Stroppy Alvaro Morata must stop battling referees and start fighting for Chelsea
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Published 12/03/2018 at 09:52 GMT
Chelsea thought they had a discipline problem with Diego Costa, but now Alvaro Morata is accumulating cards considerably quicker than goals. Where will it all end for the off-target Spaniard?
Referee Anthony Taylor shows a yellow card to Alvaro Morata of Chelsea during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge on March 10, 2018 in London, England.
Image credit: Getty Images
There was some understandable confusion at Stamford Bridge post-match on Saturday evening.
Did Alvaro Morata now have 10 yellow cards for the season? Or eight; or even 11?
All three answers were correct but, for now, he won't be enduring the two-match ban which accompanies the reaching of double figures.
The actual number is indeed 11 – which is just one fewer, in total, than the number of goals he has scored for Chelsea this season.
(Morata's caution against Barcelona doesn't count, for domestic disciplinary purposes; nor does his double against Norwich in the FA Cup – as he has already served a ban for that dismissal).
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Morata booked in Chelsea-Barcelona
Image credit: Getty Images
But, whichever way you have it, the figures are not good.
That's six yellow cards since he scored his last goal: at home to Brighton on Boxing Day.
And six in the last two months, during which time he has played only 294 of Chelsea's 1,200 first-team minutes: an average of one card every 49 minutes.
If Diego Costa was a disciplinary time bomb, then Morata is looking worse.
The biggest frustration among fans, however, is the nature of those cautions: not for the headstrong impulsive sort of discretions that were a hallmark of Costa's game; but all too often for the sort of petulant unprofessionalism which shouldn't come with a top-class player.
Saturday was a case in point.
He made his way into referee Anthony Taylor's book for a petty squabble with James Tomkins – both men were booked for the spat late in the game.
But he almost made it so much worse by, purposely or not, knocking the assistant referee's flag out of his hand deep into injury time – an offence which could easily have resulted in marching orders.
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James Tomkins of Crystal Palace tries to get the ball back from Alvaro Morata of Chelsea during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge on March 10, 2018 in London, England.
Image credit: Getty Images
The dives, the dissent, the strops – these have dogged Morata's season since his arrival. And, if he is to truly become the class of Premier League striker his early time at Chelsea hinted at, then these will have to go.
It has been clear from the start that the Spaniard needs to toughen-up his game: in terms of how he deals with both opposition players, and officials.
There is nothing new in this for a striker in his first Premier League season: we saw a similar culture shock in the early stages of Didier Drogba's Chelsea career, and that seemed to turn out alright in the end.
Costa received 10 yellows in his first season for Chelsea. But he also bagged 20 goals.
It was 10 again in season two (16 goals), and 11 in season three (22 goals).
Of course those cards, and goals, and other exploits not recorded in the bare stats, showed a real will to battle for the team – which is something we are yet to see in Morata.
The good news is that most of such issues are generally easily rectified.
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Diego Costa of Chelsea celebrates scoring his sides first goal during the Emirates FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Chelsea at Wembley Stadium on May 27, 2017 in London, England
Image credit: Getty Images
If a defender is consistently costing his side through poorly timed challenges, then that takes far more coaching to sort than the case of a young striker who just seems to lack a bit of matchday maturity.
The one thing that cannot be taught, though, is the qualities of standing up and being counted when a player's team needs him – and that is much an issue for Morata, at the moment, as his disciplinary problem.
If relations between he and Antonio Conte look strained, then the striker can at least be pretty certain of having a new boss to impress fairly soon.
But, more than anything, the key lifeblood of a striker is what he is missing right now: goals.
Whoever comes next to the Chelsea hot seat will have many priorities this summer.
But getting the club's record signing mentally and physically ready to impress will surely be one of the biggest and most important.
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