Chelsea need their strikers to do what all strikers want and need to do: score goals. Right now, neither are contributing to the Blues’ bottom line, but you wouldn’t know that by listening to the chatter about the club.
Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud both scored on April 22, 2018. Since then, each striker has one goal for Chelsea FC. Giroud scored the lone goal against Liverpool last May and Morata scored against Arsenal in the second match of this season. Giroud has one other goal in that span, giving France the winner against the Netherlands in the UEFA Nations League after eight scoreless games for his country.
Despite their similarly sparse stats sheets, Olivier Giroud takes a fraction of the criticism (abuse?) Alvaro Morata absorbs with every appearance. While Morata is slated for not converting any of his eight Premier League shots or seven Europa League shots (all in one game) since the goal against Arsenal, Giroud gets a free pass for not scoring from his 12 Premier League shots in the same span.
Both Morata and Giroud made strong first impressions at Chelsea. Morata had a stellar first half of the season, his link-up with Cesar Azpilicueta showing promise as a consistent source of goals. By the time Giroud arrived Morata was well off that early form, and Giroud established himself early as the clutch-goal game-killing striker the Blues needed.
Or did he? Giroud scored his first goal for Chelsea on his third appearance, against Hull City in the FA Cup in mid-February. He would not score again for two months. In mid-April he scored three times against Southampton over two games separated by eight days. His brace was vital for the Premier League fixture against the Saints, and then he split the honours with Morata in the FA Cup. But his next goal would be his last as of this writing.
From day one Giroud has benefitted from Morata’s struggles, both in terms of taking his place in the starting XI and in the fans’ eyes. Giroud’s physically imposing appearance and charisma were the perfect antidote to the Morata’s vulnerability to injury and the temptation to whinge when things go against him.
Football in general and Chelsea in particular are a “what have you done for me lately” endeavour. By the time Giroud arrived, the answer for Morata was “not very much.” But the answer for both is currently the same.
As we have pointed out previously, there is much more to being a striker than scoring goals. Alvaro Morata has done 90% of his job extremely well this season. He is taking the available shots, a necessary precursor to scoring goals. His movement off the ball creates options for quick one-two’s with the wingers or attacking midfielders. Most impressively, he is playing very physically to win back the ball, going into tackles along the touchline, tracking back at full speed on defence to interdict opposition counter-attacks (most notably against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup) and finishing shoulder-to-shoulder battles on his feet.
Likewise, Olivier Giroud is doing plenty right when he is leading the Chelsea line. His hold-up play is superior to Morata’s, even if he did not use it to good effect against Liverpool on Saturday. He is a dominant aerial threat for crosses and long balls. And like he did for Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann in the World Cup, he expertly draws defenders out of position to clear diagonal lanes into the box for Eden Hazard.
A common basis for their goal-scoring drought is the shift to Maurizio Sarri’s tactics. Sarri only had a true No. 9 for his first year at Napoli. After Gonzalo Higuain left, Sarri shifted to a false-nine with Dries Mertens centering the front three.
Sarri is somewhat out of practice of working with traditional centre-forwards like the two he now has. Having done so much with Mertens and now having Eden Hazard at his disposal, Sarri’s system continues to be very winger-oriented. Hazard’s recent form gives little reason to recalibrate the offence to put the strikers in a more prominent role.
Olivier Giroud and Alvaro Morata both offer unique characteristics in a supporting role. Giroud is better in games where Chelsea have prolonged possession in the final third. He can bring down and hold on to the ball in tight spaces before making an impossibly graceful flick to a winger cutting through another tight space.
Morata, on the other hand, has the speed Giroud lacks and Chelsea need against more adventuresome opponents. He can track back and recover from the press, play the ball over long distances and shoot from long distance better than Giroud.
Chelsea have mostly faced teams who sit deep and defend this season. Arsenal and Liverpool were the two notable exceptions. Morata started against Arsenal and scored. Giroud started against Liverpool and had one of his least-impactful showings of the season.
Both Olivier Giroud and Alvaro Morata are doing many productive things for the team. They are also both falling short on the key metric of their position. Neither should be feted in glory, but neither deserve the treatment Morata alone gets for his short-comings.