TorontoChelsea

To me, this is what makes a top striker. Someone who can do a lot with not much service, who can create on their own. If your game is predicated on being given incredible service...well, there are tons of players who can score when that happens.

Why? What has Kakuta done to deserve a shot at playing with the Champions of Europe? Forget about his awful attitude for a second, what, in terms of actual football, has Kakuta done to warrant a spot ahead of international players? Kakuta didn't score a goal in his last 7 matches for Dijon and then didn't even play the last 3 games. Yes, a team battling (and failing) to stay in the first division in France thought they were better off with Kakuta not playing, but he's good enough to play regularly for Chelsea? I have no idea how anyone could say that Kakuta has earned anything.

It's hard to know because Napoli ever only play counter-attack. It's not like he played in a different system and failed there. For me, I think he'd be good in any system. He really doesn't have a weakness in his game. He's a great finisher, he's strong, he's great in the air, he's even an excellent defender and passer for a target man. Would vastly prefer him to Hulk as I think striker is Chelsea's biggest weakness and unlike Hulk, Cavani is proven in a top league and against top competition including Premiership sides (In Hulk's 10 games against English clubs, he has 0 goals. Cavani had 4 goals in 4 games this season against Man City and Chelsea).

I agree. The other similar guy I quite like is Christian Eriksen at Ajax. He hasn't quite accomplished what Hazrad and Gotze have yet, but I think he has the makings of a superstar.

There's just absolutely no room for him at Chelsea right now. If Chelsea sign Hulk, they will have Hazard, Mata, Hulk, Ramires, Sturridge, Marin, Malouda, Benayoun, and Meireles for 3 spots in the starting XI. (Ramires and Meireles could be options in a more defensive roles as well but Lampard, Mikel, and Romeu are options there as well). Even if Chelsea sell Malouda and Benayoun, we'd start off with Ramires, Sturridge, Marin, and Meireles on the bench. Kakuta is not going to play ahead of any of those guys and do we really want a 20-year old sitting in the stands all season? In addition to having no room for him, I doubt Kakuta is ready. He hardly set the world on fire last season and could definitely use more game time.

You think that it's debatable that Benayoun and Malouda would be ahead Kakuta? You think Kakuta would be ahead of Sturridge and Meireles? Nobody is writing the lad off, but he has done nothing in his career yet. All the players you mention are internationals with a history of success in the Premiership.. Kakuta just played 14 games for a team that got relegated in France and you're treating him like a bona fide superstar. This is not a debate about potential or ability, it's about where players are in their careers. Kakuta has done nothing in his career as of yet. Even if Benayoun and Malouda get sold, there is no hole at winger. As for Borini, you are picking and choosing. Chelsea have signed and let go a lot of players and very few have ever done anything: Ben Sahar, Jimmy Smith, Shaun Cummings, Fabio Ferriera, Lee Sawyer, Sergio Tejera, Carl Magnay, Liam Bridcutt, Ben Gordon, etc...It's almost an endless list. You have two choices as a club. Either you give young players plenty of opportunity to succeed and you lose a lot of games because they are not very good, or you send the youth out on loans and let them succeed or fail elsewhere and once every decade, you miss out on a good player.

The teams in Portugal are very weak after Porto and Benfica. Sporting and Braga are decent teams and after that, the league is pitiful. Of course, a player can come from anywhere and succeed in the Premier League but success in Portugal (or any lesser league) is not a great indicator of success in England.

Yes, but that is based entirely on one club, Porto, having success in Europe. The French League is definitely deeper and more difficult to play in. Five champions in the last five seasons. Porto has lost one game in 2 years in Portugal. It's a league that is one dominant team, two or three decent teams, and most of the rest of the league would be in the first division in England. So, if you are a player for Marsaille or Lille or PSG, you have a much more difficult test than if you are coming from Porto. As for "I bet you've never seen Hulk play" crap, I've seen him play in about 20 games. He had excellent skills and is very tricky, but in this youtube/fifa12 world, Hulk has gone from being a very skilled winger with a great left foot to a "world-class player" without accomplishing anything. People are trying to make Hulk to be the exact player they want him to be. He isn't. He has some incredible skills, but he has real flaws too. He shoots way too much and from too far (he took way more shots than Sturridge did last year), he goes down very easily, he's suspect defensively, and he's unproven against good clubs. (And if you think he's going to physically dominate Premiership defenders, you're crazy) Yes, it's possible he'll come to Chelsea and turn into a dominant offensive force. It's absolutely a real possibility. But it's also a real possibility that he'll come to Chelsea and find that the speed, trickery, and power that he was able to use against Portuguese defenders is just not good enough to succeed in the Premiership. Considering that David Silva cost £24m two years ago and Mata cost £23.5m last season and they were both younger, more established, and played in a better league than Hulk, this talk of £38m seems ridiculous.

