One can’t find any confidence whatsoever, the other seems to ride false highs.
When Romelu Lukaku first moved to Manchester United and Alvaro Morata went to Chelsea, the two instantly put themselves on a path that would leave them inextricably linked for the remainder of their Premier League careers.
Rewind to the summer of 2017, when United and Jose Mourinho were hot on the heels of a goal scorer who could put his stamp on the team over an extended period of time. Robin van Persie and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were recent one-season-wonders, but both were also at the tail-end of their respective peaks and didn’t have much to offer after that. The time for stop-gap solutions was over.
Antonio Conte and Chelsea were also on the lookout for their own hitman, but not because they didn’t have one, but rather the manager had fractured his relationship with Spain’s Diego Costa and informed him via text messages that his services were no longer required.
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United set their sights on Alvaro Morata, a player who teased his potential with an excellent season in a reserve role at Real Madrid, scoring 15 goals in 26 appearances, 12 of them coming as a substitute.
He snubbed the Red Devils, though, opting for Conte’s Chelsea instead under the impression that his skills would be best suited for the Italian’s style of play. You could see the logic, too. Mourinho has long preferred powerful target men who need minimal touches to produce maximum efficiency: Benni McCarthy at Porto, Didier Drogba at Chelsea, Diego Milito at Inter Milan. Karim Benzema probably sounds like the odd man out here but his hold-up play was excellent and he often drifted wide as Cristiano Ronaldo moved central. Morata doesn’t really fit this bill.
Unfortunately for the Spaniard, though, Conte asked him to play that exact role at Chelsea. The tactic had worked ever so well with Costa as he could bully any defender in the league, and you usually don’t try to fix things when you’re returning as defending champions. It didn’t seem to be a problem for Morata at first with seven goals in his first seven matches as a result of developing an excellent telepathic understanding with Cesar Azpiliqueta, but he had an almighty struggle after being hit with the injury bug, scoring just three goals in his final 23 appearances.
United on the other hand moved on quickly, signing Romelu Lukaku from Everton for £90 million pounds, believing enough that the Belgian’s impressive Premier League tally (85 goals in 186 appearances) would carry over to the Theatre of Dreams. On the surface, they can have no complaints. 20 goals in 42 Premier League appearances is an admirable tally and comes at a much better ratio than Morata’s 13 goal return in 38 appearances for Chelsea.
But, if Lukaku truly is to be considered one of the great strikers in world football, his marksmanship against the best teams must improve. He has faced teams in the ‘Big 6’ (Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham) a total of 11 times now, and has just the one goal to show for it. That means 20 of his 31 goals have come against weaker opposition and inflated his reputation.
With Mourinho’s pragmatic style of play, someone like Lukaku should be tailor-made to thrive with his size and strength, but it’s the technical aspects that have left him struggling when it matters. His first touch is often quite poor, his decision-making in hold-up play rivaling that lack of quality, and in the big games, he’s missed some inexcusable chances just as he did this season with an empty net when United were all over Tottenham in the first half at Old Trafford and the game still scoreless. The Spurs went on to win 3-0.
It’s led to jokes like this:
Morata has been wasteful, period. In 31 appearances a season ago, Morata found the net just 11 times and incredibly missed 17 big chances. Only Mohamed Salah, Harry Kane and Christian Benteke missed more big chances, but at least Salah and Kane had 32 and 30 goals to show for it, respectively. Each miss piled on the misery, and this compilation below illustrates just how inexplicably bad Morata’s finishing became.
The obviously encouraging sign here is the ability to get himself into those positions, and while he placed a significant portion of the blame on departed manager Conte’s tactics, it’s becoming more and more clear this season that the player needs to take a good chunk of the responsibility as well. He had just one goal in six appearances before finding the net as a substitute in the 93rd minute in Chelsea’s last match against Southampton.
“The most important thing is the way we play. Last season it was direct balls and for me to protect the ball in the air is not my best quality,” Morata told Sky Sports. “Now I can attack the space, I can play one touch and go in the area for the crosses. It’s better for me.”
Sure, the soon to be 26-year-old prefers to play in and around defenders with clever runs just as he did in La Liga, but who can Morata blame after already losing his place in the starting lineup so early in the season. The answer, of course, maintains the connection these two share.
Olivier Giroud has been a revelation at Chelsea, impressing as a substitute before moving into the starting role. His role with France now mirrors that with Chelsea, as he isn’t necessarily depended on to score goals. For Les Bleus, Giroud’s primary role is to maximize the value of stars like Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe, while in Chelsea blue, it is the likes of Eden Hazard, Willian, Pedro and co. who he seeks to bring the best out of.
Across his seven appearances in the Premier League this season, Giroud has accumulated four assists and has taken just three shots on target without finding the back of the net. As long as Hazard and the rest of Chelsea’s midfield continues to thrive, Giroud will be an integral part of the team.
Can Lukaku also learn from Giroud? If he is to continue to grow, he needs to become better at involving his teammates and building an attack when he’s able to successfully hold up the ball. If he doesn’t become more of a well-rounded footballer, it’s hard to envision him truly attaining that gold standard. His ability to make teammates better will only come back around to serve him well as a player. The greater the threat of his teammates, the greater he becomes.
That both Morata and Lukaku are at a point where they could stand to learn a thing or two from Giroud speaks volumes of how far short they’ve fallen in terms of living up to the hype they were purchased with. In a clash against each other at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, both should have a chance to quell that noise, at least temporarily. Will they capture it or let it slip?
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