Yeah some say he's lined up to develop as one. Maybe. But if you look at his actual performance history... He played 42 games as a left wing last season. 3 as a striker. 1 on the right. Go back the 2 seasons before, and again, vast vast majority on the left. He plays almost entirely on the left with a few games through the middle or on the right. He's less of a striker than Rashford is at the moment.
Alvaro Morata
- Thread starter Adam-Utd
- Start date
He's one of the better low scoring strikers. It may sound like a backhanded compliment but we're in a position where clinical strikers aren't available. Genuinely don't think we can do better than him right now.
He's also not that lethal.
Cannot really compare his five seasons in Eredivisie to Moratas seasons in the top European leagues, it just doesn't work.
He's had one good season last season, and started well this campaign (literally two games).
you don't want Morata because he can't score but want Bellotti? he is absoloutely muck.
Out of curiosity, and realistically, who would you prefer for the striker option this season? And why?
Rather him than Arnautovic but that's about it.
Morata is far better than any of those players. You want a hard working striker who is good in the air, can hold the ball up, link up well, etc. I wouldn't mind Memphis generally, but Morata is easily the best option for us.
Well he produces loads of goals and assists. Two footed. Young enough to be developed.
Morata is hardly lethal. Been over 10 gals a season 5 times the last 10-11 years.
He was a fecking laughing stock on here when he played for Chelski
I think it is more the point that with limited options Bellotti for free makes more sense than overpaying for some of these other options if we are not going to have the budget to go for someone top tier. I also would not call 100 goals in Serie A muck and he is a hard working old fashioned number 9 which seems to be the profile Erik is after at this point and like Morata is good at holding up the ball and linking play. I would personally prefer we splash the cash and get someone top tier but Glazernomics says that is not an option.
I agree Belotti isn't top draw - couldn't get a game for the best in Europe etc.. But he's a better consistent goal scoring record than Morata. And in our current situation - he's free plus (i guess) relatively cheap wages. Morata would be another millstone we could never get rid off.
And if reports are to be believed ETH wants a different type of striker - which he is.
I genuinely think he'd outscore and out perform Morata. I recognise he's not great - but in comparison etc. etc.
Just feck off with this transfer window. It's been the absolute worst in my lifetime and that includes the summer we replaced Ronaldo with Michael Owen
Yes - this is basically my point of view
Yeah but despite that, he's still Spain's #1 striker. Luis Enrique will have similar preferences to Ten Hag. So you could see him fitting well. Obviously his goalscoring could improve, but he wouldn't come in to be our #1 striker. He'd come in to be added depth and fit the managers system. He doesn't just want a poacher, we have Ronaldo for that.
He turned Haller into wine so I’d back him to get some kind of tune out of Alvaro but honestly the further along we move in this window the more the club expose themselves as totally clueless, still chasing has beens instead of going for recently proven models elsewhere.
Tge worry is EtH is meant to be a coach who gets out on the pitch & improves players, why isn’t he backing himself or being backed with some talents. He took a lot of failures in the EPL & mixed them with Ajax’s youth, some of the targets we’re chasing have an air of Ajax reclamation project around them which might work there but he’s meant to be building something. If we’re just going for tried & tested we could have had Poch.
Tge worry is EtH is meant to be a coach who gets out on the pitch & improves players, why isn’t he backing himself or being backed with some talents. He took a lot of failures in the EPL & mixed them with Ajax’s youth, some of the targets we’re chasing have an air of Ajax reclamation project around them which might work there but he’s meant to be building something. If we’re just going for tried & tested we could have had Poch.
We need a striker that also scores mate, we have enough players in the team that doesnt score. Maybe im wrong and you are right, i just feel that we need something else than a Chelsea reject.
He doesn't have much competition for that spot though. Ferran Torres and Moreno are his biggest threats. It's nice that he's Spain no.1 striker but it doesn't mean much in my opinion.
Did we not replace Ronaldo with Antonio Valencia ? Tony V turned out pretty good in the long run
What are the figures? This would make sense if he were to continue his on-loan life.
Ha. That's what SAF said with a straight face in his documentary. He turned out OK. But we sold the best player in the world at that time for relatively small money and did nothing with it.
A world record transfer fee?
Do we intend to move to a two striker system or is ETH lying about Ronaldo?
