I don't think that's necessarily the case. Last year, Mourinho restricted Mkhitaryan's appearances at the beginning of the year and when he finally started playing, he performed well to the point where many didn't want Mata to play if it hindered Mkhi's minutes. Lingard has also seen limited time over the past year until only recently and he is obviously playing well now. Managers sometimes 'throttle' the amount of appearances players make to (re)build their confidence to where their approach in training can be executed on the pitch.
Álvaro Morata | Performances
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Uncharacteristically bad tonight. It's a tough patch of form for him but I still believe he will grow into a very good consistent striker.
Among the league's top 10 scorers, the average number of minutes played is 1,559. So he's played about 12% fewer minutes than his contemporaries, and is on track to play about 8% fewer minutes than Rooney, Suárez and Kane over those seasons.
That's a pretty flimsy point to rest on when he's scored when he's scored 1/3 of the goals you expected after more than 1/2 the season.
Only 4 players have more league goals than him - not too shabby or an off form player.
You really used Mkhitaryan and Lingard as examples. One player that has proven why he didnt deserve more game time and one that has only gotten consistent this season.
Morata at Madrid got limited game time, because Benzema worked better with Ronaldo. This is a knock against his qualities as a striker. Morata at Chelsea is extremely reliant on Azpi and Hazard (Hazard genuinely has better hold up play than Morata).
I've watched him since his Juve days enough that him getting limited game time isnt a coincidence; his game is not refined enough. He isnt 'off-form' this is just the striker he is and will need to improve to be one of the best.
That's an awful lot of tangents for a pretty straightforward line of thought. I think I'll pass on doing this all over again.
Thanks @GifLord and the person who does the threadmarks, missed the game
Disagree. I think he's got another gear in him that he hasn't yet realized. Same with Lukaku. These are players who are only just now entering their prime career production years and their best is yet to come.
Or maybe wait until Morata has another bad day to magically reappear.
Chance would be a fine thing, he'd have to get in the position's to miss 3 1 v 1s in a game first.
Yes I see that argument bandied around a lot to cover players shortcomings but sometimes you just can't see a player go past a certain level in their game regardless of their age. Otherwise you'd never be able to judge a player till they're 27.. which in the case of most players you can pretty much tell how good they will go on to become.
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I think individually he would be excellent, score plenty of goals and he has a more rounded game than either of Lukaku or Morata.
How he effects their overall pattern of play is very hard to say. At times having a target for a cross could allow City to vary their play against teams who camp on the edge of their box. He would have to adapt though, would probably get fewer touches of the ball in general play than he is used to in their more patient build up.
Just as an aside Utd fans i know used to bemoan us missing out on Shearer and will still argue to this day that we might have ended up with multiple CL titles in the 90's with him added to that midfield. Not convinced myself, peak Cole and Yorke may have been lesser individual players but what they did for the overall team style of play was ideal.
Terrible finisher with his feet, gets easy chances but misses more than he scores.
I mean, sure? But to compare a peak Drogba, to two players who haven't entered their prime imo isn't the most conclusive of arguments. Neither is judging both completely after 6 months at new teams.
Drogba was also criticized in his early Chelsea days no?
Someone should lock Levy in a room and ask him if he'd do it.
Amazes me how amazing of a finisher he is with his head compared to his feet.
Whats the point in Drogba comparisons? You have Kane in the same age bracket getting Ronaldo and Messi numbers. Morata is clearly a level below the best strikers in the world.
At this rate Lingard will outscore them all.
Imagine if he was a darts player. Would never finish his doubles.
Fair enough.
Hoping Morata doesn't let this get to his head. We all know Conte doesn't rate Michy and if Morata's shooting blanks, we will need others to step up and help with scoring goals.
Shows you how valuable elite strikers are at the top level. If Kane was upfront for Chelsea tonight they win that about 5 - 2.
@ivaldo still think he was a good buy and a bargain? 
Yep, first season didnt look like a great deal. After that he was fantastic
And yet almost everyone will consider Costa a better striker.
Based on perceptions and what others say and not actual results.
Based on there being more than just goals on a game of football. Also why we moved chicharito on.
If Rooney had done this consistently in all his seasons after getting his big pay day we wouldn't have needed to sign one of them in the first place.
He's always been an unreliable finisher.
Going through a slump. Happens to most strikers.
Not the point for people who feel the need to hit back at other in this case. Morata by some people narrative would solve every problem we have with Lukaku.
Drogba was not that impressive in his first season has nothing to do with us as we didn't have people talking as if we couldn't win the league back then because we didn't have Drogba instead of a burned out RVN, injury prone Saha, show pony Ronaldo...
I am not on either side. Just saying this kind of stuff is warranted due to the back and forth in Lukaku vs Morata thread.
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Sad to hear he's not doing so well. Still believe he'll come good eventually.
He will take time to adapt. Long balls and physical battles are very common and Morata isn't good with those. He falls to the ground very easily; which is obliviously carrying over from La Liga.
More knee jerk reactions in this thread than a convention for reflex exam fetishist.
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That kid would be a good signing but he'll be 30 in 24 years
He needs to score 10 goals in the next 8 games to match Costa's first season in the league.
Morata also never scored 36 goals in all comps in La Liga, something Costa did in his last season at Atletico. As things stand he has been a bit crap in all big games for Chelsea this season in the league apart against us and really underwhelming in CL.
He's a good player but from what I've seen so far I'd still take Lukaku...
Drogba was never that much of a goalscorer, he learned to be effective in other ways using his strength and workrate. Not sure Morata has all that much else if he's not scoring goals. Hes a good player but hes only in that Chelsea team to score.
I don't know if you're referring to his Chelsea days or overall career here.
But he was known as a wasteful striker in Spain, one of those "score the hard, miss the easier ones" players, he never got to 20 league goals with Atletico, and his best season was 21 goals in all comps with Atleti, his form with Liverpool took everyone for surprise here in Spain, the player he was supposed to be but everyone gave up on waiting by his 4th season with Atleti.
So, he probably missed 3 1vs1 in a single game, maybe even more, his games with Atleti in the Bernabeu were famous for how atrocious he was, if you want to find someone with a "lowest point" higher than Morata, Torres is not your guy, be it pre or post Liverpool stint.