Chelsea slipped out of top four last season, and many fans rightfully blamed their then biggest ever signing, Alvaro Morata. The former Real Madrid player came in with an excellent reputation, and a lot was expected out of the Spaniard last season. However, now he has agreed to the fact that last season was a disaster for him. He even opened up on how he had second thoughts about leaving the club in the summer.
He said,”Last year I was not happy, everything was a disaster. I went out on to the pitch and I didn’t even know where I was. I was ruined, how else could I cope with a summer without going to the World Cup. It was a very tough moment for me, the worst moment of my career and I had a very bad time. It was a complicated moment(summer window) because I thought I was going to go. Of course, I thought about returning to play in Spain or returning to Italy.”
Those words suggest that the striker was at an all-time low and was lacking confidence. That lack of confidence was being reflected on the pitch as he was putting in one poor performance after another.
The Blues faithful would hope that Morata can show the form for which he was famous at Juventus which pushed the London club to make a £60m move for him. With him being back in Spain’s set up during the international break, Maurizio Sarri would also hope that it would bring the best out of him when he joins the squad later.
Morata often seems like a confidence player as when he is having a good time on the pitch, he looks sharper in his movement and pace and the forward is usually willing to make those runs from the shoulders of the defenders. That wasn’t happening much last season as he often tried to come up short and was always looking for cheap fouls here and there. It seemed like he was always trying to play it safe instead of taking that extra effort to make those darting runs around the defence.
The 25-year-old forward started the season well last year but his form fell through after he was out for a while with minor injuries and since then, he never recovered to his best. The Blues were linked with plenty of strikers in the summer window but none of the moves materialised. Even Morata was linked with a move away from the club; however, he is set to get another chance to prove his worth at Stamford Bridge.
So did the Blues made a mistake by giving him another bite at the cherry after missing out on the top 4 last season? Given the market and the strikers available, trusting the Spaniard was the right way to go. There would have been no assurance that signing the likes of Gonzalo Higuain for big money would have guaranteed goals. Plus without Champions League, it would have been tough to attract top of the cream strikers at the East London club. So for now going in with Morata for another season was the best bet. Not many get second chances at top clubs, so Morata should thank his stars and work hard to prove why he was brought in the first place for £60m.
