It’s not merely a striker rotation

It was in the January transfer window that we brought in Fernando Torres to assist Didier Drogba. The idea then was that bringing the two most fearsome strikers together would do wonders for the team. But as we saw, it didn’t plan out the way we wanted. Even if people may disagree saying that they ‘ didn’t’ get enough time together on the pitch, I’d say the results would had been the same, the reason? Because both players are known to be the focal points of whichever team they have played for. Torres was the front man at Liverpool, while Drogba had Anelka, a man who was willing to let Didier take the spotlight. The main thing to be noted was that we focused too much on which striker would be our ‘main’ striker, rather than making the most of the two vastly different strikers we had.

Fast forward two years, and again in the January transfer window Chelsea go shopping for a striker since Torres wasn’t performing as well as he was expected to, or perhaps as well as he himself wanted to! We brought in Demba Ba, another target man, a striker whose playing style is closer to that of Drogba than Torres. But this time, even though it is a forced one, there is proper utilization of the two strikers. The shallow squad means that the manager is forced to rest one of the two strikers he has to keep both fit. And more over, Demba Ba is ineligible for the Europa League. Many people were calling for the deployment of both Ba and Torres together on the pitch, but as much as it proved fruitful against Brentford and Man City, it is not the right approach at our current situation. And the reason is simple, we only have two strikers!

And even if we feel that the rotation is a forced one, it is actually fruitful to our approach. We have two different strikers now, Torres who prefers to drop in deep and win balls, and get along with the passing game, and Demba Ba, who is suitable for a more direct approach. Ba can easily dominate defenders physically, while on a good day, Torres is an annoyance for defenders to deal with. And when you understand that different teams have different playing styles you know why two different styled strikers is important. It is like Messi being able to dominate against teams who are willing to play attacking, e.g.: Arsenal, while he isn’t expected to have the same effect against a team who is physical, like Stoke City. Just like this, having two widely different strikers is going to prove beneficial to us, (won’t say in the long run, as there is hardly 5-7 games left)

And right now, at a stage that it all becomes so crucial for us, it is necessary that both our strikers perform well. A Third spot is well achievable and then there is also the very mouthwatering possibility of becoming the Europa League Champions. Hopefully Demba Ba can still bag a few more goals, and lead us to victories against Manchester United and Tottenham, which he is expected to start, while the recently rejuvenated Zorres could very well fire us into European glory. All we need to do is BELIEVE!

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