Imagine if Lukaku had fluffed the chance near the end where Morata tripped himself up when clean through on goal? We’d never hear the end of it. Sadly, Lukaku can only dream of the service Morata got today
Romelu Lukaku vs Alvaro Morata 2017/18
- Thread starter Paxi
- Start date
Classy goal. But unfair to think lukaku is not good enough. The difference was one had fabregas and hazard spraying and one had herrera and mkhi. Unfair to compare today.
I have been going back and forth on the caf these days and I get a general all is fine apart from the weird attitude from Mourinho towards the fans vibe from you. This comment seems to not add up to that vibe though, your argument to defend Lukaku is that we basically play nil creativity football... that can't go well in the long run for Mourinho...
I don't think either is top class. Lukaku to me just looks too solid. That will come into play much more as he ages. He's just too bulky for me.
Nil creativity football today is stretching. The quality of creative players are the issue. Our CBs have chance to break through and try to make an early cross like Azpilicueta did, but they just couldn't do it. Alonso was isolated, yet he still worked his way to put in some crosses that make our defense worked. Our players did have some opening, yet to produce.
Morata is like Suarez though in that his quick intelligent movement throughout games gets him many good chances and makes it easier for creative players to supply him
Lukaku is an elite box striker but is quite different in the outlet he offers. In big games you're going to need attacking tactics to get the best out of him.
If we had good wingers Lukaku would be immense.
Morata was excellent today in every facet of a strikers game other than his finishing. Admittedly, that's the #9's most important job, but his hold up play was terrific, his movement superb, and his work rate was fantastic.
Like Conte said after the game, it's his first season as the main man, in a new league, and a new country. He sharpens up his finishing with his feet and we have ourselves a superstar.
has this conversation with a mate after the Benfica game. He's 24 now but will only get slower due to his size
Except that finishing is more than 50% of a strikers game and he was poor in that today.
Aslo has more miles on his legs than most players his age. Early boomers generally fade early too.
This... Lukaku needs balls behind the line or crosses into the box he is getting neither..
Hopefully he will get better in other aspects..
We need someone wide who can get the ball in or fullbacks who get forward and can do the same. Our set pieces are woeful as well and have been for a number of years.
I agree. And not just in terms of pace but overall movement - turning etc. It's like manoeuvring a truck where what you really want is a motorbike.
Yes and we got a 19-20 year old striker taking all of them
At least Morata had Bakayoko and Fabregas to work with, what the hell did Lukaku have.
Which is madness. Think people now get why he wanted Perisic. We have not had a freekick taker of class since Ronaldo.
No and we dont use the players who can whip in a good ball.. Mata never takes them anymore and he had a great set piece on him. Now we let Rashford and Lukaku blast them all over the place..
When he arrived at Chelsea they were shocked at the kind of training he was doing (from Anderlecht) . Considerable work went into getting Lukaku to train and eat like a footballer and not a wrestler. If you think he is bulky now, he was worse when he arrived.
I don't doubt it. It will only get more difficult for him.
Nothing, which has been the case for a handful of games.
Funnily enough, my immediate after thought after that was how Kane would have just smashed that in. Not quite sure what he was trying to achieve by turning inside when he already had the angle.
Same can be said about Lukaku’s shot in the first half, you just know Kane would have smashed that one in the opposite corner - Lukaku did what the keeper easily anticipated
Morata just seemed to have more footballing intelligence today.
Got to say that was a classic header from Morata. A text book goal if ever I’ve seen one.
Unfair to compare the two today as the service and quality of team mates was a different level. I do think Lukaku needs to be cuter though, take away his strength and I think the centre back has an easy afternoon with him.
Unfair to compare the two today as the service and quality of team mates was a different level. I do think Lukaku needs to be cuter though, take away his strength and I think the centre back has an easy afternoon with him.
It's sad.
The space Morata had for his goal was bizarre.
We’re definitely struggling to create without Pogba. Hard to know how much Mkhi going to shite is down to him struggling with the extra responsibility/focus from opposing defenders and how much is just him falling to pieces all on his own. Whatever, swap him with Fabregas in today’s game and Lukaku would have had more opportunities. If we still don’t create when Pogba’s back in the team then I’ll worry that we have deeper problems than just being over-reliant on him.
Love Morata's intensity. He always looks like he wants to kill someone. 
Definitely! probably due to his slight goal drought. His hold up play was immense always got us on the attack and constantly the United defenders couldn't get near him.
Last night's scorpion pass:
Morata is by far better at holding the ball up and bringing the rest of the team in - winning those key fouls, but I still think Lukaku is the bigger goal threat.
Probably unfair to judge on yesterdays performances, give the support offered to Morata, compared with the support given to Lukaku, but when they are both on the same pitch is the best time for personal comparisons.
