking on his skill set.
rooney has only ever scored 20+ league goals in a season TWICE, he has been at manchester united for 13 years, and from memory, i'm pretty sure he has led the line more than just two seasons. that's besides the point tho, as i already asserted that morata would contribute more than just goals, much like rooney used to.
Like i said regarding your #9 claims, if there's been a shift there it has been to expect them to be more than just goal scorers. Strikers are now expected to create as well as to finish. There's more emphasis on hold up play, movement and passing as well as the ability to play wide for strikers now than there used to be. Benzema leads the line for Real Madrid yet he only scored 11 league goals last year but created 38 chances and assisted 5. Suarez for Barcelona scored 28, assisted a ridiculous 13 and created 62 chances. The pressure on #9 to be the main/only goal outlets has been lessened in recent years with most teams adopting systems with interchangeable attackers, and the rise of "false #9s" and "goal scoring wingers" to prominence, so much so you'd be hard pressed to find teams with classic byline hugging, ball crossing wide players like back in the day.
We will sign him, but there are going to be a lot of salty posters in here once the fee is announced. RM are going to fleece us.
yeah, but you see, these are statistics and facts. None of that matters because its "embarrassing" that we want to buy a "madrid welbeck."
In all seriousness, I can't wait for this one to be confirmed. When he gets a chance he grabs it. He played second to ronaldo, he will now become the focus of our attack. We have one hell of a striker on our hands and can't wait to see a No.9 run at defenders again.
Great article. Has gotten me more excited about the prospect of signing him.
all speculating on the cost. no one knows the true cost.
Next time Real Madrid come for one of our players, we will hard ball just as they are doing now.
I hope so mate. DDG should not be sold for less than £100 million.
I should hope we would anyway, regardless of this situation.
I think we did with DDG already so....
Baffles me why anyone cares. It has no impact on us as fans. Not like we have to pay it
Exactly. It works both ways. I'm sure one day they'll come back in for De Gea, by then hopefully his contract will be renewed so we can get every penny out of them.
On Morata. The fee really doesn't bother me, and are we really slowing this deal down over a few million? Come on Ed sort it out. Getting Morta into the team realy for preseason and starting the league well is so much more important.
Interesting that he has more than Ronaldo/Aduriz etc. He really does seem like a jack-of-all-trades type forward, ready to burst into top quality if he gets the first choice striker position to lock down.
Not that it matters as every deal goes this way, the cycle started with de Gea.
They were always going to shaft us on this guy simply cos they know he loves Madrid and wont do anything to force a move.
Good piece chief, I'm getting more excited about this signing all the time. Think he could be a vital player for us and score a lot of goals. Seems a classy player and guy to boot.
And the people complaining about no signings being the same ones complaining about the fee no doubt!
What about Di Maria? who was very over priced too. How come they didn't take our previous dealings (Beckham/Ruud cheap prices) into consideration for that deal?
In a vacuum, probably not. If contextualised by excellent all-round skills to bring others into play and contribute a decent amount of assists, then sure. Comparisons to the likes of Drogba and Rooney: teams can succeed without having a number 9 who scored large volumes of goals.
I think it can be innate to bog down solely on heavy goal contribution, but the issue of that is stylistically you become completely reliant on said player, and when in a rut, play becomes predictable. We saw that with Ibrahimovic this season -- as great a player he is, play was situated entirely around him, and whilst he hit good figures, we suffered elsewhere. I'd fear something similar would occur with Lukaku.
I'd happily take a Morata on an average amount of goals next season if the likes of Martial/Mkhitaryan et al. are pushing the same amount. Something similar to what Liverpool had this season - a nice spread of goal across all their attackers.
when you're opponent for a starting position is ronaldo, you have to make your opportunities count, and he does. With Juve he averaged under a half of football per game (~42mins per game), with madrid he starting playing ~55 mins. He'll finally get a core role with us and can't wait to see what he can do.
What about him? They sold him to us for a fee we were willing to pay. Just like we did with Beckham or Ruud. It's a business, not friends helping each other out.
Real don't want to sell Morata so unless he kicks up a shit storm, expecting Real to sell for anything but as high a fee as possible is an exercise in futility really especially when the world knows we're both desperate and rich, a deadly combination.
