Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri hatches plan to give 'fragile' Alvaro Morata confidence boost

Goal shy: Morata has scored just one goal in his past seven appearances for Chelsea and Spain
AFP/Getty Images
Simon Johnson12 December 2018

Maurizio Sarri is considering giving striker Alvaro Morata a chance to regain some confidence in Chelsea’s final Europa League group game tomorrow night.

The Blues take on MOL Vidi in Budapest having already qualified for the last 32 and secured top spot in Group L.

Sarri is expected to leave out a number of first-team players so they can be fresh for their Premier League game at Brighton on Sunday.

Standard Sport understands Olivier Giroud is set to be one of them, leaving Morata as the only recognised forward. Sarri left Morata out for the win against Manchester City on Saturday, preferring to play with Eden Hazard as a ‘false nine’ instead. Morata, who joined from Real Madrid for a then club record £58m in 2017, has scored just one goal in his past seven appearances for Chelsea and Spain.

The manager claimed last week that the 26-year-old is feeling “mentally fragile” on the pitch, but insists he is part of his plans.

Speaking after the win against City, he explained why Morata did not feature. He said: “I think it is normal, it was a choice for this kind of match.

“I don’t know if in Brighton we will play in the same way [false nine] or not, maybe not. Alvaro is able to understand that it is only a tactical decision, it is not the final choice.”

In Pictures | Chelsea vs Man City | 08/12/18

1/24

Chelsea are considering buying a forward in the January window with Bournemouth and England striker Callum Wilson high on their wishlist.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in