Please just sell him. This wana be "starter" has convinced some clubs that he is a good striker and they will be willing to cash big on him. People saying: "Benzema also has problems" when defending Morata are just proving the point! Imagine a 24 year old player that is sulking when given an opportunity to prove a point. He was shit again and when Lucas Vazquez outshines you in a match, then you know you have a big problem on your hard. Constantly reading post about how his talent brings more than just goals and then whenever he plays and doesn't score, this same people go into hiding, they have noting to not about his performance. Watching him play against Sevilla at the weekend was like watching Ronaldo. No defensive movement, no extra effort that you would expect from a 24 year old. If a player is a young attacker at least he can put in a decent running shift of closing down opposition defenders. And when you fail to create chances or score goals, that fact that he is unviling to put that shift shows me that there is no point in fearing that we will lose a world class player if we sell him. Moratas attitude remind me of Jese, when he first broke in the first team, who at the time also didn't want to do that extra work. I criticizes Jese heavily for that. But unlike Morata, Jese later started doing the work and that lead him to become our 12th man or semi-starter in a great form in weeks before his career changing injury. Both players had attitude problems when entering first team. One changed it and became an actual long term, first team, prospect, the other one is still doing the easy job of crying instead of actually performing. I can't wait to see where this snake-oil of a striker ends up. If we need a backup striker I recommend Mariano, who knows how to score (1 goal every 60 minutes) and puts in a running shift when he doesn't. And I honetly believe if Mariano was given the Morata minutes, he would outperform Morata.
Although I agree with your point about Asensio, I'm sure he got way more minutes on these "big" games than Alvaro, and mostly because Bale has been injured throughout the season. However, I couldn't call him "not good on big games" based on one performance vs Sevilla or these 5-10 minutes he spends on the pitch when subbed in. If I'm not mistaken, on CL he only started vs Legia and spent all of the games against Bayern and Atletico on the bench, as well as he did on Clasicos. So he didnt really had a chance to prove himself on these big games. On the other hand Benzema has proven several times that he is not a big game player. About Isco and Asensio, I have to repeat, if Bale has been fit throughout the season (regardless his performances) Isco would probably be a good benchwarmer and we wouldn't even know who Asensio is
Mariano isn't something special, he just knows how to create space for himself I think. His finishing is 100 light years below Alvaro's.
Lol at looking at 1 or 2 games to say Morata is not ready for big games. Funny, I could pick 10 to 20 of those for Benzema
Let me try this breaking down thing: Goals vs. top ten: We're currently in 2nd position. He hasn't played against Barcelona (1) or Atlético (3). He didn't score in 61 minutes against the 4th placed team, Sevilla. He has scored against Villarreal (5), Bilbao (6) and Real Sociedad (7). He has played 45 minutes against Eibar (8) without scoring. He has scored against Alavés (9) and Espanyol (10). His goals might not come from starts against top ten opposition in the league, but how does that work against him? He has scored against pretty much everyone Zidane has tested him against in the league. You try to spin it as reservations of Morata and not bias for Benzema, so let's see if Zidane should have the same reservations of Benzema: No goals against Barcelona (1) in 77 + 82 minutes. No goals against Atlético (3) in 10 + 90 minutes. No goals against Sevilla (4) in 90 minutes. No goals against Villarreal (5) in 77 + 77 minutes. He has scored against Bilbao (6). No goals against Real Sociedad (7) in 66 minutes. He has scored against Eibar (8), Alavés (9) and Espanyol (10). Benzema has an atrocious record against the top ten in the league. Discarding Morata because of reservations of him doesn't hold up in the real world when you look at the performances of Benzema. That's bias.
You missed the point like a few others. Benzema had the starting position, we were unbeaten up until January, so why would Benzema be removed from his starting position? Morata really started making waves at the end of March and in April with the B-Team, which is too late in the season, while the team is doing well, no manger will make drastic changes to their starting 11 unless it is extremely necessary. For whatever reason, in training or otherwise, the coaching staff have not trusted Morata over Benzema as a starting player against any team that is worth its grain of salt. Morata's bench performances have been also exemplary, so why would they change anything? Maybe they are planning changes for Benzema next season but the way this season has gone you can understand why things have happened the way they are.
That's the definition of bias. Not being willing to remove Benzema from his starting position despite him not performing while being outperformed by his competitor.
