Las7

Jose agrees:

Let me remind you the First five months under Rafa Lost to United; West Brom; West Ham; QPR; Newcastle; City; Southhampton; Steaua; Swansea(in the Cup); Corinthians(Final in the CWC) Drew with Swansea(EPL); Liverpool(EPL); Man City(EPL); Fulham(EPL); Southhampton(EPL); Reading(EPL); Sparta(EL); Brendford(FA Cup); He started getting better results towards the end of the season but his record in his first 5 months was far worse than Jose's

Torres isn't even good enough to be automatic first choice striker when our other two options are semi-retired Eto'o and Demba Ba - says all that needs to be said about our "options" it's like choosing between having a barbed wire; a 15 inch dildo or a sword inserted up your rectum. Meanwhile we sold Sturridge and loaned Lukaku both are light years away from the dross we have up top. In the end Jose needs to take responsibility - he decided to keep Ba and Torres around and brought in Eto'o from Siberia. Schurrle up top for the rest of the year and sign an actual striker in the winter.

I have never said that Ba is good enough to be a striker at CFC - you can check my posts about Ba, I said it was a mistake to sell our best striker to Liverpool and buy a replacement who could go crooked at any time. I'm just annoyed it's Torres fanboys saying Ba is crap when their idol isn't better. Both would be lucky to be playing in the Championship based on their form at CFC and that goes for Eto'o as well.

Only players that deserve credit after this shambolic performance are Cesar and Mark, I guess Willian too for looking like he gave a damn

During his first year at the club Torres had 5 goals in all competitions - Ba has 9 goals in all competitions so far in his first year at the club. Obviously Ba is the superior striker over the course of their first year with nearly twice as many goals, but anyone who qualifies Torres as a striker at this point is being generous to him.

He has 17 goals in 94 matches in the EPL, so in La Liga he would have 34 goals in 94 matches - Carlo needs to lay off the medicine or sign Torres

Drogba was World Class; same as RvP; Kun; Suarez; Falcao; Cavani; Zlatan etc - declined because of age and illnesses and couldn't be an automatic first team player in all of our matches, but he still had enough in the tank to drag us to a CL Win and FA Cup Triumph. Torres with those numbers is lucky to be playing in the EPL, when you get outscored by Crouch over a 3 year period there is serious questions that the Board and Torres should be asking of his performances. It's unacceptable and I'm tired of people making excuses for his pathetic form in the EPL. Torres 17 goals in 94 matches are a tally which is more suited for a player who is in a relegation bound team each season. Sturridge has already scored more match changing goals in a year than Torres has done so in three; took a pay cut to join Pool and has far exceeded the expectations bestowed upon him. It's no coincidence that Pools form has put them into the CL spots after Sturridge and Coutinho were signed. You're making it sound like there is no space for our forwards to run into - yet time and time again our forwards are too slow to outrun defenders - we score plenty of goals on the counter attack but Torres/Ba are so immobile they are rarely in a position for an easy tap in inside the box. We don't need to change anything - just sign a Class striker that our midfielders can have confidence in as opposed to strikers that are either past their best by dates or colossal flops who can't hit the target from 6 yards out. Drogba was World Class, our strikers cannot even be classified as playing the same sport as him.

I guess it's no coincidence our strikers have started struggling ever since Drogba got malaria; Anelka got old and we signed Torres and started playing him up top No one can actually tell me that 17 goals in 94 matches over three years is normal even if we were bloody Stoke pumping the ball up for Crouch I'd expect him to score more League goals than that in 94 matches(Just checked Crouch has 26 goals in 93 matches for bloody Stoke). Torres has been holding us back and the strikers we have signed since he came are only decent backups for a club with our aspirations. Had Lukaku or Sturridge had actually been played as much as Torres they would have been developed by CFC and would comfortably dwarf his contribution to us in the League

