How Juventus Can Restore Alvaro Morata to Peak Form

After finishing the 2014-15 season by scoring some of the biggest goals Juventus have seen in the last 10 years, Alvaro Morata was expected to play a huge role this year.

He started the season in much the same way as he ended the last one—quality over quantity.  He scored huge goals in the UEFA Champions League against Manchester City and Sevilla and followed it up with a man-of-the-match performance against Bologna to give Juve a huge boost in Serie A.

But after that game things started going downhill.  Over the next 20 games he went totally scoreless and notched just one assist in league play and two in the Coppa Italia.  In that period he made some maddening misses, including a few that could have given Juventus the top spot in their Champions League group in the return game with Sevilla.

At the end of January it looked like Morata had broken his funk.  He scored twice in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semifinal against Inter and claimed another brace four days later against Chievo, all with classic poacher's finishes.  He hasn't scored in three games since, but he did register an assist against Frosinone and has generally been in the right spots throughout.

So what went wrong with the young Spaniard this season?  How can it be fixed as the business end of the season looms?

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The answer to the first question is two-pronged but simple.  The first problem came when coach Massimiliano Allegri made a short-lived switch to a 4-3-3 formation.  It was done mostly to utilize Juan Cuadrado in his natural wing position, but it had an unanticipated side effect.

Moving Morata to an unfamiliar position on the left forced him to change his game.  While he may be a much better dribbler than the likes of teammate Mario Mandzukic or former Juve striker Fernando Llorente, he's still not someone who plays primarily with the ball at his feet.  He's at his best going up the middle and using the dribbling skills he does have to pierce the defense that way.

With his game thrown off, his confidence suffered, and when a striker doesn't believe in himself, it gets a lot harder for him to put the ball into the net.

At about this time, Mandzukic came into the picture.  The Croatian had a rocky start to life at Juventus after arriving this summer, but starting with the team's November 8 game against Empoli through to the winter break, he scored six goals and notched one assist over eight games.

It turned out that an infection had sapped his effectiveness early on, and when he got over it, he reverted to the player everyone was expecting to see.  When he did, the scuffling Morata was relegated to the bench.  He appeared in nine games over that stretch, but according to WhoScored.com, he only averaged 30 minutes on the field per game and played 90 just twice, once in the Coppa and once against Sevilla—a game that Mandzukic missed due to the flu.

That lack of playing time is another crucial element for Morata.  The only way for any player to round back into form is to play his way there.  Only getting on the field for half an hour a week isn't the way to do that.

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It shouldn't take much time for Morata to truly get himself going.  When some players hit the skids, they totally disappear from games.  That hasn't been the case for Morata.  He has worked hard and has often found himself in the right positions—his problem has been his final touch.  Letting him take a penalty for his first goal against Inter—stoking his confidence with a goal—was a stroke of genius from Allegri.

What's needed now is for Morata to play in his proper position and to do it consistently.

With Mandzukic nursing an injury, Morata will certainly have more playing time.  The only question will be whether Allegri plays him in the right spot.

With a selection crunch at center-back, Allegri will probably have to play a four-man defensive line for the next few weeks.  That could mean a shift away from a strike pair to an attacking trident.  With Morata tentatively returning to the form we remember from last year, that would be disastrous.

If Allegri is going to play four at the back, he needs to do so with something like a 4-3-1-2, which would allow Morata to play his best game and round out into top form.

Getting Morata to his peak is a fairly simple proposition, but the execution of it will be delicate work.  The player is poised on the edge between a breakout and a return to his struggles.  It's up to Allegri to ensure that it's the former.