Has Maurizio Sarri finally unlocked the confidence and class of Alvaro Morata?

Eurosport.com

We all sort of knew it all along. But Maurizio Sarri’s revelation about Alvaro Morata, after his Crystal Palace brace, confirms Chelsea may have to wait to get the best out of their striker.

The good news, for the many who had started to write-off the £58m signing, is that there appear to be two Alvaro Moratas.

The first, and the one for which Chelsea shelled-out so handsomely, was seen particularly in his second goal against Palace on Sunday.

Finding a fine unmarked position, just outside the six yard box, he put the ball into Wayne Hennessey’s net from the tightest of angles.

The move handily took down many of the criticisms levelled against the Spaniard this season: that he doesn’t pick the right places or moments; that his finishing (particularly on the ground) is poor; that he lacks commitment in one-on-one situations.

It capped what may have been his best performance of the season so far.

The second, sadly, came not so many minutes later.

Alvaro Morata of Chelsea celebrates with teammate Pedro after scoring his team’s first goal during the Premier League match between Chelsea FC and Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge on November 4, 2018 in London, United Kingdom.Getty Images

Right at the last, and with only the keeper to beat, Morata elected to attempt a chip over the 6ft 6ins Welshman – from the closest of quarters.

He surely didn’t need to be in possession of a schoolboy’s protractor to calculate that he was attempting to score from the most improbable of angles.

Most watching, regardless of their own abilities in front of goal, would have reckoned on a more likely strategy: drop one shoulder, sending Hennessey the wrong way, before jinking the other way around him, perhaps?

Luckily for Morata, and for Chelsea, the striker’s work had been done. Though, coming at the last, the look on his face at full time showed that he knew he should have been taking the match ball home on this occasion.

Less than half an hour later, Sarri told us something quite unusual about his frontman.

“He’s a little bit fragile from the mental point of view,” he said.Winter

It was a point at which most of us could have taken an educated guess some months ago. All strikers play off confidence, but Morata seems to play off it a good percentage more than most.

To be fair, those goals were his fourth and fifth of the season, putting him level with Mohamed Salah and Alexandre Lacazette in the scoring charts.

He has been banging them in, this season, at a rate of one every two hours or so of football: a better ratio than Raheem Sterling, Harry Kane or Sadio Mane.

But the overall picture is less promising. 16 goals in 41 Premier League appearances (10 of them off the bench) is not great for a record outfield signing.

It spoke volumes that those seeking to celebrate this record could find only Fernando Torres to positively compare it with (15 in his first 82).

Alvaro Morata of Chelsea celebrates with teammate Eden Hazard after scoring his team’s second goal during the Premier League match between Chelsea FC and Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge on November 4, 2018 in London, United Kingdom.Getty Images

Chelsea were not great at helping their targetman acclimatise last season. Despite a promising start, particularly from the air, he was left to flounder.

The team did not play to his strengths, and only now is Sarri finding ways to engage him on the surface in the final third.

“He’s very young. I think he can improve very fast,” said Sarri of the 26-year-old.

“Alvaro has improved during the last month – improved for the confidence, for the personality, also from the technical point of view. Now he’s able to play more with the team.”

All of which appears true. He now needs to grasp that opportunity with both hands.

A week including matches against BATE Borisov and Everton should offer more goals (the latter has the third leakiest defence in the top half of the table).

As we have long expected, and as Sarri now tells us he knows, there is little physically stopping Morata from scoring them.

Edited by aderinwaledavid