Had Antonio Conte got his way last summer, Romelu Lukaku would have been playing in blue instead of red on Sunday afternoon.

The Belgian striker was, according to widespread reports at the time, Conte’s number one transfer target ahead of the 2017-18 campaign. However, the Chelsea boss was forced to settle on Alvaro Morata after Lukaku opted to join Jose Mourinho at Manchester United instead.

Conte had previously worked with Morata at Juventus and subsequently knew the Spanish forward’s strengths and weaknesses. Sixty million pounds seemed a fair price for a 24-year-old who outscored Karim Benzema at Real Madrid last season.

Fast-forward seven months, however, and it’s fair to say that Morata has been a disappointment in his debut season at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea fans would have expected a much better return than 12 goals in 35 matches. Morata was signed to fill the void left by Diego Costa but, so far, he’s flattered to deceive.

That he was only brought on as an 83rd-minute substitute against Barcelona in the Champions League last week - Chelsea’s biggest match of the season so far - tells you everything about how far his stock has fallen.

Morata returned to the starting line-up against Manchester United on Sunday afternoon but fluffed his lines early on.

With just a few minutes on the clock, the Spain international hit the crossbar from six yards out. He should have been celebrating his 13th goal of the season.

Souness spoke the truth about Morata after the match

Morata never looked like scoring after, prompting Sky Sports pundit Graeme Souness to offer a withering assessment of his ability after the match.

"I think he's a near-miss man," Souness said, per Sky Sports. "Can they give him another year to settle? Can big teams wait that long?”

He then went on to say that if Morata was playing for the home side and Lukaku for the visitors, Chelsea would have won the match.

"His general play wasn't good enough,” the 64-year-old added. “You swap those centre-forwards around today and Chelsea win the game."

Ouch.

It's hard to argue with Souness

Souness isn’t afraid to speak the truth and it’s hard to argue with him here.

Lukaku produced a Man of the Match performance against his former employers - scoring the equaliser and setting up Jesse Lingard’s winner - while the ineffective Morata dropped a 5/10 display.

Is Souness right about Morata? Have your say by leaving a comment below.