themightyblue

He's back in light training!

Have a few problems with your post if i'm honest. Firstly Porto under Avb didn't play a counter-attacking game, they played the complete opposite. Their game was all about pressing, keeping possession and playing an expansive attacking game. Falcao flourished in this system. Not a counter attacking one like you said. And also considering you don't know who our next manager is and what type of system he'll want to play, it is far too early to say he won't fit. For all we know we could get Mourinho and play his fairly counter-attacking game which Falcao has done so well in at Atletico. In an instance like this he'd be the perfect striker. Even so (I think i've said this in the Falcao thread) he's still effective in a possession based game mostly due to his movement as he's always making defenders work and drags them out of position, in comparison to Torres is constantly static. His off the ball runs are the type of things which would benefit our AMs as it creates space for them. I also think we need a striker who can play as a focal point and someone we can centre it around because as we've seen with Ba recently, it gives our attacking midfielders a focal point to which they can either link up with, or can keep the opposition CB's occupied. We don't want someone like Torres who drops deep far too often and goes into the attacking midfield area and just congests it. Teams put 10 men behind the ball against United yet Hernandez has still been able to be very effective for them and score goals. It's not as if they are literally standing on the goal line. With a striker like Falcao who has excellent movement, combined with the creativity of our Attacking midfielders he would still be able to score lots of goals. Lets also not forget the fact that he is a world class striker. World class players are those that can adapt to any system. Falcao has gone from an intense, possession based system in Porto to a more counter attacking system in Spain and has done remarkably well in both. If he did come I'd have no worries he'd be able to adapt to whatever system we decide to play. Should we sign Falcao, I also doubt it'd mean we couldn't sign a quality CM. I also hate this numbers stuff as nobody knows the full extent of our accounts such as how much our deal with Gazprom was worth and our sponsorship deals. We wouldn't be interested/buy Falcao if it meant that we wouldn't comply with FFP. The board may make silly decisions at times, but they are business people and wouldn't do anything to jeopardise our status in europe especially considering Roman was a firm supporter of FFP. What must also be considered is that is highly likely that a number of big earners will be off our books by the end of summer. Lampard, Torres, Malouda, Benayoun, Essien who i'm pretty sure are all on over 80k plus possibly the likes of the Ferreira, Hilario. In other words, our wage bill is going to significantly reduce. And once again, our board wouldn't be stupid enough to offer Falcao wages which would stop us from signing other players that are needed and cause our wage bill to become unmanageable. Finally, you make a point earlier saying how Falcao has only done well in counter attacking systems, but then list Cavani (who plays in a fully counter attacking side), Lewandowski who plays in a team with a similar philosophy to Atletico and Lukaku who does most of his damage for WBA on the counter. The type of strikers you should be listing are players like Suarez or Jovetic who are the complete opposite to your Falcao's, but as I said it all depends on what our system is next season which none of us know yet.

Cech Azpi Cahill Ivanovic Bertrand Lampard Luiz Moses Mata Hazard Torres With United in mind of course and assuming there are no injuries

Just no words to describe his ability. Best individual performance I've seen at the bridge since Luiz against City in the 2010/11 season. Exceptional

Was surprised given that he played DM

@ChelseaStatto: 98% Ramires found his team-mates with 98% of his passes today, 51/52, completing 5/5 long passes in the process. Vision. #CFC Who said he can't pass?! Kidding

Skill-set required? I'm sorry but in terms of movement, positioning etc Falcao wins it for me. Cavani's work rate is the biggest difference. But it's all opinions I guess though

It's interesting that you say all of that stuff about Falcao not contributing much if he isn't scoring goals, but then list Cavani who up until today has been fairly poor recently while he hasn't been scoring goals

It would be funny if we signed Falcao. I reckon there'd be quite a few disappointed Chelsea fans......which is quite weird to say

It all depends on how highly Laudrup would value piazon. He's managed to make an impact at Malaga and they're a CL club