Soccernet has him at 68 KG which is 150 pounds. It's possible he weighs more. I have no idea. The point is that he's not some physical monster.

I never said Hulk wouldn't be able to play, I just said that he's not a physical force the way some are describing him. Aguero is a terrific player, but he doesn't dominate physically, he uses skill and vision to play brilliantly.

I disagree. I think he can outmuscle the LB and wingers but if he tries to go up against central defenders, they will often outweigh him by 30-40 pounds in the Premiership.

First of all, Hulk's name is misleading. He's not this bullish physical player the way Drogba is. Hulk is listed at 5'11, 150 LBs. Drogba is 6' 2'', 185. Hulk is not going to out-muscle Premier League defenders who are just much bigger. He is not really an inside player anyway. He liked to come in from the right on his left foot and shoot not play with his back to the goal. What Hulk is, is actually a typical Brazilian skill/moves kind of player with the added benefit of a cannon for a left foot. Secondly, who are you comparing Hulk to? Portuguese league defenders? Hulk definitely has speed, but among the fastest in the world? I doubt anyone would claim that. Ramires is certainly faster and Sturridge and Torres might be as well. Hulk has excellent skills, but there are tons of players with fabulous skills who can't put it together as top footballers and some top footballers who manage to succeed without the greatest skills.

What makes Hulk a "world-class" player? I hate the term because it's so subjective, but you simply can't call a player world class based on 2 very good years in the Portuguese league and nothing else. He's had minimal success in the UCL and with Brazil. Is Oscar Cardoza a world class player? He's had more success in Portugal, in Europe, and for his country than Hulk has. Now, Hulk has the skills to go to a better league and be a world class player, but he's not there yet.

Don't think we need another RW. If we play the 4-2-3-1, what's wrong with Ramires on the right with Marin as cover? If we play the 4-3-3, Sturridge excelled in that system and Marin can play there was well. We would need another striker though.

I love statistics but you're right, you can only compare like versus like. I particularly like the EA PPI as it takes into account so many different statistics, but even that is flawed. I think Hazard is a better fit for Chelsea as he can give creative width which Chelsea have been lacking and Kagawa actually makes more sense for ManU because he is a central player which is what they need. We'll check back in a couple of years to see how they've performed. (Although, I am sure there will be a game by game overreaction..."Hazard had a poor game, he sucks. Hazard scored, greatest player in the world!", and so on...)

But Meireles can play behind the striker. I agree Piazon won't be on the first team and Malouda might be sold, but it doesn't matter. Kakuta was going to have a hard time getting into games and that was before Chelsea bought Hazard and probably Hulk. If Chelsea play a 4-2-3-1, the 3 would be Hazard, Mata, and Hulk. That means, even if Malouda and Benayoun get sold, Ramires, Marin, Meireles, and Sturridge would all be ahead of Kakuta as cover. At best, that makes Kakuta 5th among backups which means he wouldn't even get time on the Chelsea bench. (Which would be, even saying Chelsea get rid of Malouda and Benayoun: 7 of Turnbull, Luiz/Cahill, new RB, Bertrand, Sturridge, Marin, Ramires, Meirieles ,Essien, Romeu, Lukaku.) If I thought that McEachran or Kakuta or Piazon would get semi-regular playing time, I'd be all for keeping them at the club, but they are so far down the pecking order, that they'd never play except as subs in the 87th minute in games that were already out of hand.

Athletico paid €40-47 million for Falcao last season (depending on what bonuses they had to pay) so they're hardly going to sell him for a loss. Would vastly prefer him over Hulk, but I think we need to be looking for better bargains in general instead of just going after big names and spending as much as the other club wants.