Aye, I think I argued this enough back in the day, mea culpa for bringing it up again. But that's my opinion still. Anyhow, what we did with the money was shameful.
atletico Madrid is the gold standard as far as strikers. anyone they have scouted is very high level from the agueros and Diego Costas of this world to Joao Felix. If they bought Morata he can’t be that bad. Think of what he offers not just goals. Hold up play, movement, strong in the air etc. i would honestly take him.. better than Martial and thats not a slight on Martial.
Jesus, we're eating out of the bin and debating which is better, the cold pizza or the mouldy burger, aren't we?
Of course. Think it’s factually incorrect to say he was sold for relatively small money though given it was a world record transfer fee.
'He's Spains no 1 striker'
Doesnt mean as much when Spain haven't produced a striker worth much since the Torres/Villa era
If they had they wouldn't have been crashing out in the group stages and rof16 like they have recently in spite of their tremendous quality in midfield and defence.
His main competition have been what, Rodrigo, Ferran Torres and Fernando Llorente? Even with that he didn't make the last WC squad in his prime with a washed up Costa being picked ahead of him
Doesnt mean as much when Spain haven't produced a striker worth much since the Torres/Villa era
If they had they wouldn't have been crashing out in the group stages and rof16 like they have recently in spite of their tremendous quality in midfield and defence.
His main competition have been what, Rodrigo, Ferran Torres and Fernando Llorente? Even with that he didn't make the last WC squad in his prime with a washed up Costa being picked ahead of him
Last edited:
Well SAF did have a track record for selling top talent and replacing them with lesser stars (class of 92 ring a bell). And lets not forget that we won the league 2 out of the 4 years post Ronaldo with SAF in charge (and finished 2nd in the other two years - once on goal difference) and went to the CL final in 2011. So its not like we needed to indulge in transfer muppetry players to have success. In fact getting rid of top players not playing their top game (Pogba comes to mind right away) and replacing them with younger hungry players (instead of has-beens) is a lesson we could do with remembering.
Have we actually been linked? Easily one of these striker options we could wind up with if it's a real interest
If Ronaldo is staying and he’s almost always healthy.. with Martial as back-up I don’t see us buying another striker. We’ll prioritize a winger for creativity ( I still think we get antony before the window closes).
Antony, DeJong and Rabiot would be a 10/10 window for me.
Antony, DeJong and Rabiot would be a 10/10 window for me.
Yes
Morata would be depth. 1 injury so far and we're fecked
Buying him would be so dumb. He’s just come off a loan from Juve.
Loan him in and if he’s worth keeping around we can do next season but to spend a chunk of our budget on him now would be dumb.
Yeah it'd be nice to find a striker who is a proven scorer and holds up play well and links up well. Unfortunately, there is no Robin Van Persie Regen alive right now. Lewandowski, Benzema are the only high scorer and link up/hold up strikers in the world currently. Gabriel Jesus is one who is good all around but hasn't proven to be a high scorer yet. Morata is like that. He has a lot of excellent qualities, but doesn't have the good scoring rate. You have to be realistic with what options are available and what we have/lack in our team now, both Rabiot and Morata would be good signings that could help us a lot.
I don't know if he's been linked with you but I'd like to put on the record that he is fecking shite.
No chance we get all three, any more than Rabiot looks a massive ask especially with the complexity of De Jong combined with mental valuation of Antony.
Tbf most strikers that played for you lot have been pretty shite.
Regarding of Morata, I wouldn't mind a loan with options to buy. He can be a good squad player that can provide options when we still have Ronaldo upfront.
Winner! Absolutely, Morata is the poor man's Lukaku, or: the shit Spanish version of a shit Belgian player. When he was at Chelsea he was a lost sheep out there with no touch, poor movement, and a mediocre work rate. Nothing about Morata indicates he'd be good in an ETH system, or our shit team, or any combination of our shit team trying to perform an ETH system.
Between De Gea, Heaton, Maguire, Lindelof, Varane, Fred, Eriksen and Ronaldo, we have enough players in that age range.
whichever way you frame it, buying a soon to be 30 year old as backup for our 38 year old want away striker who has 1 year left on his contract is bad business.
There is strikers out there though, 5 of last years top 7 have bought new strikers and the other club has sold 2 of them! While we have swung and miss at everyone from Brobbey to Arnautovic!
It’s a joke and there’s no excusing it.