Las7

Should be doing it in a Chelsea kit - no one can convince me Eto'o/Torres/Ba are better than Lukaku at this stage

He wasn't given a proper chance up top - you can't even question this fact. First when he was loaned to Bolton while Anelka and Drogba couldn't find a goal to save their lives and we signed Torres. Next the next season he was played out of position for 8 months and after RdM joined his chances were limited. Than last season he was not played at all. Miles better than Torres and far more consistent in the EPL than Drogba was in his final years. Tell me the last time Torres scored a goal coming off the bench to win us a point or three? His comments about Liverpool's "History" are usual deluded Scouse PR - not very surprising since he said the same thing when he signed with them.

That was a pretty awesome derby - gotta admit Good result for us as well

When Torres/Ba have a under par match they are invisible - when Lukaku has a below-par match he scores a brace against Everton's local rivals

Your argument for not signing a striker sounds like: "We should sign Messi or Cronaldo if they become available and not sign anyone in the meantime while waiting because it would be a waste money which could be used to sign Messi or Cronaldo"

That's incorrect a World Class striker doesn't need a dozen chances to score a goal in fact in most case a World Class striker convert half chances when they come his way - the likes of Torres and Sheva were simply bought after they were no longer World Class. The only consistently World Class striker we've had in Roman's era was Drogba but he also faced seasons where he was not 100% fit due to malaria and other injuries. Guys like Anelka and Crespo also had very respectable goal returns at the club and other than those 3 and Sheva/Torres none of the other strikers we've signed were ever given much of a chance at the club. Simply put when you don't have a World Class striker playing up top you should expect your midfielders to work extra hard to mask the deficiency. Placing the blame on the system because we have signed two major flops is simply deluded - do you honestly believe that if we had signed Kun/Falcao/Cavani they would find it as difficult to score 20 goals for us in the League in 3 seasons?

Apparently his wages will be cut in half due to the new tax which will effect Monaco if they want to keep playing in the French League. He is currently on a massive 250k pounds per week, I don't think it's feasible to sign him unless he takes a pay cut to join us. Only Real and us are realistic options at the moment. Our strikers don't do themselves many favors by moving to the wing or remaining flatfooted inside the box instead of actually trying to get into goal scoring positions. The lack of chances has as much to do with them not being good enough for a club of our stature - as it is due to the reasons listed. Our creative midfielders can create plenty of chances for a striker with good movement - just recall last season when we played West Brom and moved Sturridge up top for 20 minutes. Mata created 3-4 chances for Sturridge due to Sturridge looking for space inside the box far more often than Torres. Eto'o gets a few half chances due to his far better movement alone.

That's spot on, Eto'o for example has the best movement out of all our current strikers but it's still not quite at the level needed. Torres tends to end up in positions where he basically doesn't affect play while Ba is immobile for large portion of matches. This is illustrated by the amount of shots our strikers are able to take: Eto'o with his superior movement has averaged 2.7 in the League and 2.8 in the CL - which illustrates he is able to get into a position to shoot at a pretty respectable rate Torres with his movement usually ends up on the wing or outside the box averages 1.7 in the League and 2.0 in the CL Demba Ba is the worst in this regard but he has played the least and as I've said in the past the thing I don't like about Ba is how immobile he seems for large parts of the match so it's no suprise he averages 1.7 shots per game.

Falcao is one of the best strikers in the World - Cavani/Zlatan/Suarez/Kun might be better footballers but when it comes to the art of putting the ball in the back of the net Falcao is as good as any of them. Your opinion on the fact that those 4 are better than Falcao is just an opinion it has no factual basis because the margins are very small. The day Suarez/Kun/Zlatan/Cavani become instrumental in their clubs winning the CL there would be enough evidence on them being clearly superior players. Since moving to Europe Falcao has 101 Goals in 129 appearances in the Portuguese/Spanish/French League. He has scored 35 goals in 41 appearances in European Competitions on route to winning the Europa Twice with two different clubs. He was instrumental in Atletico's CL qualification with his 28 goals in 34 appearances last season in La Liga. He is also miles better than any striker we have currently or on loan.

So what exactly is your point in that case? We are commenting on transfer speculation - other than Suarez who'd likely cost 10-20 million more than Falcao you mentioned a bunch of players who we have zero chance of signing and a player who is not in the same league as Falcao ever since moving to Real and wasting his talents to be Cronaldo's sidekick or on the bench for Huguin.

We've got Eto/Torres/Ba and Lukaku is a guaranteed improvement over all those three players - I'd understand people rationalizing Lukaku's loan if we had signed Rooney/Cavani but when you've got three strikers who wouldn't make the benches at top clubs across the continent as our only options it's a bit of a joke that we aren't the ones playing one of the finest young talents on the planet regularly.

Yep Aguero Suarez would be sold to us by Liverpool and City for less than 52 million; Cavani and Ibra will want to leave PSG and their massive contracts there Benzema is shit tier compared to the rest of the players you mentioned.

He has 9 goals in 13 appearances - that's a pretty good record, Still we should have gone for Cavani in the summer since he is a superior footballer

Ba Torres and Eto'o are not good enough for a club of our stature - might be decent 3rd choice player but not good enough to score regularly in the League

Start Essien and Mikel in midfield next EPL match - back to the basics

The top scorer in the Bundesliga is not effective at all

He found himself on the bench once in the last 3 matches and he came off the bench that match and in 26 minutes scored two goals and a MOTM performance in a 3-2 victory over Hertha Berlin. Mandzukic is actually suited to the "False 9" system because he can play on the wing or deeper when required

Mandzukic is better than Lewandoski for Pep's system - so no doubts Pep would say he is the best striker in the World, he probably said Mascherano is the best central defender in the World in the past or Valdes is the best goalkeeper in the World I like Mandzukic but Lewa is a better fit for us and I don't think Pep will go for him

good result, What a difference having a good back up keeper makes for my nerves. I remember in the past whenever we had to play Turnbull/Hilario I'd always be very nervous whenever the opposition got into shooting position. With Schwarzer at goal you could feel that our defenders felt assured. Our defenders were extremely stable and we barely allowed Arse any chances - I was specially impressed with Bertrand's defensive contribution and Cesar got his first goal Also Mikel and Essien totally bossed the midfield tonight. I think Essien can still play an important role in midfield based on his two matches, he seems to be physically alright(not a beast but still strong). KdB and Willian were ok, KdB especially seems to need a few matches to get up to speed. Mata did score a great goal and was involved through out but we were extremely efficient. I guess Eto'o wasn't able to make his stamp on the match so that is probably disappointing to him. Subs were spot on. Happy with the result even though I'm no too bothered with the competition, hope we continue to use our full squad for these matches. Maybe a few youngsters next match if we get an easier opponent.

Around one third of Torres goals are against Championship level defenses Reading Nordsjaelland x2 Wolves Leeds Brentford Monterrey QPR x3 Genk x2 Leicester x2 Total: 14 out of 38 So he has 24 goals against decent opposition in 141 matches, yeah comparisons with the big man are daft and insulting to say the least

Reapeat it to yourself It's easy to score goals at Everton unless you're Jelavic It's easy to score goals at Everton unless you're Jelavic It's easy to score goals at Everton unless you're Jelavic

Great goal, stole some limelight from the Luis Cannibal show.

21 goals in 27 games

Stoke have scored 1/3 of their goals this season against United