The boss says he cannot help the striker, only he can do that and he was unlucky not to find the back of the net against PAOK

Maurizio Sarri says he cannot help Alvaro Morata with his lack of confidence, only the man himself can do that.

The Chelsea manager said Morata just needs to find the back of the net and was unfortunate not to do so in the Europa League win against PAOK.

“Alvaro Morata has to gain confidence with one, two, three goals,” he said. “I am not able to give him confidence. In this match he has had three, four opportunities. He was unlucky.

“I hope for him that in the future I can try to help him, but the confidence can come only with goals. I have to say also, for maybe the first time in this season Alvaro was ready in the box. He was on the ball and was active.”

1 Morata joined from Real Madrid last season but he struggled in his first season in the Premier League

Since arriving for £65million in 2017, the 25-year-old has scored 12 Premier League goals in 35 games and even admitted he considered leaving during the summer following a below par season, which saw him miss out on a place in Spain’s World Cup squad.

“I thought about playing again in Spain or Italy, of course I thought it would have been happy, but you cannot always escape from reality,” he said.

“It was a disaster last year, I did not know where I was, I was not happy. Not going to the World Cup was hard for me. I did not have the best season and [manager Julen Lopetegui] made the decision.

“I signed for Chelsea to be there and I was not, although that ultimately made me motivated.”