🇨🇴 Radamel Falcao

[themightyblue 443]

Well in my opinion Dzeko wouldn't have been a poor mans signing, if we had signed him in Janaury 2010 instead of Torres he would have been a perfect sub to come on for Didier/Anelka.

Why?

Hes able to create his own goals, strong, good in the air, good finisher with both feet and his head, good dribbler, good at shooting outside the box, brilliant hold up play and good link up play with the midfielders. Whereas Falcao is a good finisher with both feet and his head and thats it. For scoring a whole load of headers his ability to win headers and knock it down to his teammates are rather poor than what you'd expect too... he solely relies on his teammates for assists too (who basically give up their own qualities just so he can get chances to score) or defensive errors.

Nothing else in that particular list of positives I typed for Dzeko would be in Falcao's list of positives. We need a complete striker to play upfront who can link with the midfielders, provide for them as well as score for himself. Do you think you'll see Falcao coming out of the box to link the play with midfielders this season? I think you'll probably find he won't. Falcao is effectively useless with his back to goal, he isn't too slow turning but has rather weak shooting from outside the box. Falcao is a poacher whereas Dzeko is more complete footballer.

Another question would Falcao dominate say big strong defenders like Vidic(before injury), Kompany or Lescott? Probably not. Whereas in 2009 (I think), Dzeko played for Wolfsburg in the CL vs United and absolutely dominated Vidic and Ferdinand.... I think he scored at least once or twice too.. also the Manchester derbys Dzeko has been a consistent performer and coped fairly well against Vidic, Ferdinand, Evans etc. each time.

Falcao is ideal for a team to be built around but when you have players like Juan Mata and Fernando Torres... you build the team around them (how Robbie sees it imo) by adding players like Oscar and Hazard who can get the best out of Juan and Fernando as well.

You've gone and seriously underrated Falcao's ability. As is well documented, Falcao is probably the most deadly striker on the planet and in a sense is a pure 9. I'm not going to try and claim he's the greatest all round player out there but to say he's only good with both feet and his head is doing him a huge disservice, much like when people say Lewandowski is purely a target man. Falcao doesn't sole rely on his team mates making his goals, watch his goals from last season and goals so far this season. The perfect example I can give you is the europa league final, if i remember correctly Falcao picked the ball up in the box made a yard of space for himself and curled it beautifully into the top corner. Rvp does this time and time again and falcao is the same he can make goals out of nothing and so to say he is solely reliant on service is and assists is nonsense.

The way you've described Falcao is how you should be describing Hernandez and not the best striker in the world and to answer your competing with big strong, dominant defenders, Cahill and Luiz aren't exactly small are they. There over 6ft and physically imposing yet Falcao made mincemeat of both of them. Falcao's weakest area is probably his link up play and its probably weaker than Torres', but that doesn't mean it's poor. Falcao's link up play doesn't get enough credit because half of time rather than just getting the ball and laying it outwide, he'll take it, make a yard of space and shoot at goal which is what you'd expect your striker to do. I could go into more depth about Falcao's game, but I think you can see where i'm going with this. Is Falcao the perfect striker for this system? No. Will he grab 25-30 goals playing in this team? Fuck yes. A striker with his ability and form definitely will

[themightyblue 443]

Just found a video of Falcao goals last season

Now please...........watch this and tell me this guy can't play with his back to goal and solely reliant on service He's an absolute genius if you ask me, a common theme is as I just said, he makes that yard of space and slots it in. Also worth noting is that the crossing stat that was earlier highlighted, a lot of those goals have actually come from crosses from corners and free kicks which we seem to be good at with Mata's excellent delivery. Not just purely crosses in open play

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

You've gone and seriously underrated Falcao's ability. As is well documented, Falcao is probably the most deadly striker on the planet and in a sense is a pure 9. I'm not going to try and claim he's the greatest all round player out there but to say he's only good with both feet and his head is doing him a huge disservice, much like when people say Lewandowski is purely a target man. Falcao doesn't sole rely on his team mates making his goals, watch his goals from last season and goals so far this season. The perfect example I can give you is the europa league final, if i remember correctly Falcao picked the ball up in the box made a yard of space for himself and curled it beautifully into the top corner. Rvp does this time and time again and falcao is the same he can make goals out of nothing and so to say he is solely reliant on service is and assists is nonsense.