I hate this "mercenary" stuff. Every single player is a mercenary. Why do Hazard and Hulk want to come to Chelsea? Because of their deep love for the club? Footballers are people, and any of us would go to a job that paid us the most and gave us the best opportunity.

We have Hazard, Mata, Hulk, Sturridge, Malouda, Marin, Meireles, Benayoun, Ramires, likely De Bruyne, and maybe even Piazon all ahead of Kakuta just at these positions. We'd have to sell Malouda and Benayoun and let De Bruyne and Piazon go on loan just for Kakuta to be the 8th choice winger/attacking midfielder on the squad. He'll go out on loan or he'll sit even more than Lukaku did this season..

Kakuta? He's going on loan next season. Chelsea have Mata, Hazard, Marin, and Malouda who can play LW so even if Malouda goes (which is likely), no playing time available for Kakuta. It's one thing I would really like to see change at Chelsea, and that is letting young players have some role on the bench. I realise that you have to have experienced depth, but Chelsea play a lot of games, and I would like to see a roll like Malouda or Essien's last season going to a younger player... but it won't. As for this thread, it's crazy . Benayoun shouldn't have been loaned this season and should have just played instead of buying Meireles. Beyanoun is actually quite a decent squad player. Being on loan is difficult for a player. He has to be loyal to the club he's playing with and that's Arsenal, what's he supposed to do, not try? And as for congratulating Liverpool, he played there for 3 seasons and probably has friends there. If a player were with Chelsea for 3 seasons and then moved on elsewhere and tweeted "best of luck to Chelsea on their new manager" or whatever, we'd all treat him like he's pure class. Lay off him already, the level of vitriol is ridiculous.

Agreed. It was awful to watch every single game and have it revolve around "will Torres score"? for months. Then it's "what's wrong with Torres" and then "Torres looks like he's finally coming around" and then "what''s wrong with Torres again". Then, other players feel they need to talk Torres up and the manager has to say how much he still believes in him. Then the fans feel they need to defend him so they talk about how well he worked down the wings and how he's so close to bursting out again or how he just needs a different style of play. He obviously deserves most of the blame because he has performed poorly, but there are also such ridiculous expectations when you spend that kind of money on a player. He was never going to be worth £50M maybe only a few players in the world are, so, in a way, there was no way the signing could ever have really worked out.The whole thing is distracting and the only way it will ever stop being distracting is if Torres starts scoring 25-30 goals a year which just isn't going to happen.

I was talking about Modric who would seemingly replace Lampard. Lampard is injured for the Euros, not for next season and as I wrote in the previous post, he was effective in 49 matches last season (16 goals, 10 assists, some excellent defensive efforts). It's not like he can only play 15 matches a season or anything. We have enough depth and talent in midfield as is.

And even then, what would that do, push Lampard to the bench? Lampard was one of our best players last season and he played in 49 matches. Maybe we only play him in 40 this season or something to keep him fresh, but when he does play, he brings a real quality to the team. EA PPI had Lampard as the 21st best player in the Premiership last season. There becomes a point when buying players loses a lot of value because they are replacing players who are already good. Replacing Kalou brings a lot of value because Kalou was a middling player for Chelsea. There's very little value in spending money to replace your better players. You have to you spend £ 35M to get £2M worth of improvement. It's just not worth it.

We have enough midfielder/wingers since getting Hazard and (seemingly) Hulk. , If that's the case, for 5 spots, we have Mata, Hazard, Hulk, Lampard, Ramires, Mikel, Sturridge, Romeu, Meireles, Essien, Malouda, and Benayoun and that's without considering McEachran, De Bruyne, and Piazon. I assume the starting 5 in a 4-2-3-1 would be Mikel, Lampard, Hulk, Hazard, and Mata leaving Ramires, Sturridge, Meireles, etc...as depth. We don't need any more midfielders.

They have Jelavic who has excellent and they like Anichebe as a sub. Not saying Lukaku couldn't get playing time there or on another decent side, it's just more difficult. The worse the side, the more game time he's going to get. I'd rather him play 25 games at Reading than 15, half as a sub, at Everton.