lionsden

Ukraine and Russia have a long standing history of extreme racism though. He may not be a subject of racism on the pitch but what about off the pitch?

I bet he can cross the ball better than Bosingwa and Ivanovic. The problem with our RB position is we don't have personnel with the right balance between attack and defence- Ivanovic is defensively solid but poor/average offensively while Ferreira is the direct opposite- a defensive liability with decent attacking instinct and capability and Bosingwa is just plain useless, no aspect of his game stands out. This inkoom kid appears to have the right mixture of both to his game so I support this deal.

Has anyone heard the rumour linking us to Ghanian RB Samuel Inkoom

You do realise youtube can make anything look good and those were just exceptions. I have based my assertion on all the Chelsea games DD has featured in over the years. His first touch and close control is absolutely appalling for a professional footballer and he's majorly responsible for our poor ball retention in the final third over the last 3 years I can not recall how many build up play he broke down last season and during pre-season due to his heavy touches and poor dribbling ability. The only technical attribute he can take credit for is his set-piece delivery and crossing/long balls which is not sufficient to qualify a player as technically gifted but I don't want to derail this Lukaku thread and would end this discussion from here.

Great just what we need. . . We should also consider Helton, Howard webb and Platini as our next targets.

Although he usually plays on the left wing, he's still regarded as a striker.

That's right, signing players while injured is not uncommon or against football practices. The hard cold truth as justin already pointed out is that AVB/Gourlay are not too keen/sold on the Belgian wonderkid which may explain why he's fallen off our radar in recent weeks. If we dedicated just a quarter of the energy and time been expended on Modric on him don't you think he would have been wearing that blue jersey by now?

From what I have seen of Piazon, he's far from De Bryune's level. I have no doubt he would improve with time but he's not ready to play first team football for us.

I still can't understand why we haven't made this kid our top priority. AVB has used the pre-season to assess the squad and after the assessment, if he still can't recognize what everyone, from pundits to neutral fans consider the main weakness in this team which is the lack of width/quality wingers then I don't know what to say.

such as?

Perhaps we have to define "technique". When discussing technically gifted strikers, the names that usually comes to mind are Berbatov, Aguero,Van persie, Zlatan, D.Villa, Eto'o et al. players who possess great first touch and close control and decent/excellent dribbling skills among other skills. To me Drogba has always relied on his physicality and belongs to the same level as Van Nistelroy, Di natale,Torres, Luca Toni et al in terms of technical ability.

Are you in anyway suggesting that Drogba is technically gifted?

Did you see how Fergie didn't hesitate to sub his under-performing star players (Vidic,Ferdinand and Evra) in the comm shield for a relatively "young and inexperienced" fringe players especially against their bitter rivals and it ultimately proved to be a fantastic decision.Yet People wonder why Man Utd and fergie have been so successful over the years. I'm certain If AVB or any Chelsea manager made such attempt,it will be met with severe criticism by 98% of Chelsea Fans including Roman and Ron Gourlay. make of that what you will

It's a shame really how we went from Robben and Duff to Anelka and malouda.

I disagree. City have too many DMF and are short of creative MF's. A midfield that consists primarily of De Jong, Gareth Barry and Yaya Toure can definitely do with a playmaker

Basically the general consensus on here is Drogba to start ahead of torres, benayoun and Ramires in the midfield and Malouda at LWF.

AVB said Mikel's injury is not serious and should return for the stoke game. . .hopefully we wouldn't have to resort to desperate measures of using Lampard/Josh out of position.

Problem with that is, Lampard has hinted his discontent with playing in that position and doesn't have the aggressiveness and discipline required for that role. Provided Mikel's will be sidelined for that game then I had rather play Josh instead, he has shown enough discipline and competency in DM.

Well let's just say Kalou is shit and Anelka is shitter . Unless we reinforce the left wing as I don't feel Malouda is good enough neither then we will have to make do with the players at our disposal.

We are playing a 4-3-3. . . . Sturidge, Anelka, Kalou and Malouda will play wing forward which leaves Torres, Lukaku and Drogba has the 3 targets men plus it's worth noting that Drogba, Anelka and malouda are old and nearing the end of their contracts which means Lukaku was bought with a long term view to replace Drogba.

Sturridge, our number one selection based on merit is suspended for the game which leaves Kalou and Anelka as the only two options and Kalou marginally edges Anelka imho. Yes AVB should play Josh ahead of Lampard and that's been my point all along. I cherish the day when sentiments would no longer be the most crucial criteria for team selections.

Based on merit, lampard and Anelka shouldn't be starting against stoke. Ramires and Kalou ahead of Lampard and Anelka for me but then again team selection according to most fans and managers is based on reputation and experience rather than actual merit.

Nope not until he signs at-least one winger and a creative midfielder

It's great feeling to know he's here for the right reasons and his commitment to the club would never be in doubt.