With Alvaro Morata set to take over the front line at Chelsea for a reported £70 million, this surely spells the end for Diego Costa.
With Costa being informed that he is no longer in Antonio Conte’s plans, along with his preferred destination of Atletico Madrid being unable to sign anyone until January 2018, a loan spell may seem like the only viable option.
So let’s take a look to see if Chelsea have signed themselves an upgrade or downgrade.
Scoring
Goals may be a concern at first glance, however, the situation isn’t as worrying as it seems. Costa netted 20+ goals in both of Chelsea’s title-winning seasons, whereas Morata is yet to score more than 15 goals in a single season.
Conversion rate
However, in La Liga last season, Morata‘s 15 goals from 55 shots awarded him with the highest conversion rate (27.3) for any player with 10 or more goals. This is rather impressive when you consider his scoring rate is almost twice as good as Costa‘s, with a minute per goal ratio of 158.6 minutes, compared to Morata‘s 88.7 minutes – not bad for a substitute. In addition to this, Morata only played 1334 minutes last season, compared to Costa‘s 3090 minutes.
Morata‘s scoring record may not look the best, however with more game time should come more goals.
Take ons
With Conte playing a counter attacking style of play during the 2016-17 title-winning season, beating your man is very important. Morata has a much more impressive record when it comes to one-on-ones compared to Costa. Morata has a 54% success rate, to Diego Costa’s 41%.
Goal importance
Furthermore, only the goals scored by Cristiano Ronaldo was able to win more points (14) for Real Madrid last season, than Morata himself (13). Moreover, Morata was Spain’s highest goalscorer at the Under-19 and Under-21 European Championships, while also scoring in the 2015 Champions League final against Barcelona.
Passing accuracy
When looking at the forward’s passing accuracy, both players are fairly even with Morata just taking the lead with a 78% completion rate, compared to Costa’s 75% completion rate.
Assists
One area where Costa does have a noticeable edge when comparing the two forward’s is within assists. Costa has almost double the amount assists (7) when compared to Morata (4) however; you could argue that if Morata was to have played the same game time as Costa, the stats would be different.
Conclusion
As it appears on paper, Chelsea have struck gold with the 24-year old Spaniard. However, only time will tell weather Chelsea or Real Madrid got the better end of the deal. Adapting to the Premier League should also be taken into consideration, as we can only hope that Morata hits the ground running, just like Costa did.