Lol, I dont buy the tribal connections either. I think Zidane just has a preference to using the big name players. Same thing happens with Bale vs Asensio, Kroos/Modric vs Isco/Kovacic, and Keylor vs Kiko. Is it Perez pressuring him? It doesnt seem like it tbh, I think he genuinely believes in his star players, kinda like how Carlo did. Its not really scandalous if you think about it, star players play in the big games. Yes, ideally current form should dictate who starts, but which team out there would ever bench its star players? I think the last 2 months have shown him have more faith in our bench Yes, maybe Isco and Morata dont get to play against Bayern and Barca, but they have been seeing a lot of minutes against very tough opposition in the league. I think its a massive statement of faith in these players when they start against tough away opposition, or big teams like Sevilla at such a critical point in the league. I know Mourinho/Carlo wouldve definitely played the exact same 11 these past 2 months when every game is a final. Zidane has given a lot of minutes to our deserving young players (Asensio, Isco, Morata, Nacho, Mateo), our slightly less deserving bench players (Danilo, Lucas), and kept his star 11 in and out of the team enough to be sharp but well rested. I wish he had rotated this much earlier in the season, but it probably took a bit for him to start trusting those players.
It's not if you do not think it will change the performances of the team as a whole or you are worried it will for the worse. I was and am on the bandwagon that Morata should of taken Benzema's spot but it is a hard thing to do if we are performing well and there are obvious reservations by the staff on the player himself, for some reason they never gave him a chance in any big game at all (unlike James, Isco, Lucas and Asesnio). It's extremely odd. The very very few games he did, he did not really help himself. It is unfortunate and fortunate in a way. That if we had been shockingly bad and not in line for two trophies right now then I think Morata would of taken Benzema's spot. But thankfully we have done well, thus far.
This is a team sport - everybody has a role, if its successful why change. There is no evidence that starting morata over benzema at this stage of the season will improve the team.
Even if we sold Benzema, Mbappe coming in spells the end of Morata anyway. With Ronaldo playing more and more centrally plus Mbappe, Alvaro is still 3rd in the pecking order. Take the money and run. Morata did everything asked of him, it is clear politics and nobody can argue that but it is what it is. I expect him to thrive at a team like Chelsea, fits like a glove.
This is false narrative. In reality we have struggled substantially this season and one of that reasons is "star forward" playing like utter shit throught out the season. The irony is this is the only consistency Benzema offered this season. With giving his minutes to a performing forward or even midfielder, we would be better team and would be already been crowned as La Liga champions. Not to mention our position for CL finale would be much better than now, with another highly possible stink-job by Benzema ( and possibly Bale ) against the most compact defense in the World. Can we already buy and register Mbappe for CL finale? I would imagine our odds would improve substantially than with The Walking Dead upfront.
I keep hearing this from certain people. There is no evidence because Zidane too stubborn to try anything new with the starting squad! And if you throw in the Isco situation, it only happened because Bale stays getting injured! If it weren't for that we would have been seeing the same damn thing all season. "Why change it if it's successful" well it's not...yet. Yes we are in a final in a champions league and yes we are close to winning La Liga but the league could've been wrapped up by now had we maybe "tweaked" certain players that have stank it up all season long like Bale or Benz. You're acting like Benz has been the primary source of this so called "success". It's BIAS and it's OBVIOUS
That is nonsense. Mariano's only achievement is out-performing 17 & 18 year olds at Castilla when he was 22 years old. At 22 Morata was dumping us out of the CL with Juve. Mariano's goals/minutes ratio looks impressive cause he smashed 3 past a 3rd division side surrounded by world class players. Pretty sure I could do that myself. Wanting to sell Morata is one thing, claiming Mariano > Morata because of one bad performance and a rude gesture to Zidane is stupid.
So let's sell our best striker this season because he didn't give a handshake to his coach in one game and keep instead a shit player who is hugs and kisses all the time with ZZ. Makes perfect sense.
I believe the reason Zidane prefers Benzema is not favoritism, but because Benzema simply is a better sidekick for Ronaldo with his unselfishness/deference and linkup ability with his technique. That being said, although Benzema is not the main scorer of the team, a lot more is expected in that department than he managed, and Morata is no slouch himself technically even if hes a level below Benzema in that aspect. I have no doubt that Morata has the quality to be a starting striker for Madrid. Everybody has the occasional stinker, Morata is more easily frustrated because he knows how hard it is for him to get chances, so it must feel extremely hard when you gamble away one of them.
