Alvaro Morata's playing style explained

Fresh off winning his second Champions League, Alvaro Morata will depart Real Madrid again.

Despite scoring 15 goals in La Liga, the second-most in Madrid’s squad last season as they snatched the title away from Barcelona for first time in five years, Morata played just 1,341 minutes, which is shocking for a player of his enormous quality.

The Spaniard needs to play with more regularity than he does if he wants to rival Diego Costa for the starting position in the national team, and with the World Cup due at the end of next season, that’s a crucial battle for Morata and one he will leave the Bernabeu in order to win.

The striker is set to move to Chelsea, what are his main playing styles as he looks to displace the man he is set to replace at Stamford Bridge at La Roja as well.

Power
Morata is a tall forward with broad shoulders, who plays with an assurance and sense of strength that allows him to hold the ball up well, ensuring that opposing defenders have a hard time getting it off him. This allows him to play as a reference for the attack.Moreover, the ball will be coming into the box from wide areas. An ability convert crosses is essential, and six of Morata’s 15 Liga goals came via his head.

Pace
And this allows him to add an essential element of dynamism to the attack. Just recall what he did to Bayern Munich when playing for Juventus in 2015/16. He surged fully 50 yards, blowing by three different Bayern players and making them look utterly ridiculous and helpless before drawing two more Bayern defenders and playing it to Juan Cuadrado who finished simply. It was basically something Leo Messi would do, except Morata is 6’2 and built like a superhero.

Skill
When Alvaro Morata was in the Madrid youth teams and just making the odd cameo in the first team, Mourinho insisted that the centre-forward play out on the wing. He did this because he believed that, not only would it give the youngster more opportunities in the first-team (he played his first Clásico as a winger, validating Mourinho’s theory) but it would improve him.Playing on the wing, Morata had to embrace his technique and skill. His first-touch improved, as did his balance when running with the ball (see also: the Bayern assist). Morata’s vision expanded and he went from being an athletic forward to an athletic forward who possessed the kind of skill that allowed him to make the difference in attacks.

Morata has a spectacular big game record. Obviously the Bayern assist (his second of that tie, he got an assist mere seconds after coming on in the first leg) is great proof, but little compares to his 2014/15 exploits in Europe.Morata scored home and away against Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final, knocking his then-former club out. He also bagged the equalising goal in the Berlin showpiece.