New striker needed - but who?

[CHOULO19 24,332]

haha yes grant holt, the guy has skills and is a natural finisher... im sure he would flourish here at chelsea (all kidding aside)

Holt is good for a team like Norwich who rely on crosses and long balls. He's a physical player that knows his way to the net, but technically he's very weak. You can count on him to win first headers and finish chances, but that's about it. He can't cross, create, do link-up play..etc I think he should stay at Norwich.

[Beirut_Blues 306]

Falcao.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

I think if Chelsea do buy a striker in January, we'll go for someone like Remy and even though I don't think he's a world-class striker, I think it's still the best option. Winter is a bad time to buy players in general, and I think the last thing Chelsea need is to spend enormous amounts of money on a big name striker who doesn't fit into a system we play. Especially when we are top of the league as is. I think RDM has to develop our team some more and Chelsea can re-evaluate team needs and which players would best fit our squad after the season.

[Stingray 9,441]

I am pretty sure Lukaku is gonna get recalled if you hear RDM's tone on the matter .... If that's a good thing, time will tell.

[Jase 43,479]

Holt is good for a team like Norwich who rely on crosses and long balls. He's a physical player that knows his way to the net, but technically he's very weak. You can count on him to win first headers and finish chances, but that's about it. He can't cross, create, do link-up play..etc I think he should stay at Norwich.

And he's already 31 year old this year.

[magicrico 175]

Holt is a joke post. Guy is no where near a top 4 player. If you go down that road you might aswel say Michu,Fletcher These guys are joint top scorers at the moment.

It's simple, Play Sturridge, Reap rewards, play Torres get hardly any goals, I read a stat that Torres has scored 18 in 82 for us? hasn't van Persie got 9 in 12 for Utd?

Jesus.

Anyone who says he hasn't had his time or chance is deluded. He HAS to go, hes not doing it for us. Hasn't done it for us in the seasons hes been here. Time to go. And anybody that says a signing of a goal machine in the mould of Falcao or Cavani etc is kidding themselves. Until then Sturridge should be our first choice striker and based on how he performs that should dictate who we go for in the transfer window.

[GermanBlue 82]

Lewandowski would be a great shout actually. Dunno why but I like him. Falcao is still very much the holy grail though

Lewandowski could really be just what we need. As I'm from Germany and watching the Bundesliga every weekend, I know him very well. Just an icecold player in the box with a great shot. His header is no way to be compared to Falcao's though, but as crosses aren't our main attacking option, I think that's ok. But he could need his time. When he arrived at Dormtund he was a substitute one season long for Lucas Barrios and when Lucas was injured Robert found his topform and is a starter since then even forcing Barrios leaving the club. And I agree, Falcao is still the no.1 on the wishlist. But if he can't happen, I'd prefer Lewandowski over Cavani tbh.

[mediator 2,026]

I think if Chelsea do buy a striker in January, we'll go for someone like Remy and even though I don't think he's a world-class striker, I think it's still the best option. Winter is a bad time to buy players in general, and I think the last thing Chelsea need is to spend enormous amounts of money on a big name striker who doesn't fit into a system we play. Especially when we are top of the league as is. I think RDM has to develop our team some more and Chelsea can re-evaluate team needs and which players would best fit our squad after the season.

Remy is a bench warmer in Marseille...

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Remy is a bench warmer in Marseille...

He was injured 3 months. After recovery, you dont just start playing every game. 30 mins, 30 mins, one half, 75 mins, then maybe 90 mins regulary,...

Remy is much stockier now after injury than he was before. He is also 1,84, plays for Marseille and will be 26 next year. If he scores 20 goals this season, it woulnt be bad to consider his buy. Could turn to be great striker, but he must have a good season now.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Lewandowski could really be just what we need. As I'm from Germany and watching the Bundesliga every weekend, I know him very well. Just an icecold player in the box with a great shot. His header is no way to be compared to Falcao's though, but as crosses aren't our main attacking option, I think that's ok. But he could need his time. When he arrived at Dormtund he was a substitute one season long for Lucas Barrios and when Lucas was injured Robert found his topform and is a starter since then even forcing Barrios leaving the club. And I agree, Falcao is still the no.1 on the wishlist. But if he can't happen, I'd prefer Lewandowski over Cavani tbh.

He would be quite expenive and despite I like Lewandowski as player, he never realy fascinated me to be realy top striker. He scores lot of goals, but I just dont see him to be match winner. Falcao or Cavani are much more proven, they are scoring on regular basis against big teams aswell and they are pushing their teams forward, meaning that because of them, their teams play on next level. Lewan is great striker too, but he lacks premier league abilities which is based on lot of strenght and air duels. I might be wrong, but I would likely too see Falcao/Cavani for 50mio than Lewandowski for 25-30 (because we are chelsea and borussia will try to get most of the deal), specialy because Lewandowski might have some problems at start and is very unexperienced player, that means that he could burn from expectations.

And as for Falcao, he is my first choice, but I wonder how will he get into our game, as we play ofensive and not counter attacking football. He is great at counters with crosses and lot of free space. In england, there will be no space.

