Eggman

the forum is definitely in a chipper mood now that we (finally) actually have a striker in the squad. Demba Ba Ba Ba Baracuda!!!!!

this critique of lukaku is ridiculous. There is only one striker in the world who had comparable stats at his young age, and that was (the real) Ronaldo. Lukaku has the gift of scoring goals, and that is the only thing that cannot be taught or improved. Ever since he was playing in youth teams, there was no team in europe that did not want him. There is a reason why. If it's about "potential", he is about as good as it gets. But apparently some people think that they can judge a player's future based purely on his contemporary level in a very limited range of skills: his technical ability. All the scouts in all of europe in all these years, well, they must have been deluded or something. Jesus. Chelsea payed good money for one of the biggest talents in europe, in the hardest position on the pitch: striker. We'll see what it comes to.

Mbokani is strong, has better technique than Lukaku, and finishes quite comfortably. He is a good targetman, kind of like Benteke tbh. You can give him the ball and he'll hold it. Of course, he is not the pitbull type that will give all in every match. He is nonchalant, cocky and not too bright. But I for one think that this adds to his charm and overall flair - on the field, that is.

I think Busquets is probably the most overrated player in the Barcelona squad.

hope you're right. £48m... can't see Arsenal spending that amount.

I agree that Lukaku should stay at West Brom, where he is obviously not the undisputed nr. 1. He is develloping his game, even without playing every match, but still needs to make a lot of progress. Even though he is a decent striker even now, at his young age, he is not quite good enough to carry the attack as the only striker in a world class team that aims to win the PL and CL. With ambitions this high, you need a striker (or preferably, two) who is at his prime; like Van Persie and Rooney, or Aguero and Tevez, for instance... Even though I am not a fan of these players, they are arguably at a different stage in their career and Lukaku has a long time ahead of him before he is their age (and of their ability). Also, I think that this whole "return the kraken" hype is not really helping Romelu; why would WBA invest in a player that is leaving in a month's time, and put their other, capable strikers unhappily on the bench? Edit: I just read that Rafa says "no to Lukaku return"; this might not be a bad thing, considering that WBA might be more inclined to use Romelu's potential to the max now. However, we all know that this means more of Fe-Fe-Fernando.

left foot, right foot... he doesn't really care

I think it must have something to do with the directions he's been given by the manager(s). In Belgium's national squad, Marc Wilmots (manager) has instructed him to play sober and simple, and not try to force it. Perhaps this is because there is a lot of pressure on him, being a top signing and a top earner at the club. When he takes on too much, and occasionally fails, this might cause a sh*t storm of reactions from all sorts of haters that love to see a promising prospect fail. I would suspect that RDM equally protected Eden by taking away some of the pressure, insisting that it is not up to him to always make the action. In sum, I don't think that he plays bad; only he does not add to the team what he undoubtedly can, that extra spark of creativity. If you see that Kevin Mirallas in Everton succeeds in making these kind of offensive dribbles, then surely Eden (who has a lot more potential) must be able to really crack the opposition too. Mata seems to be the man who takes responsibility and attempts to force the openings now. Which is astonishing, being only his second season at the club. Let us hope that Eden is backed by a manager who encourages him to progressively put more risk into his game, to the point that he is his sparkling and stylish self again.

Funny how the defender thinks: "damn, he got passed me, I'll just foul him and bring him down..." NOT!

Loan to a second half of the league table kinda side. He needs to develop. Problem is that he only played in Belgium, where he could afford to let the ball bounce a couple of feet away, since he was too big and strong and fast anyways to still be able to hold on to the ball. And remember that he only played a season and a half in the first league in Belgium. Before that, obviously, he was still in youth teams. And this year he sat on the bench. So he only played for a year and a half of professional football, and he had it way too easy to fully develop. He needs to be challenged to grow, otherwise there is no incentive. So please, not the Netherlands, because he will have it too easy. Germany, or preferably PL so we can see how he fares from closeby.

lukaku needs to go on loan. He has power, pace, and killer instinct, but really needs to develop better overal technical skills. The good big, strong strikers generally have good ball control as well (like Anelka, Adebayor, Hulk,...). Without this, he will never be good enough for the absolute top.

Euhm... Nobody seems to consider that the problems of Chelsea might be due to RDM and his lack of tactics and vision for the team? The solution for problems seems to be: buy a new star player and put him on the field. That is somewhat like the MLS All Stars team: throw a bunch of good players together and expect chances to be created depending on individual flashes of class. And indeed, with Marin, Hazard, Mata, and a good striker (Falcao!) that would probably suffice when playing 90% of the teams. But when facing decent opposition, it might actually help to have an offensive tactical plan also.

that would suck so much ass

No man he's the real deal, a genuine number 10 playmaker