The way you've described Falcao is how you should be describing Hernandez and not the best striker in the world and to answer your competing with big strong, dominant defenders, Cahill and Luiz aren't exactly small are they. There over 6ft and physically imposing yet Falcao made mincemeat of both of them. Falcao's weakest area is probably his link up play and its probably weaker than Torres', but that doesn't mean it's poor. Falcao's link up play doesn't get enough credit because half of time rather than just getting the ball and laying it outwide, he'll take it, make a yard of space and shoot at goal which is what you'd expect your striker to do. I could go into more depth about Falcao's game, but I think you can see where i'm going with this. Is Falcao the perfect striker for this system? No. Will he grab 25-30 goals playing in this team? Fuck yes. A striker with his ability and form definitely will

I think I haven't. I've clearly said he excels at finishing with both feet and his head. He doesn't excel at anything else in particular. I haven't said Falcao is a bad player at all, he is a top quality player but I don't think hes as amazing as everyone else does. He can finish, sure but what does he offer to the general play? Nothing really. The way we are playing we need a striker who can offer something to the play (assists, key passes, isolate defenders for midfielder runners to go into space etc) I think Falcao is just a goalscorer, that is all.

Cahill and Luiz aren't exactly big strong physically imposing center backs also. You don't see either of them absolutely destroying the opponent using their body strength. Falcao destroyed them two because on the night they were fucking shit as well. Go back and read that thread, everyone said Falcao is class but if you give him that much room and time he will punish you and he rightfully did punish us. I think using that game as reference point shows exactly what I mean, if you get him with his back to the goal he is useless but when hes facing the goal with space and in the box he will score.

Just found a video of Falcao goals last season

Now please...........watch this and tell me this guy can't play with his back to goal and solely reliant on service He's an absolute genius if you ask me, a common theme is as I just said, he makes that yard of space and slots it in. Also worth noting is that the crossing stat that was earlier highlighted, a lot of those goals have actually come from crosses from corners and free kicks which we seem to be good at with Mata's excellent delivery. Not just purely crosses in open play

Ok bar 6 or 7 of them goals in that video which were penalties he created like 3 himself. Most of his goals he relies of service and if you cannot see that then you are blind or in denial.

[themightyblue 443]

I think I haven't. I've clearly said he excels at finishing with both feet and his head. He doesn't excel at anything else in particular. I haven't said Falcao is a bad player at all, he is a top quality player but I don't think hes as amazing as everyone else does. He can finish, sure but what does he offer to the general play? Nothing really. The way we are playing we need a striker who can offer something to the play (assists, key passes, isolate defenders for midfielder runners to go into space etc) I think Falcao is just a goalscorer, that is all.

Cahill and Luiz aren't exactly big strong physically imposing center backs also. You don't see either of them absolutely destroying the opponent using their body strength. Falcao destroyed them two because on the night they were fucking shit as well. Go back and read that thread, everyone said Falcao is class but if you give him that much room and time he will punish you and he rightfully did punish us. I think using that game as reference point shows exactly what I mean, if you get him with his back to the goal he is useless but when hes facing the goal with space and in the box he will score.

As I said, Falcao's link up play is absolutely fine, that's a reason why he was able to function in Avb's fluid system at Porto. It's not as good as Torres, but it's good enough and that's made up for in the fact that if you give him a chance he'll score. Also for as much we go about system, ours doesn't exactly a require a striker of a specific type, we only say his this because the only striker we've seen play in our formation and system is Torres. Falcao also has incredible movement and drags at least two defenders at a time due to the fact that managers are afraid to give him space, that'll leave a lot of space for the likes of Mata to make his mark on the game. See his general play is often overlooked due to the fact that he's great in the box, but believe me the guy contributes more than enough.