I agree but was thinking Martial too. Tony struggled a bit last year and possibly part of it was down to a clash of playing style with Zlatan. Hopefully Morata's mobility & more dynamic play could help Martial.
And also Pogba. With more pace and movement ahead of him, he could also start to play even better.
Sometimes its about more than just goals that an individual brings, its about how they impact on the rest of the team. Fergie did a similar thing with Ruud and Saha. Ruud was clearly more talented but Saha brought the best out of Rooney/Ronaldo Scholes/Carrick etc.
This is a bloody long honeymoon. He will be worn out.
Beat me to it.
For those already liking the idea of Morata and see at least some value in statistics – this is good stuff.
I hope the transfer is wrapped up sooner rather than later, but even if it isn't ahead of the pre-season tour, Morata can just join the squad later. Everyone doesn't necessarily have to depart together.
Pay them the £79m, thats roughly what Higuain went for after all and lukaku is going to be over £85m. Pay the money and then tell them to forget about ever signing De Gea unless they cough up about £180m in the future.
United need to stop pandering to Madrid. Forget Morata, keep De Gea & go after Lukaku, Aubameyang or Belotti. Just go anywhere but Madrid!
feck off this feckers
feck off this feckers
I honestly am convinced that this time next year we will all be saying "thank feck we got this star" he is going to be fantastic
Feck it just pay the money and get this done already.
lukaku isn't going for under 100m. I wouldn't be surprised if that is the hold up with his move to chelsea, everton probably asking for something like 110-115
Jesus, get a grip, it's a drawn out process because perez is a first-grade cnut like marotta was with pogba. These deals take a while. Secondly, there's no credible information that we are about to lose De Gea. If anything the credible info points to Madrid being happy with navas. Thirdly, you want to pay over 100m for other players, just so we don't deal with madrid?
So pay more for a player the manager doesn't really fancy. Boy that will show madrid that we can't be messed with. Feck me. If only some of you lot were my clients
I'd be a multimillionaire by now.
Morata is probably the best fit for the style we are looking to play. Not to mention that he would be a Mourinho player through and through considering he was granted his debut by Jose.
Have faith in Ed to negotiate the best deal possible for us. He has done well for two summers now. I find it great that we are actually putting our foot down and not being held to ransom.
I believe alot of the other top clubs in the Prem are doing the same. The rest of the world seems to have a markup in price for their players once an EPL club comes in.
A report just went out that Madrid rejected a €80M bid for Morata and they are demanding €90M (£72M) for his services.
Now I want this fiasco over and done with as much as the next person so Utd can move forward and prepare for the upcoming season but this is absolute insanity. How in the feck are RM demanding 3x the price of the player they brought back in the summer for €32M? Sometimes enough is enough. Morata isn't the only striker available in the world. We can literally get Aubameyang and Chicharito combined for a cheaper price and would be better off.
And enough with the JM wants to build for the future excuse regarding why we have our eyes locked in on Morata. If that was really the case then we wouldn't be in on the likes of Matic and Perisic over younger options such as Fabinho and etc. Fact of the matter is RM are probably holding a grudge due to the DDG situation from a few years ago and are definitely taking the piss. Might as well bend us over and have at it
...just hoping this 'report' is false and made up heresay. If not, man this Morata move just got a lot uglier and unlikely it happens before Sunday as both sides remain adamant to drag this out until they get what they deem is fair. €90M is pretty much paying the Mbappe fee
Now I want this fiasco over and done with as much as the next person so Utd can move forward and prepare for the upcoming season but this is absolute insanity. How in the feck are RM demanding 3x the price of the player they brought back in the summer for €32M? Sometimes enough is enough. Morata isn't the only striker available in the world. We can literally get Aubameyang and Chicharito combined for a cheaper price and would be better off.
And enough with the JM wants to build for the future excuse regarding why we have our eyes locked in on Morata. If that was really the case then we wouldn't be in on the likes of Matic and Perisic over younger options such as Fabinho and etc. Fact of the matter is RM are probably holding a grudge due to the DDG situation from a few years ago and are definitely taking the piss. Might as well bend us over and have at it
...just hoping this 'report' is false and made up heresay. If not, man this Morata move just got a lot uglier and unlikely it happens before Sunday as both sides remain adamant to drag this out until they get what they deem is fair. €90M is pretty much paying the Mbappe fee
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