Why bother with Cristiano Ronaldo if you have Álvaro Morata?

Barça on Saturday, Real Madrid on Sunday and Atlético on Monday. LaLiga has staggered scheduling games of the ‘big three’ to underpin interest each day on the opening weekend of the 2022-23 season. Barça delivered a disappointing 0-0 draw at home to Rayo, Madrid showed us that Vinicius is still in fine form and with Atleti we were left wondering why consider signing Cristiano with Alvaro Morata on the books. The Spanish striker scored four goals in pre-season and yesterday, at Getafe he scored twice. From what I’ve seen so far, I have to say I like the look of this Atleti side with new acquisitions Nahuel and Witsel adapting to the team like a ‘hand in glove’.

Morata ‘on fire’

Morata, himself is not really a new signing but Juve sent him back to Atletico this summer, giving up the chance to keep the striker for themselves. I have it on good authority that the Spanish club was not happy about the decision feeling that they were well catered for in the striking department with the likes of Griezmann, Cunha, João Félix and Correa on the books. Morata also has plenty of work to do in currying favour with the Atleti fans who criticised him considerably during his previous spells in a red and white shirt. The striker however does return a more mature player and recent performances for the Spanish national side are encouraging too. Yesterday in Getafe he left the same impression as he had done in pre-season and showed us that he is a fine forward.

Under-par Getafe

Monday’s contest in the Madrid suburbs was a decent game and to be honest the 0-3 scoreline doesn’t reflect well on Getafe as the ‘azulones’ are a decent team. Quique Sanchez Flores’ side came up against a well drilled and organised Atletico. Simeone has assembled a solid team based around their three central defenders with plenty of strength and depth on the bench to call upon too. If the starting eleven was impressive, so were those who came on: Carrasco, De Paul, Griezmann, Cunha and Correa. There is no doubt that Cristiano Ronaldo would have sold bucketloads of shirts and his acquisition would have shaken up Atleti’s global image, but the Portuguese striker is just that little bit long in the tooth and his selfishness would have not added to a team whose performance in Getafe was magnificent.