Gonzalo Higuain

[robsblubot 3,504]

13 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Benzema had a 10 year run (ending in 2016/17) where he averaged almost 25 goals and around 12 assists per season, twice going over 30 goals. If we got that for 5 or 6 years out of Morata, I would THRILLED.

sure, that'd be great, but hard and expensive to find. Not sure Higuain is that either. My point is that it's not a necessity. RM did not drop Benzema when he stopped scoring, which has been quite a while. They like what he does on the pitch even when he does not score.

My second point is that when you employ a striker who's only a goal scorer, which also applies to other strikers like lukaku, you gain some but also lose some. Great if they are scoring, but close to a liability when they are not. With many teams playing with mobile strikers, or (real :)) false nines, I just feel this idea of having a striker responsible for most of the goals is passe. For ex, Firmino is far more of a Morata type than a Higuain or Lukaku. He scores few goals and works well in that system because the team is good and the players around him gel well with his style of play.

Now, of course, we could discuss whether we have enough goal scorers in the squad right now. Or whether the style in which we now play could actually help our attackers in terms of scoring goals. Reckon we will find out very soon.

[Vesper 28,796]

57 minutes ago, Robguima said:

sure, that'd be great, but hard and expensive to find. Not sure Higuain is that either. My point is that it's not a necessity. RM did not drop Benzema when he stopped scoring, which has been quite a while. They like what he does on the pitch even when he does not score.

My second point is that when you employ a striker who's only a goal scorer, which also applies to other strikers like lukaku, you gain some but also lose some. Great if they are scoring, but close to a liability when they are not. With many teams playing with mobile strikers, or (real :)) false nines, I just feel this idea of having a striker responsible for most of the goals is passe. For ex, Firmino is far more of a Morata type than a Higuain or Lukaku. He scores few goals and works well in that system because the team is good and the players around him gel well with his style of play.

Now, of course, we could discuss whether we have enough goal scorers in the squad right now. Or whether the style in which we now play could actually help our attackers in terms of scoring goals. Reckon we will find out very soon.

Roberto Firmino scored 27 goals last year and had 17 assists. He is far beyond most strikers in the world in offensive output and talent atm.

The only other strikers/secondary strikers I would rate over him atm are (in no order) Dybala, Mbappe, Kane, Greizmann, Icardi and maybe Lewandowski. As usual I leave out Ronaldo and Messi from debate.

[robsblubot 3,504]

10 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Roberto Firmino scored 27 goals last year and had 17 assists. He is far beyond most strikers in the world in offensive output and talent atm.

The only other strikers/secondary strikers I would rate over him atm are (in no order) Dybala, Mbappe, Kane, Greizmann, Icardi and maybe Lewandowski. As usual I leave out Ronaldo and Messi from debate.

yeah good point. Then again, that was last season. Go back enough and he has few goals and still plays and is not sold to buy a "proper" striker.

There are personal preferences at play here. I have no problem if the club can sign Luis Suarez or Lewandowski (who tends to vanish in tough matches in CL), but those folks are not available. Lukaku, Higuain, they are not better than what we have, just different.

[Vesper 28,796]

On 25/08/2018 at 2:26 AM, Robguima said:

yeah good point. Then again, that was last season. Go back enough and he has few goals and still plays and is not sold to buy a "proper" striker.

There are personal preferences at play here. I have no problem if the club can sign Luis Suarez or Lewandowski (who tends to vanish in tough matches in CL), but those folks are not available. Lukaku, Higuain, they are not better than what we have, just different.

There are so few options left for us at striker.

Icardi, but we blew it by not hitting his £98m 2 weeks in July 2018 release clause (it goes up each year)

Martial, another cockup with the failed Willian plus cash swap

 Ciro Immobile, who turns 30 in February 2020 (so long term contract issue), and if Lazio loses SMS next summer, zero chance they also let Ciro go in same window

Then 2 speculative ones

Timo Werner

Andrea Belotti

Both of whom have yet to show they are the long term real deals. If Werner shows huge this year, Bayern will grab him.