Cahill is as imposing as they come, he's massive. Also how can you say that he won't cause them problems? Torres came to England as an incredibly skinny guy and he made Vidic look silly a number of times. Oscar's come into the physical nature of the PL and done just fine. If you have the ability and skill then you'll do fine. Also where have you got this myth that he's rubbish back to goal? This simply isn't true and his goals pay testament to this because of his ability to make a yard of space for himself and test the keeper which all top strikers have.

In fact a lot of the arguments being given against Falcao remind a lot of the one levelled at Rvp and his move to United. Many said he needs a team to be built around him in order to be effective and score goals, However, world class players can always adapt and Falcao's been around the block from league to league and flourished everywhere

[themightyblue 443]

Falcao wouldn't be considered a world class player if he was only good with his feet and head otherwise Huntelaar, Hernandez would be world class too. You have to have more to you game to achieve that sort of status

[meetdoscar 335]

Falcao will bring something different to chelsea I.e goalscoring that's the reason I want him but I don't think we need to sell torres also. The truth is I watched falcao a lot while he played for porto he didn't really do anything special in games except scoring especially from crosses and counter attacks infact its in madrid that he seems to have diversified his scoring technique but he is best suited for a counter attacking team which is how madrid always play so I don't know how he will fare when surrounded by 5 or 6 players as chelsea always face at the opposing defense. All the same there is no reason not to sign him other than the cost. Truth is we can get players of similar qualities for far less that amount. Dzeko is one, prolific, good in the air. Cavani is also one but was shit at the olympics so I don't want him where did all the strikers go? Someone bring back a young drogba.

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

As I said, Falcao's link up play is absolutely fine, that's a reason why he was able to function in Avb's fluid system at Porto. It's not as good as Torres, but it's good enough and that's made up for in the fact that if you give him a chance he'll score. Also for as much we go about system, ours doesn't exactly a require a striker of a specific type, we only say his this because the only striker we've seen play in our formation and system is Torres. Falcao also has incredible movement and drags at least two defenders at a time due to the fact that managers are afraid to give him space, that'll leave a lot of space for the likes of Mata to make his mark on the game. See his general play is often overlooked due to the fact that he's great in the box, but believe me the guy contributes more than enough.

Cahill is as imposing as they come, he's massive. Also how can you say that he won't cause them problems? Torres came to England as an incredibly skinny guy and he made Vidic look silly a number of times. Oscar's come into the physical nature of the PL and done just fine. If you have the ability and skill then you'll do fine. Also where have you got this myth that he's rubbish back to goal? This simply isn't true and his goals pay testament to this because of his ability to make a yard of space for himself and test the keeper which all top strikers have.

In fact a lot of the arguments being given against Falcao remind a lot of the one levelled at Rvp and his move to United. Many said he needs a team to be built around him in order to be effective and score goals, However, world class players can always adapt and Falcao's been around the block from league to league and flourished everywhere

Torres didn't come to England as a "skinny" player. He isn't renowned for bossing defenders like Drogba but people knew he was strong enough to take a hit and cause problems for defenders using his body. Also Torres was lightning quick unlike Falcao and Vidic.. so yeah you were saying...

Falcao functioned in AVBs fluid system, yes but whats the bet he had the least outfield passes as he usually just offloaded the ball to the wingers/back to the midfielders like most poachers. How many key passes and assists did he get, probably no assists and very little key passes, unlike Torres who got like 20 something assists and a lot of key passes last season due to being a more complete striker who can find his teammates s as well as the net (even though he rarely does). In fact I bet Falcao rarely even dribbled with the ball as much as you see with Torres, Rooney, RvP, Sturridge, Messi, Villa etc.

I continuously go on about our system needing a specific system because it does need a specific sort of striker, a complete one, who can easily pick out the run of a teammate if hes slightly deeper after doing a movement dragging defenders out to create space for wingers/attacking midfielders to run in behind like what you see with Messi and whoevers flanking him at Barca. They don't have to be Messi but they have to be some sort of decent footballer with a footballing brain or they would never have the awareness to see and make the pass.

How many times in that video did Falcao have his back to goal and turn and just smash the ball in? 0. Zilch. Thats why I mean by the fact hes rubbish with his back to goal.

