“But Lukaku is a Premier League proven striker while Morata’s only credential is that he has kept the bench warm for two of Europe’s best teams.”
This is basically what is going through the minds of many after reading the title. It makes sense; really, it does. After all, Romelu Lukaku has been scoring 20 or more goals per-season for the last three years. Whereas, Alvaro Morata, for all the hype, couldn’t even become a starter for Juventus and Real Madrid.
However, the one thing about Alvaro Morata is that the fans of the team that he has played for rate him highly. Ask a Juventus or Madrid fan and they will tell you that he is a special talent and deserves to be a starter.
Perhaps, he does. Perhaps, he should.
The stats show
For Madrid last season, the Spaniard scored 20 goals after taking part in 43 goals. Nothing special, isn’t it? But then, these 20 goals came in 1902 minutes, which equates to 95.1 minutes per-goal. Compare this to Cristiano Ronaldo’s 101.8 minutes per-goal or Luis Suarez’s 116.3 minutes per-goal and suddenly, Morata’s return seems good.
The only player who has a better ratio is – you may have guessed it already – Lionel Messi.
Where does Lukaku stand in all of this? 132.6 minutes per-goal last season; way behind Alvaro Morata. This is not to deride the Belgian, rather an attempt to show that Alvaro Morata did very well whenever he got the chance – and that didn’t come very often.
One of the things that Morata gets accused of is stat-padding. In other words, scoring against the poor teams or scoring unimportant goals to make his stats look better. However, here’s another stat: according to Marca, Alvaro Morata’s 13 goals in the league were worth 12 points for the club—only behind Cristiano Ronaldo in that regard.
After a season like that, it is only natural for top European clubs circling around the Spaniard due to his desire to move out in order to gain more minutes. Chelsea were interested, but Manchester United showed the most intent. United manager, Jose Mourinho, had worked with him before and although he didn’t give much chance to the budding youth back then, he knows his worth now and asked the board to push for him.
Real Madrid president, Florentino Perez, made it absolutely clear that he isn’t interested in selling his talented forward. As a result, Los Blancos put a hefty £70 million + £10 million incentives price tag on him. While this is a steep price for a forward who has never been a first-choice, it is also not over-the-top given the current scenario of the transfer market.
After weeks of negotiations, it seems as though the Red Devils aren’t interested in paying what Madrid have asked and have now turned their attention to Romelu Lukaku instead. Why not? After all, he is a Premier League proven campaigner who is sure to bang them goals in almost every other week.
Willing to pay £100 million for Lukaku but refusing to pay £70 million for Morata; sensible?
Playing for a top club isn’t as easy as people think it is. There is a belief that having better midfielders around you automatically means that the striker is going to play better. While in most cases it is true, there are instances like Fernando Torres at Chelsea or Mario Balotelli and Stevan Jovetic at Manchester City which show that things are not always rosy on the better side.
Here’s another fun fact: Romelu Lukaku failed to score any goals in his 526 minutes for Chelsea. Given that he played in 15 games for Chelsea, he appeared for roughly 35.1 minutes per-game. So here’s the argument: how can he score if he got only 35.1 minutes per game?
The answer: Morata, last season, played an average of 44.2 minutes per-game – just a little over 9 minutes more than Lukaku – and scored 20 goals with what he got. Not bad, eh?
Even then, perhaps, there remains a case to argue: Lukaku was young and was only in his first senior season with Chelsea. Fair enough, but even when you consider Morata’s first season as a first-team player, he scored twice in his 604 minutes and also assisted four times. Lukaku, meanwhile, in his first regular season at Chelsea managed only 1 assist in 404 minutes.
The truth is, we can rub stats on each other’s faces all day long, but it is really absurd to think that Alvaro Morata isn’t a proper striker just because he wasn’t a starter for the teams he played for.
Indeed, in his last four seasons, the Spaniard has played in three Champions League finals while representing two different teams and won it twice. He is someone who has the experience of playing on the highest stage of it all, something that the Belgian can’t say about himself.
There will be arguments and counter-arguments, but it really says a lot when both Juventus fans and Real Madrid fans heap praise on the striker for his ability. On the naked eye, the Spaniard is quicker and more technical than Lukaku whilst having the same aerial and physical abilities. The only thing that the former Chelsea forward is much better than Morata is finishing.
And it seems absurd that United are willing to pay £75 million + £15 million in incentives + Wayne Rooney, which amounts to a total of £100 million, for someone who has superior finishing skills – something that can be improved with age – while being behind in the other aspects than Alvaro Morata, one of which is being able to link-up better with the talented Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial.
