Samuel Eto'o

[bushman 2,043]

Since this topic is about Eto´o I would like to get back to it. Leave poor Torres out of it. He played well in recent games.

Now, my question:

Will Eto´o rise to the occasion & start performing as we all are looking for ?

Is he capable to be even remotely duplicate what he used to be ?

Last night, I saw some traces of it though.

[Tomo 21,751]

That's not really the point. The point is that Torres is currently playing much better than Eto'o. There is no two ways about.

And the huge backing Torres got while playing shit when he first came was incredibly annoying as is the backing that Eto'o is currently getting while playing shit.

I hate how we're all currently divided into camps as Chelsea fans. You're either with Oscar or Mata, with Torres or Eto'o, KDB or Willian..etc You can't praise one without being perceived as criticizing the otehr and you can't criticize someone without being perceived as praising the other. You can't express an objective middle-ground opinion about anything. It's gotten just ridiculous.

While that may be true, i just find it incredibly annoying that Eto'o is getting wrote off already by the same people who stuck by Torres during a 24 hour goal drought, it wasn't just with Eto'o, it was the same with Sturridge, Danny was getting slated for missing easy chances while Torres was getting praised for any little decent thing while not even getting in the position's to miss the "easy chances" Danny was getting.

The highlighted bit of your post on the other hand can't be more true.

[Las7 951]

I never rated Eto'o at this stage of his career as a first choice striker and I wanted us to keep Lukaku who is miles better than all the striker we have. That doesn't mean I won't defend him against people who say he played a bad game last night considering it was a decent game we won comfortably and he had the most key passes and an assist.

Torres was given ample time to prove he is useless beyond any doubt - Eto'o should be given at least 14 matches before being written off.

[didi007 69]

And Torres is currently play much better than Eto'o blah blah..so what? And how long has Torres being playing in the premiership compared to Eto'o? Give Eto'o a break ffs! He needs time to adjust to playing in a new league and a new team.

[The_Flash 1,144]

I agree with @The_Flash here. I thought he was bad, very bad. Way too slow and had absolutely no coherence with the team. Every time he got the ball, he took 2-3 touches before realizing he can't dribble past his marker and then gave a backward pass. Too selfish in taking shots from outside the area when he had much better options around him.

And please drop the excuses about his "involvement" in the goals. He should have scored the first but fluffed the shot, and in the second he should have been through on goal but was too slow and allowed the defender back then he should have passed because we were 3 on 2 but instead took the shot from a very difficult angle and were lucky that the defender put it in his own net. These excuses are worse than the "Torres won the corner" crap.

It's only been a month, so we should give him more time, but atm...well let's just say we need Torres back ASAP. Torres may not be anywhere near what he used to be, but if he had not got injured, he would have scored , I'm sure of it.

Thank you, finally someone was watching the same game. Eto'o was very poor.

[Hamon 103]

Well, I've been following Eto'o since many years and I can tell that now he is far from being at even the 50% of his full potential.

Anyway, even if Eto'o at his peak has been the best striker of the world while now, close to his 33, he isn't close to that level, it doesn't mean he can't be useful: indeed, yesterday he played a good game and you can still see the quality of his movements and game.

With time he'll suit even more the new team and I feel he will still be extremely important for Chelsea.

[meetdoscar 335]

Torres was MOTM against Spurs prove what undeserved praise he gets, as well as he played and I said he did play well. He scored ZERO goals; had ZERO assists; received a RED card and loosing the ball lead to Tottenhams goal. He was not fouled he fell wanting a foul and nothing was given which is often the case for Torres because he is soft. He went on to clap at the linesman a bookable offense while Tottenham counter attacked and scored a goal.

Let me remind you how long it took Torres to open his account at CFC - 14 matches.

You'd like to point out that Steaua's right back statistics what about the fact that Mikel has as many goals in the EPL in less minutes that Torres in 2013?

I was about to post something similar. The support for torres is unreal despite proving for 2 seasons and counting that we can't win a league title with him as our lead striker. Unlike torres Eto'o is so so proven so I'd take my chance supporting him now as lead striker I've done that with torres too but now he should be second choice though.

[different level 1,056]

It's too early to make a general assessment of Eto'o, although I agree that so far he's been below par. While I think (would like to think) that he's going to improve I don't see him turn into our super scorer and the man to lead our attack. But who knows, time will tell.

[Sheva. 5,373]

He hasn't played on this level for 2 years. Give this guy some time

Exactly how I feel. It's frustrating but nothing we can do about it now.

[edenhazard17 281]

I thought he played well against Steaua. Involved in process of some goals.

[Barbara 15,149]

Has there been any news on his NT retirement? I remember reading the L'Equipe article about him saying he wouldn't play international football anymore.

If that's the case I think he can benefit of the extra couple of weeks training to regain his better fitness.

I also think he will play against both Norwich and Cardiff and who knows if Torres will be fit for playing the first match against Schalke... so I think he'll improve with the extra training and another couple of matches.

[zolayes 14,489]

this is a good chance for him to show he can still deliver ..AND we are going to NEED him.

[The_Flash 1,144]

He really NEEDS TO STEP IT UP. He has even dreadful this season, really think we were a few years to late. We need and deserve far better strikers.

[Hamon 103]

During 2010/2011 season Eto'o delivered 37 goals + 17 assists: nobody did better than that with an italian team in the last 10 years at least.

If only we could have even a 50% of that player, the EPL title of this year would be quietly in Chelsea's pocket.

[Jase 43,479]

Jose Mourinho wants Chelsea striker Samuel Eto'o to be given time to settle