Spain need Morata to regain his best form
▶ Not always at his best in England’s top flight, Spanish forward needs to gain self-belief and win the country’s trust, writes Ian Hawkey
There are a few ways to combat the broad range of centre-forward skills possessed by Alvaro Morata.
There is the rugged route, exemplified last Sunday by towering Everton defender Yerry Mina: hand clasped around Morata’s throat, eyes fixed on the marked man not the ball and a hefty, barely disguised push.
Morata ought to have earned a penalty for that, but in the course of an exasperating 0-0 draw, he was not having much luck. Everton also stymied him with more sophisticated methods.
They made him lose his bearings and caught him offside a startling five times in single game. While he might call that unfortunate, it is a habit.
Morata is way out on top of the overall leaderboard for offside flags – 15 this season – in a Premier League where he has played only two-thirds of possible match time. That points to something not quite fully calibrated in his runs.
It seems the other way to block Morata is to puncture his confidence, something this most enigmatic striker has spoken openly about.
Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri described him as “fragile” last week, while praising Morata’s improved form since early October.
The player himself said at Las Rozas, his national team’s training base in Madrid, he had been in “a black hole” psychologically this year.
Morata hopes to lead the line for his country on Thursday night against Croatia in Zagreb. A victory there would