Radamel Falcao

[LondonPride1905 236]

And you deduce this from the fact I want ONE striker. Well done, Sherlock.

I too want one striker, more than Torres, but with him staying , won't it be better keeping Lukaku, than adding another 200 k waged bloke? I like Falcao, love Cavani. Would appreciate them both here, but come on? You gotta be keeping tabs on the wage bill and the bigger it gets, the more money people would want from us and our board will "be going retarded", while actually just trying to make them take a little cut of the top. I would much rather we focus on the talent we have stacked up. Having people like De Bruyne , Essien and Lukaku on loan, while Torres, Yossi and Obi Mikel are still in the team, now that is retarded!

[Beepu 1,714]

Is our striker the only person who can score goals for us then?

I'd point you in the direction of our 2005 and 2006 title winning teams. We didn't have a single striker who scored more than the 17 goals that Lukaku scored last season. In fact Drogba scored 10 and 12 goals in those seasons whilst other strikers like Crespo barely reached double figures.

We were a team that relied on goals from around the team. With players like Mata (12 goals) and Hazard (9 goals) we seem to be building that again, and if you want to look at reasons for us dropping points then I'd suggest the midfield is of greater concern than our strikers.

Not every team has to do the same thing and be built the same way. Personally I'd still like us to add a striker and for me that would be Rooney because I think he fits the squad better, but if we go into the season with the four striking options I mentioned but improve the midfield then I'd back us to win the league.

Agree with his 100% chelsea were never reliant on strikers, never was since our title winning season, and still havent been recently. Of course its nice to have a striker that can finish those chances that torres and ba misses. I think Lukaku might surprise some people, and if we fix our midfield problem which gets totally run over by teams with a strong midfield, we will start winning. Drogba was the perfect striker really, he never really scored that much goals other than 2009-2010. But his hold up play and link up play is brilliant for players like lampard, essien, ballack, etc.

[nono 791]

More efficiently? What the fuck does that mean? Do they take less touches to score, ergo reducing the wear and tear on their boots? Do they cover less ground this reducing the strain on the pitch - great thinking. With less ground staff needed we can easily afford to spunk money up the wall on these players, because as everyone knows the ground staff at our club are the really big earners.

We won two league titles without a 20 goal a season striker. We have players like Hazard and Mata who contribute goals from midfield....oh and we have a young striker who actually scored 17 goals in reduced minutes in his first season, but all those goals were deflected in off his arse so they don't count. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

Liverpool had the second top scorer in the league last season, and they finished 7th. The relationship between a striker who scores goals consistently and the league champions isn't as definite as some people are making it out to be.

You seem to be an obvious fool. Why do you keep on drawing parallels to the 2005/2006 season ? Do you know we had the best defense in the league that season ? We conceded only 22 goals ! Torres is worse than Drogba was that season since he can't provide any of Drogba's build up play (Drogba was the assist leader). John Terry was actually in the PFA shortlist for Player of the Year. Nothing is similar to that season here. We are worse and our competitors are much better.

Any person with an ounce of sense would understand that efficiency is related to chances wasted. But you somehow thought of the groundkeepers, no doubt because you have a job somewhere cleaning poo off of grounds.

[The only place to be 11,313]

The thing is, although Livershite finished 7th, without Suarez they would probably have been fighting relegation. So, it's actually yet another example of a Striker vastly bettering a team. Also, like someone said earlier, it's not like Citeh and ManUre won't improve their midfields, yet they'd have something we don't, a great CF.

Except if they had sold Suarez for £40 million they might have been able to buy other players who made them a better TEAM (remember the other 10 players on the pitch also matter).

That's the funny thing with football. Sometimes you can parlay one good player into a number of cheaper players who better serve your TEAM.

That's real mature from the member of the month. Guess they just hand that out to anyone these days, eh? Anyways...

I think they hand it out to people who can talk intelligently about football - pointing out when people are saying ridiculous things is just the little garnish I like to bring to it, to make it my own.

Look, I put together a decent argument about how strikers aren't the be all and end all. You could've pointed out that in both those seasons we had Lampard at the height of his powers (or damn near close) playing almost as a second striker and getting us important goals. Or you might have said that the Cole/Robben/Duff/Gudjohnson group was far more prolific than what we have now.

Those are fair points, with decent reasoning behind them. You essentially stuck your fingers in your ears and went 'na,na,na'. Can you blame me for having a small pop?

[The only place to be 11,313]

You seem to be an obvious fool. Why do you keep on drawing parallels to the 2005/2006 season ? Do you know we had the best defense in the league that season ? We conceded only 22 goals ! Torres is worse than Drogba was that season since he can't provide any of Drogba's build up play (Drogba was the assist leader). John Terry was actually in the PFA shortlist for Player of the Year. Nothing is similar to that season here. We are worse and our competitors are much better.