Give them 60 Million and Torres - two birds one stone

Our Strikers have a total of 8 goals in the EPL for the Year 2013 It's definitely not the only problem we have in the team but it's the most glaring problem we have had over the last 3 years. If we had a World Class striker it would have made a World of difference and I think we would have won the title a few times, currently we have a bunch of strikers who would not be first choice in any top club in the continent. Also supposedly Torres is a player who links up well with our midfield and plays a lot of our most important matches is the worst passer in the team. There is a myth that he holds up the ball and links up play with our creative midfielders better than the rest of our strikers(including the lad we send on loan). Yet this myth is disapproved by how bad his passing is, only half of dozen outfield players(with over 5 starts in the EPL) have worse passing percentage in the EPL this season: Libor Kozák 55% Cameron Jerome 56% Christian Benteke 57% Modibo Maiga 58% Steven Fletcher 59% Shane Long 62% Peter Crouch 63% Théophile-Catherine 64% Torres 64% Demba Ba 71% Eto'o 76% So it's not only finishing that appears to a problem for our strikers, they also have difficulty keeping the ball and combining with their teammates in the final third. It's no coincidence that we usually pressure teams much better with Eto'o in the team. Because he doesn't needlessly lose the ball thus we keep possession in dangerous areas instead of allowing opportunities for opposition to counter attack. None of our strikers are able to constantly score; but also they are by far our worst players in the final third. None of them are match winners and we continue relying for midfielders and defenders to bail us out - it puts extra pressure on our players to get goals and they end up taking the wrong decision. A cable striker can make a huge difference - it's a confidence booster for the whole team when you have a striker banging goals in and all you need to do when he is in form is get the ball into his feet. I remember that season Drogba was unplayable virtually he would take the ball on the halfway line and opposition defenders would shit their pants.

He would set them up plenty of times as well

They have two very good strikers as long as both remain fit and they don't need to play Aspas they should finish in the top four

Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech completed more passes in the first half (6) than Fernando Torres (5) Our fans clap him off for his goal

Torres passing success this match 53%.....

Torres doesn't seem to know how offside traps work

Playing with fire again - we need to score, instead we are gifting Palace chances

Ivanovic gifting them chances

First of all Costa won't be available in January even for £45 million - since it would put Madrid's season in jeopardy Second of all in the summer if he maintains his current form they could very well ask for over £50 million for a striker that has had one top class season under his belt and no one rated as World Class a few months ago.

What makes you think he would be cheaper? I don't see Atletico selling Diego Costa for less than Falcao myself, they are still in the CL; they look like they will qualify for the CL next year. The only reason Madrid sold Falcao is because he has larger wages and was owned 55% by a 3rd party who wanted to cash out.

Real stats are skewed - you can't really compare Madrid or Barca to us because firstly they play a League which is no where near as competitive as the EPL - because of the way TV rights are divided in La Liga. Second of all Benzema has rarely shown consistency on the biggest stage: In 19 matches against Barca Benzema has 4 goals; His only goals while at Real in the CL knockout stages are against Gala(1); Borussia(1); Apoel(2); CSKA(1); Lyon(2) - that's 5 opponents in 5 years and with the exception of his goals against Lyon none of his other goals turned out to be key. When you are at a club like Real pretty much what you do in knockout rounds and against Barca it's all that counts and he has been underwhelming. There were far bigger expectations for Benzema when he was a teen in France and he has faltered for Real and the French National Team. Simply put he has not reached the heights that were expected. Right now he is a level below Falcao who was a KEY player for Madrid and Porto that ensured both teams won silverware and especially in Madrid's case he was key in getting them qualified in the CL. If you look at La Liga right now Benzema probably is not even in the top 10 performers there.

I'm not really discussing the relative merits of his match against Steaua, I'm just puzzled why we spend so much on a player who barely features in any of our big matches - in a position where we were well covered. If we really wanted cover for the wings we might have just kept Moses around, that wouldn't have cost anything. Whether we are looking at central midfield or striking position those 30 million pounds could have been spend a lot better. I don't think he would have been a player to push Tottenham above their current position by any means at least by what he has shown so far at CFC. So far is pretty much one of the most underwhelming big signings we have made. I don't know 30 million pounds were till a few years ago a record breaking amount in the EPL and Willian doesn't warrant such a fee

I still haven't seen why we signed him - apart from that one goal against Norwich, there were some flashes here and there but nothing that would make me think he was in any way essential signing this season. Considering the money we have paid for Willian he hasn't lived up to the expectations for that type of fee; I know it's some what unfair but it does still seem like a pointless signing. Obviously best of luck to Willian hopefully he makes an impression over the course of the Christmas matches since that period will be hectic and we will be using the full potential of our squad. The match against Steaua isn't a match I will draw too many conclusions from, since I doubt we would be playing this caliber of opposition very often.

Statiscally we look better with him in the side - the entire team and Eto'o average more shots and shots on target with him in the side. I still don't feel like he is any where near good enough to be first choice striker at a club at our stature but he is a slight improvement over Torres and Ba

The sad thing is that despite him being semi retired we usually look like a better side when he is playing as shown by a recent article looking at all three of our supposed "strikers" http://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2013/12/8/5188840/chelsea-fc-shot-frequency-fernando-torres-samuel-etoo-demba-ba-jose-mourinho