The Skipper

My main point was that Costa was a better player than Mandzukic in the Pep analogy. Regardless, Costa would be better for our set up than Mandzukic would be simply because of Mourinho's counter attacking system which I think Mandzukic would be useless in.

I don't think Mario's link up play is "way better" than Costa's. He's surrounded by better players and a better link up play system (he's not as isolated up front as Costa is) so his link up play will obviously look better. Costa is usually isolated upfront on his own, doesn't have as much support as Mario does, so I don't think you can really compare their link up play in that manner. Diego Costa has more pace/power about him than Mandzukic does, and is also more technically adept. Mandzukic cannot play on the wing, whilst Costa can because he has better technique and is technically in general more adept. If you stick Costa in the Bayern team, he'd also benefit of the link up play system there and IMO would do better. Vice-versa, I definitely doubt Atletico would be challenging for the title if they had Mandzukic up front this season. Costa is definitely a very major reason why Atletico are up there challenging for the La Liga this season. If I was Pep and you offered me a straight swap; Costa for Mandzukic; I would be out of my mind not to take it IMO.

I have an interesting question for you - if both Mandzukic and Costa were available at £32m, would you still think Mandzukic is the better player for us?

He wasn't comparing ATM to Stoke, he was comparing Rayo to Stoke.

That is a really poor argument. Aguero, Torres (when he joined Liverpool), Negredo is all I'll say.

This, this and this. Just because you score goals doesn't mean you should automatically be a striker. Schurrle wouldn't have been in the position to score those if he was playing up front.

Eto'o Hazard - Willian - Schurrle Matic - Luiz Azpi - Terry - Cahill - Ivanovic Cech

Mandzukic really isn't better than Costa IMO, if he was they wouldn't have signed Lewandowski. Mario is not a bad striker but he's not elite. Diego Costa has more about him.

No one is saying that lol, people are just bringing up DD because he was similarly doubted at the start of his Chelsea career for the same reason.

His price is set. It's £32m, his release clause. It's not going to go up or down, and in today's market, for a top class striker, £32m is not a bad price at all. We will spend £30m on a player if we want to - the Willian signing proves that. He exhibits the traits that we need in a CF as well. His back to goal and link up play is great, he has great work rate and can easily lead the line on his own. He comes up with big goals as well as he's proven this season. This isn't his first great season either. Last year, he still grabbed 20 goals even though he wasn't playing as the main forward as Falcao was there - so he isn't a one season wonder. He's not 26 either, he's 25. That means if we did sign him we'd get him with his prime years ahead of him. I would not be disappointed with this signing at all.

Late bloomer.

They're saying it simply because of the vast amount of talent Real have available. Player for player it is a great Real, but nothing will beat the Galactico era of Ronaldo, Zidane, Beckham, Raul etc. in my opinion (player wise).

Some player this guy is. Dreaming of him and Hazard terrorising teams on that left flank.

This is because he wasn't playing upfront. He used to play out wide when Falcao was there.

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Nor have we.

Every time I watch this my blood boils. True robbery. I absolutely despise UEFA for this, and how they tried to make Ovrebo the victim whilst completely overlooking his performance. It was a disgrace.

If we signed a proper midfield playmaker like Gundogan or Kroos our number 10 wouldn't have to do as much dirty work IMO.

Better GK. Better attack, better CMs (apart from someone like Schneiderlin perhaps).

No way they'd be challenging for the title. They'd at best be challenging top 5. The difference is too pronounced.

Yeah definitely. Hopefully Mourinho coaches it into the team, we should definitely utilise the free man more often.

Schurrle would not be as good if he played upfront simply because our CF is involved in our build up play a lot. He's a player that runs from deep and makes splendid runs off the ball - putting him up front takes that away IMO.

We need good movement around him for that to happen. Someone like Schurrle utilised the space very well today for example.

One bad game from Schurrle and people will be wanting to sell him again.

As @MrExcalibur100 pointed out in the Torres thread, here's another instance of Schurrle's clever movement (watch how he tries to drag out defenders with his run off the ball) that takes away a few players and creates more space for Hazard who produces a brilliant rabona cross which Torres unfortunately didn't finish. It's a shame because it would've been a very well worked goal all round.