So what you're saying is that defence can win trophies too? I never thought of that when we were throwing away two goal leads to Reading and Southampton, conceding from SWP breaks and watching us gift Newcastle the run of half the pitch.

I actually agree with what you're saying which is why a 30 goal a season striker isn't the top of the list in my mind. That midfield is. That's the link from defence to attack, that's what will make us hard to beat and that's what will win us the league next season.

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

Except if they had sold Suarez for £40 million they might have been able to buy other players who made them a better TEAM (remember the other 10 players on the pitch also matter).

That's the funny thing with football. Sometimes you can parlay one good player into a number of cheaper players who better serve your TEAM.

I think they hand it out to people who can talk intelligently about football - pointing out when people are saying ridiculous things is just the little garnish I like to bring to it, to make it my own.

Look, I put together a decent argument about how strikers aren't the be all and end all. You could've pointed out that in both those seasons we had Lampard at the height of his powers (or damn near close) playing almost as a second striker and getting us important goals. Or you might have said that the Cole/Robben/Duff/Gudjohnson group was far more prolific than what we have now.

Those are fair points, with decent reasoning behind them. You essentially stuck your fingers in your ears and went 'na,na,na'. Can you blame me for having a small pop?

Football evolves. Just because we won the title with a team that didn't have an overly prolific striker doesn't mean it will and should always remain that way. Football is becoming more and more centered on attack or out attacking the other team.

[nono 791]

Defense wins trophies, but I don't see us substantially improving our defense. Luiz is good but not great, and so is Cahill. Same with Mikel. The defense requires too big of an overhaul for it to be the solution.

[Toli 977]

When people are talking about a new striker, it isnt essential that he will score 20+ goals. but cavani/falcao would provide much better holding-the-ball play, they could have a presence in the centre etc. this would take a lot of pressure from the midfield, because our striker could use his body to defend the ball and win time for our midfield etc. neither ba nor torres could do this in our season. just in terms of presence and making the opponents fear us, cavani/falcao would be a huge upgrade. not talking about their scoring/Finishing ability.

but I agree also, that fixing the midfield has to be the priority. in too many games we got owned in the centre of the midfield. we need 1 or 2 new players in this area, who can bring us to the next level

[Severinb 309]

@talkSPORT: Ferran Soriano rules out #mcfc moves for Falcao and Neymar and insists Sergio Aguero will stay http://t.co/iJI5rb5H5Y

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

@talkSPORT: Ferran Soriano rules out #mcfc moves for Falcao and Neymar and insists Sergio Aguero will stay http://t.co/iJI5rb5H5Y

Aguero. Ohhhhh if only

[The only place to be 11,313]

Football evolves. Just because we won the title with a team that didn't have an overly prolific striker doesn't mean it will and should always remain that way. Football is becoming more and more centered on attack or out attacking the other team.

Actually we won the title twice with a team without a prolific striker.

I'm simply using examples from our own recent history to suggest that you might be wrong in your belief that not getting a big-name striker in will cost us the title.

Here's another point - we would've been level on points with Man United if we had won all of our games against the teams who finished in the bottom 7 last season. That includes not throwing away two-goal leads against Reading and Southampton, not losing at home to QPR and not being so naive defensively against Newcastle away. Now I don't know if you watched those games, but my assessment was that we lost those games in midfield as we did so many other games.

I firmly believe that is the difference (along with squad depth) between us being a top 4 side and a league-winning side.

[drog.ba 239]

Cant believe some people think we can win the league/CL without a Cavani or Falcao level striker. Sure our midfield needs improving just as much, but improving both is necessary.

[DDA 9,929]

I actually agree with what you're saying which is why a 30 goal a season striker isn't the top of the list in my mind. That midfield is. That's the link from defence to attack, that's what will make us hard to beat and that's what will win us the league next season.

Your point is a proven fact. Our midfield was exposed on numerous occasions in nearly every game we played this season. It was far too easy for opposition to penetrate the center of our midfield and this was mainly down to not having a naturally combatant midfielder in the 'pivot role'. Rafa managed to bring solidity to our structure as a team by the end of the season which is what I felt won us that precious Champions League spot. Before we were disjointed and weak in the center of the park and this has to be addressed for next season without any shadow of a doubt and that should be our first priority in this summer transfer window. I have no doubt in my mind that Mourinho will bring that solidity back to our game once again. I say first priority because it isn't just our main, as I think if we truly want to mount a serious assault on the title and Champions League next season we will need a 20 goal + striker to fire us through yet another long season. Our midfield has bundles of goals in them but we cannot rely on Eden and Mata to keep carrying the average goalscorers in BA and Torres. All the top teams in Europe who have found success this season and in the history of the game posses a prolific goalscorer and just because we have goals in our midfielders we are no exception to the truth of success.

[ANDRECHO 432]

[pakito 17]

In my opinion he is better than Cavani, who seems more like pure poacher, good one at it though. Falcao seems more skilled striker with less work rate