That is why I think Cavani would suit us even better, maybe he is not better than Falcao, but in england, he could turn out to be better choice. I remember his games vs City and us in CL last year, he was scoring goals by pushing defences while Napoli was attacking, Falcao scored all three goals against us from counter attacks.

I have some feeling that Falcao would fail here, as he looks VERY similar player to younger Torres. Same atributes, dribbling, shooting, pace, explosivness,...I dont know, but Falcao would realy shine only with some spanish team, I I would be choosing between Falcao and Cavani, I would think twice before picking Falcao, I dont want we get another Sheva/Torres, no matter how brilliant player Falcao is right now.

[Stress 8]

I want to see Falcao to Chelsea. Phenomenal striker.

[Funkyflashman 187]

Just get ANY striker and dispatch FT9 as far from the Bridge as possible.

[BleedsBlue 1,549]

To be really honest.I think Klose would have been a great short term solution for us.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Eto'o

[BlueLyon 9,359]

So, I will made deep analysis, based on my knowledge and data I found on web to compare Cavani and Falcao, who fits our squad more.

First Falcao; He is overall a better player then Cavani, for sure, give him the ball and he can score from anywhere inside penalty area. On edge, left side, right side, bicycle kick, volleys, lobs,...anything. Great penalty taker aswell. He is also deadly in air, when team mates cross to him, despite only 1,77m, he jumps higher than most of SPANISH defenders (note that in england, defenders will cover him more tight and are also stockier and stronger). He is great with both feet, can create his own chances and can bring victory to his team on any match. Stamina is great, pace is good (Cavani is faster), relatively strong for his size. Had great matches vs us, Real or Barca, regular scorer in europa league, but he still has to show his skill in CL. Last season, he scored 42 goals and made 6 assists.

Now to Cavani: As he plays in Italy, he is facing stronger defences, but the defenders there are not that fast as those in Spain or even in PL. He has similar atributes as Falcao, but his shooting is not on that level (but still very good), however, he could improve much. Year younger, already played in european competitions (CL) and scored goals vs City and us. He did well in top club competition, while Falcao didnt realy inspire in CL yet. While at Atletico, everyone plays on Falcao, Napoli had 3 similar players last year; Cavani, Hamšik and Lavezzi and still Cavani scored 30+ goals. I also think that as we will play lot on Hazard and Mata as well (if Falcao comes to us, he wont be THAT important as he is in Atletico), maybe Cavani would fit better, as he played with equal players at Napoli. Perhaps he isnt as clinical finisher as Falcao is, he has other advantages. He is taller (I will explain that later) faster and has much better TEAM WORK than Falcao. As soon Falcao gets the ball, he will shoot 9/10 times. Cavani however, will pass if he sees the better chance or completely open team mate. Along 36 goals, he also had 10 assists (in CL; 5 goals, 2 assists). Im sure that vision and passing abilities are very important for striker and in comparisson to Falcao, the later is much more selfish player (but as long he scores goals, no one will complain, right?). And its not just about assists, but at Chelsea, we play double passes a lot and if we had striker who can pass back, that would be much better, specialy to open up the defences.

So, Chelsea play offensive play (much similar to Napoli and passing trio of Cavani, Hamšik and Insigne, while Atletico plays on counter attacks with lot of crosses). The offensive play also forces opponent to pull back and tighten their defence. The main danger of Falcao at atletico are his fast counter attack runs and crossing from sides. Chelsea is close to neither close to Atletico style. We dont cross so much, but pass more while counters are also more third plan to our players. It would be difficult to our players to adopt crossing and counter attacking just because of the new striker. It might never work aswell. Cavani would fit more to this as he is passing a lot with Hamšik and back in time, with Lavezzi aswell. Another thing is that Cech still loves to kick the ball long into the middle of the field, like he did to give the ball to Drogba. Just because Falcao can jump high in penalty area and push the ball in the net, its completely different to catch the ball and control it in middle of 4 opponent players and then run with it towards opponent goal. He lacks height here, while Cavani is almost 8centimetres higher (1,84m), he could easily catch the ball without jumping. Also he is harder to push of the ball I guess, two facts; Italian league is physicaly stronger than spanish, and secondly his goals against us and City were based on his strenght aswell - he was strong enough to block Kompany, Lescott, Cahill, Luiz, Terry when scoring those goals. Juve, Milan and Inter also had/have world class defences and he still scored many times against them. And Milan had Thiago Silva last year, there was match where Cavani scored hattrick vs Milan. Something different than score goal vs barca who has shit defence for such top team or even us, who conceded 3 goals, scored from Falcao, but its obvious that our defence while we play Cahill-Luiz sucks and anyone better could score three goals when Luiz has bad day.

I will let conclusion to you, I rate Falcao as worlds best striker ahead of Cavani, but some things question me, Falcao is very similar to younger Torres, he is not that tall despite high jumping and there is also posibility that he just couldnt scoring goals for us, we dont cross much and dont play on counters. Both would cost around 40-60mio, but I think Cavani would be still cheaper considering that Falcao is actualy scoring every game nowdays. My pick probably would be Cavani, but I wouldnt care who comes realy of these two, I just fear that Falcao could turn to be hot shot only in Spain, not in league like PL. Who knows realy...Falcao proved that he can be king in smaller club and europa league, but can he lift top club in champions league?