Falcao has scored goals in every league hes been in but he was the star of each team basically. River Plates best player, Portos best player and Atleticos best player. He wouldn't be Chelsea's best player for sure. Look at the effect that had on Torres too, you might think oh he'll succeed but hes got to have that sort of mentality that hes not always going to be the main man too.

[themightyblue 443]

Torres didn't come to England as a "skinny" player. He isn't renowned for bossing defenders like Drogba but people knew he was strong enough to take a hit and cause problems for defenders using his body. Also Torres was lightning quick unlike Falcao and Vidic.. so yeah you were saying...

Falcao functioned in AVBs fluid system, yes but whats the bet he had the least outfield passes as he usually just offloaded the ball to the wingers/back to the midfielders like most poachers. How many key passes and assists did he get, probably no assists and very little key passes, unlike Torres who got like 20 something assists and a lot of key passes last season due to being a more complete striker who can find his teammates s as well as the net (even though he rarely does). In fact I bet Falcao rarely even dribbled with the ball as much as you see with Torres, Rooney, RvP, Sturridge, Messi, Villa etc.

I continuously go on about our system needing a specific system because it does need a specific sort of striker, a complete one, who can easily pick out the run of a teammate if hes slightly deeper after doing a movement dragging defenders out to create space for wingers/attacking midfielders to run in behind like what you see with Messi and whoevers flanking him at Barca. They don't have to be Messi but they have to be some sort of decent footballer with a footballing brain or they would never have the awareness to see and make the pass.

How many times in that video did Falcao have his back to goal and turn and just smash the ball in? 0. Zilch. Thats why I mean by the fact hes rubbish with his back to goal.

Falcao has scored goals in every league hes been in but he was the star of each team basically. River Plates best player, Portos best player and Atleticos best player. He wouldn't be Chelsea's best player for sure. Look at the effect that had on Torres too, you might think oh he'll succeed but hes got to have that sort of mentality that hes not always going to be the main man too.

Lol Torres was almost as skinny as Oscar mate, http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00878/SNN0121G_280_878912a.jpg

And it's not about bossing defenders, its about getting the better of them which is what all the best strikers do and Falcao has done it in portugal, Spain, South America and in european competitions. Falcao gets the better of most defenders because of his movement in and outside of the box which is something you can recreate anywhere and which is why he's been successful everywhere. So this idea about needing to boss defenders isn't correct, as long as you have there number and can outsmart them whether it be movement, pace or strength is what is key

And the point about Avb's system is that in order to play in it, your all round play couldn't have been poor as everybody had to contribute. And so what we're looking for our number 8 to give assists? I understand that he needs to link up the play, but you go on about assists when so far this season Torres has managed one assist and that came in the game against Wolves in the COC cup so.........What the striker must do in our supposed system is link the play, score goals and create space for the three behind. Falcao can undoubtedly carry out those last two tasks better than Torres and as I said his link up play is more than up to scratch

Also why are you putting so much emphasis on playing with back to goal? Most of the chances we have created this season that Torres has missed has come from clever play with Torres being one on one with the keeper. Being good with your back to goal was definitely necessary in our old system became we used to play long ball tactics but this is no longer the case as demonstrated by the fact that Torres finds himself with so many one on one situations with balls played over the top or through the defence. When Torres recieves the ball with back to goal in this system all that he does is usually either hold it up, or lay to one of the more creative players which is something Falcao is easily capable of doing.

More to the point, the only striker we've seen in this team is Torres. We have no idea what type of striker suits it as we've not been able to compare it too anything and there's been no indication what type of striker RDM wants in this type of system. Until we see another striker playing in it, we can't make a judgement on what type of striker is best for it, although we've seen Sturridge play in it who's a different type of a striker to Torres and so far he's performed well in his cameos. If Falcao came here he'd definitely be our best player in terms of attackers, he's 3rd best in the world imo and the best striker out there so that wouldn't be a problem. Anyway,Torres didn't suffer from 'not being the best player', he suffered mentally because of the Drogba factor and the competition he posed him. Falcao's competition would be Torres and Sturridge and he's comfortably better than both

[themightyblue 443]

Btw, it's nice to have a debate on here that hasn't resulted in childish insults being thrown about

[Mufassir08 2,400]

Falcao wouldn't be considered a world class player if he was only good with his feet and head otherwise Huntelaar, Hernandez would be world class too. You have to have more to you game to achieve that sort of status

Absolutely spot on.

