Garth Crooks has slammed Chelsea striker Alvaro Morata after he missed an easy chance for a hat-trick in the 3-1 win against Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Morata had already scored two when he was put through late on By Eden Hazard.
With just the keeper to beat he tried to lift it over Wayne Hennessy from the edge of the box, but the keeper just stood tall and made an easy save.
“I was so furious with Alvaro Morata I nearly didn’t select him for my TOTW,” Crooks wrote in his BBC column.
“How does a player who is finding goals so difficult to come by decide to showboat when presented with a glorious chance to get your hat-trick?
“For a player who has a reputation for missing chances, he cannot allow hat-trick opportunities to pass him by with such scant disregard for the goalkeeper.
“Morata took both his earlier goals against Crystal Palace in a professional manner – but the Spain international does not have the finishing power to be so flash in front of goal.”
OPINION
Morata showed flashes of why Chelsea paid so much money for him yesterday. He’s been an infuriating player for so much of his Chelsea career but he looked sharp at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Passing up his chance of a hat-trick was wasteful though, even though the game was already won by that point. Eden Hazard, as he has done so often, was the difference for Chelsea when he came on. He set up Morata’s second and should have had another one after his sliderule pass to Morata. Can you rely blame a striker for trying something different though? If it had gone in we’d have hailed Morata as a genius. The decisions strikers make are split-second ones and with hindsight we guess that Morata wished he would have just taken the easy option. However, it doesn’t detract from a brilliant performance and if Morata can keep firing, Chelsea could well stay in touch at the top of the Premier League table. This win takes them to second spot behind Man City, just two points off the pace.