Probably shouldn't be saying this in the piazon topic, but that's untrue about Mata. He adapted very well last season

Did you see him when he came on against Villa? And how he's settled at Malaga in La Liga? With Swansea in Europa next season they are going to need to get a bigger squad to cope with the demands of European football and there attacking options on the bench are Luke Moore, Lamah, Shechter and routledge. He would certainly get enough minutes if he moved there and the way he plays suits there philosophy. It's got nothing to do with overrating him

If Malaga were allowed to compete in Europe then I'd disagree with this because it'd allow him to compete at the top level. However, as they can't I'd want him to go to Swansea. They play good football, will be in the Europa and have Laudrup. Still think he's involved in a deal for isco unfortunately

Not so bad a loan now is it #Emenaloout

Well you've completely missed the point if you think birth certificate is the problem.

Conversely. In those 3 years he could be the difference between winning nothing and winning the League/CL or whatever. Much like RVP has done for United this season despite being injury prone, costing 24m in the last year of his contract and being 29. Also Falcao's game isn't really based around pace or strength. It's much more about his movement, positioning and finishing and so we would probably be able to sneak out more than 3 years Were Torres and Sheva really at the top of their games when we bought them and not on the verge of becoming washed up? Also with Sheva he was just managed horribly with us playing him out wide at times etc. I very much doubt we'd do the same with Falcao Honestly we have no clue about the clubs finances, how much we'll make from pre-season tours, sponsorship deals like Gazprom, which high earners will be leaving this summer. Pointless speculating on FFP as only the club truly knows what we can and can't spend, and if we do spend the money on Falcao it'll be because it's within our financial restraints. That's what a great scouting network can do for you But then it can also be argued that none of them have experience of leading the line of a top level club like ourselves, where the pressure is much higher and defences are a lot more stubborn. Ba hasn't really been given much chance, and if you believe he has been given a chance then his return has been poor in terms of goals. Lukaku is the interesting as i'm open to him returning, but we must remember he is only 19 and at that age the best thing for him will be playing week in week out so that he gains more experience and valuable play time. Despite his amazing loan at WBA, playing for Chelsea is completely different kettle of fish and the pressure, intensity and scrutiny of playing for us is massive. The kid has time on his side. Even if he doesn't come back next season, i'm pretty sure we signed Ba on a 3 year deal with Lukaku in mind so that he can be a stop gap to allow Lukaku to develop and perfect his game so that he really is ready to come back and make his mark at Chelsea. Before this burst of form he's had over these past couple of weeks, i'm pretty sure most of us were wanting him on loan for another season as there were still many deficiencies in his game

But then according to Omeruo and his representatives, he's already held talks about joining the first team squad next season and he's in Holland. Agree on the rest though, should be a shoe in for our squad

No I was talking about what Leif said about Lukaku and the playing victim stuff

Mostly because he hasn't really settled in Spanish football too, As far as I can remember, i'm pretty sure it was Jose pushing for the deal

Because whereas Lukaku and Josh have said they are contacted by Chelsea virtually every day, KDB said he gets the odd phone call

Wow. What an accusation to make. Give Josh time. We're always too quick to dismiss. Not all players become stars at the age of 20 or below

All rumours as of yet. Still think we'll get him providing we get rid of Torres. Roman loves his marquee strikers too much

Explain why we sell Lukaku? I'm all for the idea of keeping Lukaku but if we bought Falcao we wouldn't sell Lukaku. It would mean he goes out on loan for another year playing week in and week out and comes back the season after with Ba having only 1 more year on his contract and approaching the dreaded - Chelsea 30 years old bracket. Whether we sign a striker this summer or not, Lukaku has a massive career ahead of him at Chelsea

Judging by the interview he gave a few weeks back, it just seems like Chelsea have forgotten about him

But then the likes of Oscar and KDB can also play as CMs in a 433, while Mata and Hazard can also play on the wings For all we know it could even be a change to 4222 or 4321 etc. We just simply shouldn't dispose of a key player like Ramires