The Skipper

Hopefully the scousers can take some points off Bale Spurs. Liverpool have an attack that can cause them problems with the likes of Sturridge, Suarez, Coutinho and Gerrard coming through, which isn't bad at all.

Wow, never knew that. A strong, independent young man he must be. Maturity beyond his years.

Exactly that. 3 senior strikers as you said is what the club should be looking at... Ideally though we should've kept Sturridge and have him vying for that striker spot between Lukaku and Ba whilst also providing extra cover as an inside forward in the three behind the striker. He's gone now though so a reasonable third option will be suitable, yes.

Will PM you now .

United and City also play two strikers at the same time. We do not. The club are heading that way, our squad isn't designed to implement a 4-4-2 formation. Yes Lukaku still has a few rough edges to his game but he's more than good enough to lead the line at a PL club, as he's shown at West Brom so far. Why would you keep a talent like that on the bench and let him play the Chicharito role? His potential ceiling is far higher than that. Just to point out that Drogba too was still quite raw when he came to the PL, but that didn't stop us from winning the title back in 2005 and 2006. I think Lukaku has shown enough that he deserves a big shot here at CFC.

The hypocrisy in this post is mind boggling.

Why would we need four options up front when we play with only one front man? And if we are going to sign Cavani or anyone of his ilk, then Lukaku's definitely going on another loan. Can't see him staying here and not being played frequently. It's a choice, a gamble. Do we keep Lukaku and allow him to develop into one of the most fearsome strikers in the world? Or do we get a proven world class talent in Cavani who's likely to thrive here, and let him develop somewhere else? You also say you want an out and out winger and then list Schurrle who's more Sturridge (striker-cum-winger) than a direct threat like Victor Moses for example...

I honestly wouldn't mind if he came back and he was our starting striker for next season. I think he's ready, and he has the character to play at a big club IMO. It shows you what confidence and a run of games can do for a player - people underestimate what a good run of games can do for a player, especially when they're young and playing at the highest level. He's laughing right now at the people that were writing him off because of his price tag. Fully worth it.

Hey guys, whenever I try to sign in using The Skipper as an username it never seems to connect. I can only sign in to the website via my twitter account but I'm thinking of deactivating that soon. Anything that can be done? Even when I try to use the forget password thing it says my name is not on the database, which is obviously not true...

Really, really want Terry to start. Yes, United have pace in their squad, but RVP and Rooney, who would be JT's main opponents (if that is who they start), aren't exactly known as speed demons.

Hehe, misread your post

If you read from the start of the thread, the pessimism outweighs the optimism by far.

Hence why I said, "IMO".

I've said this before, but if we kept Sturridge we would've been better off - Ba, Lukaku and Sturridge next season would've been a great strikeforce IMO.

Yeah, as far as I'm concerned KDB is definitely part of the squad next year. I want the next manager to experiment and try him out in the pivot, I really believe he could be lethal there.

They don't. It's quite easy to compare Wilshere and Thiago since they're both meant to be the midfield maestros of their team. Thiago's being moulded into the Xavi role at Barcelona and Wilshere is quite similar in that aspect. Jack Wilshere is the better player overall because he has a better defensive tenacity and simply because he's more of a leader than Thiago - Thiago needs to start more at Barcelona or move before you can say he's better than Wilshere. Jack used to be an AM himself but because he covers well Wenger/Owen Coyle decided to play him deeper, which has reaped rewards.

And this is why Luiz is a candidate for captaincy.

Schurrle has always been a decent player but it was his price tag that was the problem. We offered around £17m for him if I'm not incorrect which is a fair price but Leverkussen were looking for £25m-£30m.

He really wasn't.

Nope, not ashamed whatsoever. I still believe in this squad & IMO, we're just basically going through a mini crisis. We have the talent to beat anyone, it's just a simple matter of marrying that talent with our performances on the pitch. I have the patience to wait and see if the club can implement that. Until I see that our long term future is bleak, which it is not atm, I think our future is actually very promising if they can pull it off... I won't be ashamed. KTBFFH!

I'm gonna stick my neck out and say that we'll see a different Chelsea, the one that matches our true abilities on Sunday. I have a slight feeling that we might come away with a good results against the Mancs.

Simply because I think he needs to be more exposed to top level football. He's got all the ingredients for a top player, he just needs to be tested at the top level at a frequent rate. I really hope Watford get promoted and keep Chalobah on loan for next season, it'll do wonders for his development rather than coming back to CFC and having the odd game here and there, he'd be starting week in week out at Watford. The current bunch as in? Could you please elaborate the question?

Chalobah, Feruz, Piazon and Ake aren't ready to be part of the 1st team because 1. Their development will be hampered by not playing regularly and 2. They aren't good enough yet to start week in week out for the team.

This is shocking.

Congrats to mon frère @Peace., who deserves to be MOTM with a lot of great, intelligent and intriguing posts. Can't believe I got 14 votes from you guys, appreciate it a lot!