Options for our squad 13/14: Strikers

The striker dilemma hopefully ends by the start of the new season. A new striker will be signed this summer for sure. The Stamford Bridge is called the graveyard for strikers, where a striker succeed is rare, at least after the arrival of Roman Abramovich. No striker could really impress for several years, except for King Didier. Many great names in football failed to score regularly as a striker at the Bridge, including the Romanians most talented player, Adrian Mutu, Andriy Shevchenko, the Ballon d’Or winner from 2004 or Fernando Torres, who was absolutely deadly in Liverpool. The chase for a new striker continues, so how will our new strike force look like next season?
Available strikers in the current squad
Demba Ba: The Senegalese joined Chelsea 5 months ago in the 2013 January transfer window. Demba Ba had a £7.5 release clause in his contract at Newcastle, a little fee for a striker of his class (29 Premier League goals in 54 games for Newcastle). Ba is enormous strong in the air and has good skills to hold the ball with his strong body. He showed his in air skills for example in the games versus United, City (both in the FA Cup) or Southampton at the Bridge in January by scoring wonderful volleys.
Romelu Lukaku: The 20-year old had a hard time in his first season in England. Both AVB and Di Matteo preferred to play Drogba or Torres as both didn’t want to risk too much of their jobs. At the beginning of this season, Lukaku was loaned out to WBA. He had a magnificent spell in the West Midlands, and definitely proved that he is good enough for the Premier League. The question remains if he’s ready to play regularly for Chelsea. The start of the Belgian at West Brom wasn’t easy either, having a tough fight with teammate Shane Long for a place as the first choice striker. However, Lukaku could get the better of Long, and scored 17 BPL goals while Long ended on 8 goals (and no other WBA player came even near Lukaku’s number of goals). And not to forget, Lukaku scored a incredible hat-trick in the last game of the season against Manchester United in Fergie’s last game, which ended 5-5.
Fernando Torres: We spent a lot of time, a lot of patience and a lot of money on ‘El Nino’. Deep down every Chelsea fan, the player, who we want to see score is Fernando. He brought us a lot of joy, including his first goal at the Bridge in a Chelsea shirt versus West Ham two years ago, or his last minute goal at Camp Nou, or his goal in the final of the Europa League a month ago. But we fans also had difficult times with Torres, where he missed chances after chances, an empty goal at Old Trafford, his unmotivated attitude in single games and his goal droughts. The Spaniard could never near justify his £50m transfer from his performances, even though he works so much in a game and he probably is one of the unluckiest player I’ve ever seen. The posts turn to goalkeepers and goalkeepers into gods when Torres shots. His energy, passion and his service for other players are remarkable, but Torres is far away from a world-class striker, because of the difference between the Torres on a good day and the Torres on a bad day is just too big.
The transfer situation of the strikers in the current squad
Demba Ba: Ba seems to be the player Mourinho wants to sell the most from our 3 strikers. West Ham is interested to bring Ba back to Upton Park on loan to link him up with Andy Carroll. A loan wouldn’t make sense in my opinion as Ba is already 28 and if Mourinho really wants Ba to leave, he should sell him. Ba himself wants Mourinho to give him a chance to prove his qualities.
Romelu Lukaku: The opinion on whether loan-out Lukaku again is very different. Mourinho wants to keep him and Lukaku is also keen to stay, but he must get game time if he stays at Chelsea. West Ham is also interested to loan Lukaku beside Ba, and Liverpool wants Lukaku too.
Fernando Torres: Barcelona seems willing to buy Torres and they are preparing to make a £17m offer according to several papers. Atletico is also interested to take El Nino back to Madrid after the departure of Falcao. Rafael Benitez, who was appointed as the new Napoli manager, is probably also ready for a reunion with Torres, and a Cavani-Torres swoop is possible too.
Linked players
Edinson Cavani: The hottest name in the newspapers in the recent weeks. The Uruguayan definitely belongs to the best #9s in the world, for me, Cavani and Falcao are the best strikers in the world. There are too many rumours in the media right now, but what Cavani does have is a release clause worth £53m (€63m). Every bid by Chelsea were rejected until now. According to his mother, Cavani is negotiating with City and Real Madrid.
Robert Lewandowski: There’s a conflict about the transfer situation of Lewandowski between the Polish striker and Dortmund. It started when Watzke, the CEO of Borussia Dortmund, said that the 24-year will not join Bayern. And Lewandowski claims that Watzke never told him that he isn’t allowed to join Bayern. This conflict will continue for a while. Lewandowski will leave, at the latest next summer, when his contract expires.Chelsea and Manchester United are interested to sign the Polish striker beside Bayern. The positive thing about Lewandowski is that he won’t cost as much as Cavani does.
Other linked players: Wayne Rooney, Mario Gomez, Stevan Jovetic and Edin Dzeko
Strikers for 2013/2014
Edinson Cavani: The most likely transfer in my view. I still believe that Lewandowski personally would prefer Bayern Munich although Watzke said that Lewandowski won’t join Bayern. Cavani will be overpriced, that’s for sure. A footballer shouldn’t be worth more than £50m, except for Messi or Ronaldo. However, he’s the best option for Chelsea at the moment. ‘El Matador’ is a born striker. He has the instinct to be at the right place at the right time and he’s a clinical finisher and is able to score with every part of his body.
Romelu Lukaku: Jose Mourinho wants to keep Lukaku, and I’m a big supporter of this decision. With Cavani as first choice, Lukaku won’t feel too much pressure at a club like Chelsea as a 20-year old, and it won’t be very risky for Chelsea too. Lukaku will also get his game time by rotation with the amount of games Chelsea has every season. It’s the right time to establish the Belgian into Chelsea.
Demba Ba: The reason why I’d take Ba as the 3rd striker and not Torres, is simply because of the wage we pay for Torres. There is no need to have a +£175’000-a-week striker on the bench when we also have Ba, who is much more cheaper and more reliable. And I think Torres will have more problems finding himself on the bench than Ba.
Other options: Andre Schürrle, Victor Moses.
(I assume that Mourinho will keep the 4-2-3-1. Although Mourinho had used a lot of different formations in his career at different clubs, our current players suits the 4-2-3-1 the most, and also at Madrid, Mourinho played with a 4-2-3-1. The 4-2-3-1 is probably also the most used formation in modern football (Bayern, Dortmund, City and Real Madrid) and its flexibility (easy transformation into other formations such as 4-3-3, 4-3-2-1 or 4-5-1) is essential to be organized in the defence and unpredictable in the attack.)
3 strikers will be enough for 1 position, and there are also Victor Moses and Andre Schürrle available, both playable as forwards, in emergency situations. I didn’t list every striker we are linked with, because that would take ages as we’re interested in every striker on the planet. I think Cavani, Lukaku and Ba is very good combination of young and experienced, quality and talent and all three will certainly get enough game time.
Which striker would you sell/buy? Let me know in the comments! Jonny (@jonny9fan)