Alvaro Morata: An impressive resume but mediocrity bubbles under the surface

Could an 18-month loan to Atletico Madrid give Alvaro Morata another chance to revive his career?

At only 26 years, Alvaro Morata has already played for three of Europe’s biggest clubs, Real Madrid, Juventus and Chelsea. This week, he completed a loan move to his fourth, Atletico Madrid, in the hope of finally nailing down a starting role.

The Spanish forward has been something of an enigma since he broke onto the scene for Real Madrid in his early 20s. His overall goalscoring record is decent, with 127 goals in 343 appearances, but is not as easy to interpret as it might look.

Excluding his time in the Spanish second and third division, Morata has scored just 82 goals in 260 appearances, and has managed 10 or more league goals in just two of his seven seasons in a first division.

That isn’t a great stat, but it’s heavily impacted by the fact Morata has never established himself as the starting center forward at any of the club’s he’s played for. About half of Morata’s first-team appearances have come a substitute.

If we measure his goalscoring in terms of minutes played, however, his record looks a lot more impressive. The Spaniard averages a goal ever 152 minutes, or a little over a goal ever other game. Statistically speaking, then, he’s a successful striker.

But numbers don’t tell the whole story. And it’s a striking feature of Morata’s career that he has failed to become a consistent starter anywhere he’s played, despite solid statistical output and a reputation (until recently) as one of the most talented young forwards in Europe.

Morata was a highly-regarded prospect while playing for Real Madrid’s reserve team. While there, he scored 45 goals in 83 appearances across the Spanish second and thid divisions, resulting in a call-up to the senior side.

That season was a breakout for Morata, who earned his first Champions League cap in a group stage win against Ajax. He also played his first full match against Barcelona, which he finished with an assist in a 2-1 victory.

The next year was a big step backward, however, as Morata played fewer minutes in a whole season with the senior team than he had in a half a season at Castilla the year previous. There was, to be fair, a good reason.

Real broke their transfer record to bring in Gareth Bale the previous summer, and the Welshman combined with Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema to form one of the most prolific frontlines in Europe. There was simply no space for Moarata.

Morata was transferred to Juventus for €20 million with a buy-back clause. The 2014-15 season was slightly better for Morata. He started only nine league matches, but garnered praise for his performances in Juventus’s run to the Champions League final.

Morata scored five goals and two assists in nine starts during that run with two goals and two assists against Borussia Dortmund in the round of 16, and two goals against former Real Madrid in the semis.

Despite playing slightly fewer minutes in all competitions than fellow countryman Fernando Llorente — 2,712 minutes vs. 2,302 — Morata finished with 15 goals and seven assists compared to nine goals and four assists for Llorente.

The 2015-16 season should have been a chance for Morata to nail down a starting role in Turin, as Carlos Tevez left for Boca Juniors, and Llorente left for Sevilla. But it ended up being more of the same, as Juve brought in Mario Mandzukic and Paulo Dybala to replace the two departures.

Morata ended up playing 2,377 minutes, starting just 16 Serie A matches. He featured again in the Champions League, but Juventus crashed out in the round of 16 to Bayern Munich 6-4 on aggregate, though Morata was able to provide two assists in that tie.

Morata returned to Madrid for the 2016-17 season. Perhaps he expected to start more often after scoring twice against his former club in the Champions League. As it was, he started just 19 times over 43 appearances during his return season.

Morata’s overall playing time reduced from his time in Italy, with just 1,903 minutes played. He ended up with an impressive 20 goals that year despite the lessened playtime, with 15 coming in La Liga.

That was enough to convince Chelsea to spend €68 million for Morata — a club record at the time. He started off impressively for the Blues, scoring nine goals and adding four assists in his first 15 matches, and was on track to replace the 20 league goals scored in the previous season by Diego Costa.

Morata lost his touch after that, scoring just twice the rest of the season. This year was more of the same for the Spaniard. He scored five goals in 17 matches in the league, before Chelsea decided it was time to let Morata try his luck in Spain again.

Back in Madrid, Morata is again unlikely to be a starter. Antoine Griezmann is one of the forwards in Diego Simeone’s 4-4-2, and Costa is likely to be the other when he returns from a foot injury, likely in early February.

Until then, Morata will fight for a spot with Nikola Kalinic and Angel Correa, who have been splitting time next to Griezmann in Costa’s absence. Whether he’ll be able to edge them out is hard to say.

Morata clearly has talent, but he looked unmotivated at Chelsea after a strong start, and has spent most of the past year suggesting he’s open to a move. Now he’s got, and on the fact of it it appears to be a good one.

At Chelsea, most of his time was spent trying to hold up play and getting knocked off the ball too easily. Moving to a two-striker system like Atletico’s, not to mention his home country, might help him rediscover his form.

Or maybe there’s a reason he’s failed to make the starting XI at so many clubs, maybe he’s really just a serial rotation piece. Good, but not enough to be the main man. Morata was never really a great striker. He hasn’t had the season to prove that yet.