[Muzchap 8,966]

You've gone and seriously underrated Falcao's ability. As is well documented, Falcao is probably the most deadly striker on the planet and in a sense is a pure 9. I'm not going to try and claim he's the greatest all round player out there but to say he's only good with both feet and his head is doing him a huge disservice, much like when people say Lewandowski is purely a target man. Falcao doesn't sole rely on his team mates making his goals, watch his goals from last season and goals so far this season. The perfect example I can give you is the europa league final, if i remember correctly Falcao picked the ball up in the box made a yard of space for himself and curled it beautifully into the top corner. Rvp does this time and time again and falcao is the same he can make goals out of nothing and so to say he is solely reliant on service is and assists is nonsense.

The way you've described Falcao is how you should be describing Hernandez and not the best striker in the world and to answer your competing with big strong, dominant defenders, Cahill and Luiz aren't exactly small are they. There over 6ft and physically imposing yet Falcao made mincemeat of both of them. Falcao's weakest area is probably his link up play and its probably weaker than Torres', but that doesn't mean it's poor. Falcao's link up play doesn't get enough credit because half of time rather than just getting the ball and laying it outwide, he'll take it, make a yard of space and shoot at goal which is what you'd expect your striker to do. I could go into more depth about Falcao's game, but I think you can see where i'm going with this. Is Falcao the perfect striker for this system? No. Will he grab 25-30 goals playing in this team? Fuck yes. A striker with his ability and form definitely will

This +1 million

Finally some fucking sense around here...

[uzairblue 22]

I'm sure falcao is coming

--->> http://goo.gl/gkJuJ

[Muzchap 8,966]

The role of a striker is to score!

I don't care how he links up play, as long as he puts it in the back of the net with a good conversion ratio...

All this rubbish about link up play and assists - You're talking about that because OUR Striker is hopeless and thus needs to do something different to support the team...

Still think if you believe Dzeko is the answer, then you are thinking too small... He's ok, but no Falcao...

Edit: if I could swap Torres for Dzeko right here, right now i would. But would still want Falcao...

Having both would be good - but FM / FIFA territory there...

[fAnta 107]

I will quote a post i said before

last year torres got 12 assists and falcao got 5. Now look at the goals he scored as well. we buy a striker to freaking score. the players we have are made to feed a striker. I dont care but if torres scored the chances he had yesterday instead of you argument for working for team we would have won scored so many goals.

And falcao is more than a poacher he scores all his chances and has the killer instinct. look at the video on the first page. the quality of some of his goals are incredible.

let me elaborate further.

Torres in league:

12 goals and 12 assists

Falcao in league:

39 goals and 5 assists.

a striker is there to score. falcao can score every type of goal. in a game where torres does an assist 90% of the time he would have missed a chance to score a goal.

People talk about torres as if he is drogba and most of the time he holds up the ball and crosses it to 5"7 players. i guarentee falcao will link up wonderfully with our trio theres no question there at all.

[Muzchap 8,966]

I will quote a post i said before

let me elaborate further.

Torres in league:

12 goals and 12 assists

Falcao in league:

39 goals and 5 assists.

a striker is there to score. falcao can score every type of goal. in a game where torres does an assist 90% of the time he would have missed a chance to score a goal.

People talk about torres as if he is drogba and most of the time he holds up the ball and crosses it to 5"7 players. i guarentee falcao will link up wonderfully with our trio theres no question there at all.

Fanta is the answer

[TheCount 146]

I will quote a post i said before

let me elaborate further.

Torres in league:

12 goals and 12 assists

Falcao in league:

39 goals and 5 assists.

a striker is there to score. falcao can score every type of goal. in a game where torres does an assist 90% of the time he would have missed a chance to score a goal.

People talk about torres as if he is drogba and most of the time he holds up the ball and crosses it to 5"7 players. i guarentee falcao will link up wonderfully with our trio theres no question there at all.