well for those that have been following morata know that he gets super frustrated when he doesnt do a good job there was even news about him crying in the locker rooms when he misses a lot of chances in a training session and so you can see he was very frustrated when he was subbed off coz he is his own worst critic, now that doesnt justify not shaking his coaches hand but i dont think he meant any disrespect by it again many fans on this forum surprise me with their memory and their ability to judge a player based on one game, you guys would make very bad scouts cause if that was the case we wouldve let go of marcelo 7 years ago back when they were a liability Morata is 24 years old and is already considered a top striker in world football, he loves the team and will go all out to provide the fans something to cheer for and is a winner at heart (i wonder how many times ramos' love for the team and drive to win is what caused him to save us time and again)... and with the talent to back it up were surely to regret letting him go
Are you serious with this?? Come on bruh..... lets not try to spin this "Zizou preference (I don't think its favoritism) for Benzema" into "Zidane is seeing deficiencies in Morata during training" or "well we were winning so why change" narrative. Most of us on here respect Zidane for the RM legend that he is and always will be and give him credit for what he is done but you can't say he's not woefully wrong in this or that he hasn't mismanaged Alvaro (Also James to an extent). I feel like you've turned any critique of Zidane into a "ya'll don't give him any respect" issue. Successful? No evidence? We are tied on points with the worst Barcelona team for over a decade having their worst season in a decade because we didn't play well against teams we should have beaten. It can go horribly wrong for us in an instant if we lose to Celta tomorrow. Think about that for a second. And the CL final isn't a gimme at all. Had we swapped Alvaro for Benzema when he was literally giving Zombie performances every damn week and we were playing with 10 men (this sometimes coincided with Ronnie playing terribly making it 9 men) for most of the 90mins. I honestly believe and I think most would agree that we would have won the league by now had we rightly played the in form players rather than sticking with the woefully (I think this should be highlighted how terribly bad Benz and sometimes Ronnie and Bale were) out of form players game after game. Absolutely right. Well said. I have always maintained this. I refuse to believe that its favoritism or nepotism. I heard somebody say on TV and I've repeated it here too that Zidane has a players' mentality. He think that the best players should play the biggest games. Floro doesn't influence him one bit because he doesn't need to. Him and Floro are on the same page with a lot of things which is why Zidane and Floro are so close.
He wasn't stubborn to "try something new to the starting 11" with the addition of casemiro to the midfield which has finally balanced our team for the past season and a half - that's evidence That is the strength of the squad, which again is because of zidane's man management skills. Isco would have probably left by now if zidane wasn't doing something that he bought into. I have seen bale substituted many times because of tactics or his inadequacies, who is to say if bale was under-performing consistently isco wouldn't displace him. League would have been wrapped up? last year we finished second with 90 pts lost by 1. This year we are at 87 with 6 more points up for grabs. We have improved from last year given this season we had a more demanding schedule, so yes what zidane has been doing is successful up to this point. If we were to follow your logic we would have tweaked ronaldo out of the starting line up months ago and we probably would have been out of the CL. We have dropped points this season because the team lacked focus during some of the games, not due to 1 or 2 individuals. Benzema has been average, he has not been the primary source of our success or failure, this can not be attributed to any one player. But replacing him with morata in our starting 11 doesn't guarantee that we would have more league points. As I have said before, morata has yet to prove himself worthy of leading our front line against tough oppositions.
I already said he should of played Morata ahead of Benzema quite a few times, especially considering Benzema's awful liga form, but it is odd that every other player has been given opportunities in rather big games to start except for Morata. Maybe it is a spacing issue and that is why Ronaldo and Morata were rarely started together, because Morata being your traditional number 9 as opposed to Benzema's whatever he claims to be these days, I guess more playing off Ronaldo. These are all assumptions and guesses. No excuses for Zidane though, next year he will have to do something about Benzema and I think they all recognise that and that is why there is so much news linking us with Mbappe. I still just for whatever reason don't feel great about Morata being a starter for us. But that may just be a personal thing. I did really like Mariano's energy the few times we saw him, but it was all too limited to make any proper assertions about him either. I thought Morata off the bench though was very good for us, because he is great in the air and is excellent at making runs in the box especially off tired defenders. I do not think he will accept another year as a substitute and sadly will probably leave. Hopefully we get 60me-70me for him though.
Another thing of note is, it hasn't just been Benzema vs Morata. Throughout this season Zidane has gone with Lucas, Isco, Asensio and James over brining in Morata as a sub. He has started these players as well instead of starting Morata.
Remember the "Lucas is Zidane's son" narrative people use to say? That went away when Zidane stopped using him after he saw his consistency at sucking. He gave Lucas an opportunity almost over a month ago and he performed well. That led to Zidane giving him more chances. I don't think Zidane is this monster some insinuate he is. I truly believe he doesn't trust Morata so much and matches like this weekend against Sevilla is why. It seems for Zidane you have to perform on a big stage.... bigger the stage... bigger the impression... the more he trust you. See James. You can see the difference in how Zidane sees him. He is trusted now. Once you gain Zidane's trust he tries to stick by you until he is forced to go with another player who had made it impossible to not pick him. He stuck by Navas, Lucas (till he had to go with Asensio), Benzema, Bale, Modric, Varane, etc.. You can tell Zidane was building in trust with Morata who had been playing more. Then Zidane gave him the big shot agaunst Sevilla. Morata didn't rise to the moment. Which is maybe why he was so mad when he got subbed.