That's it. All others will not be sold to us unless we bid INSANE money (and probably not even then, especially if we again have no CL) or are 30yo or older (Lewa, Higs, Cavani, Suarez, etc).

It's basically Morata or bust, with Martial (put back to his original number 9 position) or a rebounded Belotti as only realistic alternatives. After that is basically rent an ageing star time. Plus we have all the other (or most) top 10 to 15 clubs to fight with.

Wild card 

Lautaro Martínez 21yo Inter phenom. He looks spectacular so far. Inter might be willing to part with Icardi if he continues to progress. But I think Icardi 2019 RC will go up to £140m or so if he signs a new contract this year. Zero chance we spend that much, even if we have to sell Hazard next summer (the nightmare there is that we get raped Courtois-style with Eden, maybe only getting £90m or even less as he can leave on a free in 22 months). This season and next are also Hazard's last 2 full years before he too hits 30.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

 

[the wes 7,212]

According to di marzio website that Chelsea are interested in Higuain

 

https://gianlucadimarzio.com/en/chelsea-pondering-move-for-milans-striker-higuain

[xPetrCechx 13,563]

Gattuso on Higuain-Morata swap deal: "I am keeping Higuain close to me. I don’t understand the market rumours about him. He’s not having a great time of it, like the rest of the team, but we’re fourth in the table and therefore we must give it as little thought as possible."

Gattuso: "No disrespect to your ( journalists) work but as far as I know Chelsea haven't bought any over-30 players in the last few years. It is normal that on a mental level Higuain feels the absence of his goals and is not in a positive moment."

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Yes lets get another low confidence plagued striker who is also 31 years old and super slow. 

 

[blues.bridge 343]

if we take higuain, I give up! I will start to watch only "CURLING"!

[Marvin123 484]

Is this one of those planted stories to help hurry along other negotiations. Or was the Wilson story a plant? Hmmmm

[LAM09 6,744]

The club need to stay clear of stopgaps

[the wes 7,212]

Sky reporting it now 

 

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11668/11587999/chelsea-keen-on-ac-milan8217s-gonzalo-higuain-in-swap-deal-with-alvaro-morata

[Milan 17,853]

Maybe it is because English is not my mother tongue but what Sarri said today sounds to me as if Higuain might really be on his way -

Quote

‘I like him very much. He’s a wonderful player, he’s a wonderful man but I don’t want to talk about Higuain because I have two-and-a-half strikers at the moment and Gonzalo is playing for AC Milan so it’s better not to talk about him at the moment.’

'at the moment' sounds like something more than nothing.

[Unionjack 7,531]

17 hours ago, LAM09 said:

The club need to stay clear of stopgaps

I do agree

But we have 2 problems how I see it

Our priority must be right now to make top 4 and its going to be tough with no striker. I do think Higuain while knocking on will give us some goals and Sarri knows him inside out.

Also its looking serious about this loans problem and transfer ban shite. I would prefer us to get a striker that we wont have to change again after the bans lifted,

Theres down sides but I won't moan tho if Higuain does end up coming.

[11Drogba 2,000]

Higuain has not scored in 8 consecutive games in all competitions for the first time since arriving in Serie A.

Now I am convinced  that we'll get him.

[Alabama 1,992]

Sarri needs to stop smoking cigar and give the board list of quality proper and deadly finisher not another version of Giroud...

Luka Jovic...

Timo Werner...

Andrea Belotti

and the list goes on...I can't withstand another Giroud coupled with Morata...

[Vesper 28,796]

3 hours ago, eemanyooel said:

Sarri needs to stop smoking cigar and give the board list of quality proper and deadly finisher not another version of Giroud...

Luka Jovic...

Timo Werner...

Andrea Belotti

and the list goes on...I can't withstand another Giroud coupled with Morata...

I have a bad suspicion that the board has said little business will be done in January. I get horrid feeling we are on lock-down.

[Alabama 1,992]

9 minutes ago, Vesper said:

I have a bad suspicion that the board has said little business will be done in January. I get horrid feeling we are on lock-down.

Even at that we can bring in quality player to reinforce the attack... Our attack is so casual thanks to the piss poor players we have in that position...