12 assists is still 12 goals, what good are only scoring goals if you do nothing eles to help the team.

Also as

Another question would Falcao dominate say big strong defenders like Vidic(before injury), Kompany or Lescott? Probably not. Whereas in 2009 (I think)

This would be One of my main concerns also.

[Manuf 1,448]

it's so easy to make torres look world class with fancy pictures and explanations. giving him credit for just running.

[Rmpr 8,977]

Torres gave 13 key passes this season, only Mata 17 and Hazard 18 have more. But he can't fucking stay on his feet on the ball, not even speaking about link up the play

Torres has 4 goals out of 7 shots on target and 17 shots. But he still can't fucking shoot or score.

We could do that to Falcao either, but since he runs in the right direction he gets the ball and scores. BOOM...12 goals so far.

Btw, the best example of Torres would be Mata`s second goal and you did not even put it there.

[Funkyflashman 187]

Torres gave 13 key passes this season, only Mata 17 and Hazard 18 have more. But he can't fucking stay on his feet on the ball, not even speaking about link up the play

Torres has 4 goals out of 7 shots on target and 17 shots. But he still can't fucking shoot or score.

Look at that:

Is Torres seriously expecting to get the ball from Ramires with that sort of movement ? Considering Gallas' position, arguably not. But just look at the space it frees behind Caulker (#33). Who gets Ramires' service? Mata who shots twice at goal (and maybe should have scored).

Do you expect that sort of false call from a natural goalscorer? Of course not, if Agüero or Dzeko makes that sort of run and doesn't get the ball they simply get mental to their team mate.

Look at Mata's goal: that's a counter attack and the balls comes to Ivanovic who crosses the ball onto the penalty spot.

Hazard runs at full speed in the penalty box whereas Torres stays backwards after a jogging run, not because he's afraid of coming into the box but to be at the right place on a 2nd ball. That's very hard for a center back who would prefer to know that the striker is bombing in their back, and then, adapt their defending to it.

Here, they don't know what Torres is doing, Gallas even checks behind before getting into the penalty spot. Mata has also stayed behind for a similar reason to Torres', to get into the box or be separated with a late run.

That's what makes Gallas' clearance that weird because he sees that Torres stayed exactly where he didn't want to. We often say to youngsters (and even after) to send back the ball from where it came. Because there it would precisely make Gallas giving the ball to Torres (couldn't clear far away from his body position), he's forced to change his mind at the last second and clears the ball elsewhere (who proves to be even worse).

Usually that's the defensive midfield's role to cover the axis and be aware of the 2nd balls cleared by the defense. Here, there's nobody in between the CBs, nobody tracked back Mata, Gallas couldn't clear the ball from where it came...

That's two schoolcases of Torres' contribution, very basic but crucial. What a natural goalscorer isn't eager to do. Just look at how Agüero plays and moves to understand how a goalscorer wants his team to play as he wants to.

I feel obligated to raise a concern similar to Manuf's...

The explanation is fantastic in theory, but as Manuf said, it's perfectly plausible that it's just poor attacking third movement and Torres is in essence just running about. You say that he makes the run to make space for Mata, but for me anyway, it's far more likely that Mata, with his fantastic football brain, sees the poor run and exploits the space. In which case, great, Torres freed up space, but can we honestly say he means to.

The first picture for me is telling. Let's assume you're right, and that it's a false run. Wouldn't you rather have a striker attack that space and shoot...? Honestly? I would. I get the feeling that you put Falcao in that space, he's going to time his burst into space and put it away, not drift off towards the corner flag and hope that someone else times it well...

My two cents. I for one don't buy it I'm afraid. But I respect your opinion. If he keeps doing the same then perhaps I'll come round to your explanation but until then...

[TheCount 146]

A professional midfielder enjoys the ball something like 2 minutes per game. All the 88 minutes left is running.

So, yeah, basically playing football is technical abilities relying on your ability to use a sufficient athletic potential, and showing the intelligence to be at the right place to contribute to make your team winning.

This,

You also didnt say or make him look world class you said basic schoolcases of contribution lol, apparantly basic footballing skills are world class in this age of if you dont beat 15 defenders by yourself your shit XD