Alvaro Morata insight: Scouting report, stats, transfer rating and more

On July 19, AC Milan announced the signing of Alvaro Morata from Atletico Madrid after exercising his release clause. Becoming the first arrival of the summer and the replacement for Olivier Giroud, what should the Rossoneri fans expect?

The summer transfer window has been somewhat slow for Milan, so far at least. Unlike last year, the Rossoneri have only finalised one signing come the end of July, even if a few deals are reported as being very close.

The one singing they have completed, however, is the latest captain to have lifted the Euros trophy, namely Alvaro Morata. The Spaniard has joined the red and black after leading his country to the finish line as the starting striker and captain during the tournament.

The deal ended up costing the Rossoneri €13m as they triggered his release clause, and Alvaro himself signed a deal until 2028 with an option of an additional year. He chose the number 7 shirt, which was kindly given to him by Yacine Adli, who now has taken over the number 94.

The background

Born on October 23rd, 1992 (31 years), in Madrid, Morata has always been attached to that city. He was initially part of the Atletico Madrid youth academy in 2005, before joining the Real Madrid youth academy in 2008. He made his debut with the Los Merengues in late 2010, following two successful seasons with Real Madrid Castilla (their second team). It was in a 3-1 win vs. Real Zaragoza.

In the time that followed, Morata constantly tried to break through the first team but was juggled around with the B team, due to Real having superstars such as Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain in the squad.

He got his first competitive goal for Real Madrid on November 11, 2021, scoring the winner in a 2-1 win against after entering the pitch in the 83rd minute. At this point, he started to become a regular in the first-team squad but still struggled to get into the starting lineup.

Despite that, Alvaro always made himself available to the coaches and turned up whenever he was needed. This rewarded him with the La Liga title in 2012 and the Champions League trophy in 2014 against Atletico Madrid. He featured in the final, replacing Benzema for the final ten minutes of normal time and then playing the whole extra time too.

However, Alvaro wanted more game time and thus ended up joining Juventus in the summer of 2014 for €20m. This was his first of two spells with the Bianconeri. In both spells, he won two Serie A titles, two Coppa Italia titles and one Supercoppa Italiana as well as scoring in the 2015 UCL final (the equaliser goal at the time) which Juventus went on to lose 3-1 to Barcelona. Let’s hope he can win his third Scudetto with Milan now and thus give us that famous second star.

In between his two Juventus spells, Alvaro was brought back by Real Madrid after a successful first spell in Turin but once again failed to find consistent game time in the Real Madrid side. Despite this, he still won another Champions League and La Liga title, as well as the Club World Cup and the Uefa Super Cup.

As he was not getting enough game time at Real again, Alvaro decided to move to the Premier League this time around, getting a transfer to Chelsea for a fee around the €60m mark. This was the same summer he was heavily linked with Milan, in that infamous summer of Marco Fassone and Max Mirabelli.

Alvaro was one of the targets for Milan but due to his price tag, negotiations never materialised. The striker’s spell at the London club was underwhelming. His debut was a nightmare, missing in the penalty shoot-out during the Community Shield, which Chelsea went on to lose to Arsenal. Following that, he struggled to adapt and score goals, ending his time in England with 16 goals in 47 appearances but he still left England with one FA Cup and one Europa League trophy.

After the stint in England, the striker returned home to Madrid to get his career back on track. The only difference, this time around, he was joining the club where his footballing journey started at, Atletico Madrid. He joined the Colchoneros in the middle of the 18/19 season. He stayed at Atletico for just over a year, during which he scored that famous goal at Anfield to knock Liverpool out of the Champions League in the round of 16.

During Covid, he had his second stint at Juventus as the Bianconeri management saw him as the perfect man to play alongside Cristiano Ronaldo. This time around, his stint was not as successful and with the Bianconeri being in a crisis themselves, they decided not to make the transfer permanent and therefore sent him back to Atletico.

Alvaro has been what we call in football terms a ‘journeyman’, having played for some of the biggest clubs in Europe and won everywhere he has been. He has had a ping-pong-type career, having had two spells at Juventus, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.

Strengths

Morata’s style of play is not of a typical ‘in the box poacher’ number 9. Alvaro loves being involved in the play, frequently dropping in deep to receive the ball with his back turned on the goal and linking up the attack with the midfield/ wingers.

He is a very intelligent player and technically gifted. With time and experience, Alvaro has mastered how to find the right spaces and to best use his teammates too when his team is attacking. This is something that can hopefully unlock the Milan wingers in the new season as with Giroud, we did not have that movement up top.

Heading is another strong skill set in Morata’s game. Whether that is to hold the ball down or try to score with a header, he rarely gets beaten in the air. Last season, his aerial success rate was 83%, one of the highest in the top 5 leagues among the strikers.

He also had more shots recorded with his head last season compared to his weaker foot (left foot). This really symbolises how Morata’s strength in the air can be a weapon that the Milan team can utilise next season.

As mentioned previously, Alvaro is a winner. Upon joining Milan, Morata is now the most successful active player in Serie A. His trophy cabinet is very impressive so let’s hope he can bring that winning mentality into the dressing room and something some fans felt we may have lost following Giroud’s farewell.

Finally, Morata is a leader. He is no longer that young, timid player who embarked in Italy for the first time 10 years ago to play for Juventus. Since then, Alvaro has now represented some of the biggest clubs at the highest level, captained his country to a Euro 2024 triumph and therefore has become a leader and someone who can give that push to the team when it needs it most.

Areas to improve

Although Morata is coming to Milan with a lot of great qualities, there are a few areas he can improve on during his time here which would benefit him and the team.

Firstly, he has an awful record with offsides. Despite being very good at reading the game, due to his lack of pace, sometimes Morata lets himself go a little before the pass which has cost him being caught in an offside position numerous times last season. If he can understand his Milan teammates better, and when they will play to him, he can really improve this.

Another weakness is the already mentioned pace. This is not necessarily a weakness for the team, though. With the likes of Rafael Leao, Noah Okafor, Christian Pulisic and Samuel Chukuweze around him, and if Paulo Fonseca manages to utilise Morata’s strengths well, this weakness of his may never become an issue.

Finally, we have the goalscoring record. Although he has scored many goals in his career, it sounds absurd to think that he never hit more than 15 league goals in one season. Although he will be able to unlock Milan’s wingers to get in better positions to score due to his selflessness, it would be great if Alvaro worked on his own game too to try and add more goals to it.

Conclusion

To conclude, for the price that has been paid, this is an incredible deal considering the void that Giroud has left and how hard it could have been to replace his leadership/winning mentality. That, plus the fact that Morata is coming off the back of a Euro-winning campaign as captain and having had previous Serie A experience, one can understand why Zlatan Ibrahimovic got involved to convince him.

His winning habits, with the addition of his leadership skills, give a déjà vu of when Milan signed Giroud three years ago. Let’s hope that, just like Oli he wins a Scudetto in his debut season (with a derby brace).

Having been linked to the red and black colours a couple of times in the past, let’s hope that he has joined us now instead of before because now is the right time for both parties to see success together.

Transfer Rating: 8/10