Morata can take the ball with his back to goal, is constantly hunting for space, demonstrated his ability in the air (admittedly unchallenged) and has quick feet. Lukaka is physically stronger, probably faster (in full flight), is not able to take a ball with his back to goal, is 'lazy' in terms of looking for space and always seems to be 'back on his heels' when a ball gets played into and around him.
Morata took only one of the three clear chances he had, don't think Lukaku had one clear chance!
We have a potential 'Morata model' in Rashford, someone who can work their own openings as well as combing with others.
Lukaku however is a one off, a case of "load, aim and fire" is what we need for Lukaku... but who will make the bullet's?
Morata can take the ball with his back to goal, is constantly hunting for space, demonstrated his ability in the air (admittedly unchallenged) and has quick feet. Lukaka is physically stronger, probably faster (in full flight), is not able to take a ball with his back to goal, is 'lazy' in terms of looking for space and always seems to be 'back on his heels' when a ball gets played into and around him.
Morata took only one of the three clear chances he had, don't think Lukaku had one clear chance!
We have a potential 'Morata model' in Rashford, someone who can work their own openings as well as combing with others.
Lukaku however is a one off, a case of "load, aim and fire" is what we need for Lukaku... but who will make the bullet's?
Chelseas attack is far more fluid than ours at the moment. For me the main difference was Morata could drift wide and he knew players would be making runs around him. If Lukuku isnt in the middle we had no one willing to get ahead of him.
Something that struck out to me was how Morata was able to take an extra touch to lay it off when he had his back to goal, which i believe is a problem when we play 3 at the back - not enough players to press their attackers (probably at fear for leaving a big gap behind them). Lukuku didnt have the same luck where Chelsea defenders were always tight to him.
I still maintain we arent suited to have 3 at the back. Never have and probably never will.
Something that struck out to me was how Morata was able to take an extra touch to lay it off when he had his back to goal, which i believe is a problem when we play 3 at the back - not enough players to press their attackers (probably at fear for leaving a big gap behind them). Lukuku didnt have the same luck where Chelsea defenders were always tight to him.
I still maintain we arent suited to have 3 at the back. Never have and probably never will.
Same for me, we're forcing this formation without the CBs for it nor the wing backs for it. I don't know what the hell Mourinho tries to accomplish with it.
That was sublime. He’s a very talented player for sure.
Morata wins, it was settled yesterday. We made the wrong choice, had we signed Morata he wouldn't have scored against us yesterday
I was very much in the morata to United camp. The lad has it all, and is one of the best headers around. His movement and intelligence would have created a nice fluent front 3 with Rashford and martial.
We got lukaku who will score goals but we need to start playing to his strengths
We got lukaku who will score goals but we need to start playing to his strengths
I think they're worlds apart in terms of their technical ability - Morata is by far the better player in that sense. However in terms of finishing Lukaku still has the edge, which is a striker's main job.
In truth though I'd swap Lukaku with Morata if we had the chance. The problem with the former being so technically poor is that when he isn't getting much service it's like playing with 10 men. That means that against the top teams you're putting yourself at a big disadvantage as you aren't going to be creating many chances per game. That's absolutely fine if you get one chance and regularly put it in the net, but as we've seen the last few week's, when you start to miss those solitary chances you become redundant.
We can decry the lack of service Lukaku is getting and that's perfectly fair, however you look at Morata's contribution yesterday and he was a key part of their chance creation. It therefore isn't as simple as saying "he had better service", he was part of the overall play that contributed to some of those chances. Of course this problem would be hugely mitigated if our attacking midfielder had played like Fabregas yesterday, rather than yet again playing like a competition winner.
When we signed Lukaku I said that he'd be invaluable against the weaker clubs as he will put chances away for fun and we're always likely to create a fair few. However as has been the case throughout his career he hugely struggles against top defenders who will only give him scraps to feed on. I can see in the fullness of time Lukaku rested and Rashford/Martial being used in these tight games where your forward needs to be more involved.
In truth though I'd swap Lukaku with Morata if we had the chance. The problem with the former being so technically poor is that when he isn't getting much service it's like playing with 10 men. That means that against the top teams you're putting yourself at a big disadvantage as you aren't going to be creating many chances per game. That's absolutely fine if you get one chance and regularly put it in the net, but as we've seen the last few week's, when you start to miss those solitary chances you become redundant.
We can decry the lack of service Lukaku is getting and that's perfectly fair, however you look at Morata's contribution yesterday and he was a key part of their chance creation. It therefore isn't as simple as saying "he had better service", he was part of the overall play that contributed to some of those chances. Of course this problem would be hugely mitigated if our attacking midfielder had played like Fabregas yesterday, rather than yet again playing like a competition winner.
When we signed Lukaku I said that he'd be invaluable against the weaker clubs as he will put chances away for fun and we're always likely to create a fair few. However as has been the case throughout his career he hugely struggles against top defenders who will only give him scraps to feed on. I can see in the fullness of time Lukaku rested and Rashford/Martial being used in these tight games where your forward needs to be more involved.