🇨🇮 Didier Drogba

[Reddish-Blue 2,504]

I know he was unfit and all but DD11 is past it, hopefully he becomes more of an impact sub than anything else

Totally agree. He can just come on after 70 minutes and let Costa take a break from leading the line

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

That's not how I saw it at all. He was never going to come on and put in a top class performance in his first game of pre season especially when the rest of the team were playing bad, but he still showed glimpses of what he can do, I Think he will have an excellent season!

Dont let your emotions judge on this one, we all love Drogba but his just past it, would be surprised if he manages 5 goals all season

[DH1988 1,348]

Very surprised by his first touch, how much its disappeared.. hopefully just rustiness.

[iseah100 5,612]

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Remember the last time he is here, he only got the service from mata, behind him are our legendary players like malouda, kalou, mikel, ramires, etc. Right now he will get the "real service" from hazard, schurrle, oscar, willian, fabregas. Let's see how that works first before making any further judgement.

[Jase 43,479]

36 yr old drogba still a better hold up player than a 20 something lukaku and current el nino.

If you compare Drogba with Lukaku and Torres, then of course, you could say he's better than the two. But in general, Drogba has passed his peak and is no longer the player he once was. He can give us a few good games here and there during the course of the season but don't be surprised if he frustrates more than pleases with his performances. What people seemed to have forgotten is that in the midst of his achievements in the Champions League three seasons ago is that Drogba was effective in the league. In fact, he has been ineffective in the league since the 2009/10 season. So, people really need to avoid having high expectations of him this season or otherwise, there's gonna be a lot of disappointment.

[Jase 43,479]

Remember the last time he is here, he only got the service from mata, behind him are our legendary players like malouda, kalou, mikel, ramires, etc. Right now he will get the "real service" from hazard, schurrle, oscar, willian, fabregas. Let's see how that works first before making any further judgement.

Can't help but to feel annoyed whenever I read such views. It's almost ridiculous to say that a player will automatically or is likely to do better just because they have more creative players around them and will get "real service". If it's as black and white as that, then maybe we all should throw our names to the club and volunteer to play since things are so easy with these talents around. Also, people seem to have selective memory. While having the likes of Hazard, Schurrle, Oscar etc is better than having Malouda, Kalou etc, let's not forget we had won trophies with the latter group. To discredit in any way for what they did for the club is almost farcical!

[nibal 14]

36 yr old drogba still a better hold up player than a 20 something lukaku and current el nino.

"Question marks have been raised regarding Lukaku's technical ability and in that sense he certainly is no like-for-like Drogba replacement. He gave away possession due to a poor touch an average of 1.6 times per game last season, meaning he did so with 4.2% of his touches. That in itself seems like quite a lot of the time; more than 1 in every 25 of his touches would go straight to the opposition.

Drogba, though, did so with 14.5% of his touches in the Champions League last season, while Costa lost the ball with 6.5% of his in La Liga last term. The teams played a similar proportion of their passes long (Everton 12.2%, Atlético 11.8%) so it is not as if Costa's job was more difficult in this regard, and with fewer still passes played long at Chelsea (11.2%), Lukaku's so-called poor first touch certainly wouldn't be a problem."

http://www.sportskeeda.com/football/is-chelsea-decision-sell-romelu-lukaku-right-one

Edited August 4, 2014 by nibal

[Atlas Lion 1,223]

Not to mention we have struggled immensely in the final third last season. We've invested heavily in this squad and for two seasons all we have to show for it is a trophy we shouldn't have even been qualified for.

This is the season where everyone needs to step up or fuck off.

[The Skipper 20,609]

"Question marks have been raised regarding Lukaku's technical ability and in that sense he certainly is no like-for-like Drogba replacement. He gave away possession due to a poor touch an average of 1.6 times per game last season, meaning he did so with 4.2% of his touches. That in itself seems like quite a lot of the time; more than 1 in every 25 of his touches would go straight to the opposition.

Drogba, though, did so with 14.5% of his touches in the Champions League last season, while Costa lost the ball with 6.5% of his in La Liga last term. The teams played a similar proportion of their passes long (Everton 12.2%, Atlético 11.8%) so it is not as if Costa's job was more difficult in this regard, and with fewer still passes played long at Chelsea (11.2%), Lukaku's so-called poor first touch certainly wouldn't be a problem."

http://www.sportskeeda.com/football/is-chelsea-decision-sell-romelu-lukaku-right-one

You really don't need stats to prove that Drogba is still at this age technically superior to Lukaku. People have eyes.

[nibal 14]

You really don't need stats to prove that Drogba is still at this age technically superior to Lukaku. People have eyes.

I don't know, to me he just looks like he has lost a step physically and imo it impact his ability too shield the ball or to burst past his man . He has more experience and it is important but he is not really an acurate passer at this stage of his career.

Even in 2009/2010 he only completed 57% of his passes and it was a good year for him , he also turned the ball over almost 5 times (4.8) a game , lukaku has never turned the ball more than 2 times a game on average.

At west brom he had a 71% passing acuracy and at everton 66% while making more passes and having more touches than Drogba in 2009/2010 and we can agree that this Drogba ain't walking true that door .

So even if my eyes deceive me in thinking that Lukaku is way mor clumbersome than Drogba...facts , and number do not agree? and as i said earlier , lukaku appearsq as agile with a ball than bambi on ice but somehow he makes it work.

Edited August 4, 2014 by nibal

[The Skipper 20,609]

I don't know, to me he just looks like he has lost a step physically and imo it impact his ability too shield the ball or to burst past his man . He has more experience and it is important but he is not really an acurate passer at this stage of his career.

He has, but his back to play game, technique and his first touch is still miles ahead of Lukaku's.

[Whiskey 173]

It's called experience.

Lukaku is still a young player. He's not a finished product. Droba is/was.

Form is temporary, class isnt.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Can't help but to feel annoyed whenever I read such views. It's almost ridiculous to say that a player will automatically or is likely to do better just because they have more creative players around them and will get "real service". If it's as black and white as that, then maybe we all should throw our names to the club and volunteer to play since things are so easy with these talents around. Also, people seem to have selective memory. While having the likes of Hazard, Schurrle, Oscar etc is better than having Malouda, Kalou etc, let's not forget we had won trophies with the latter group. To discredit in any way for what they did for the club is almost farcical!

I quoted "real service" on purpose, and what I mean legendary is they truly are, not mean to discredit them, but I mean they have past it at the moment and could not give that kind of service anymore for the team (well some of them have gone anyway). You can check at Mikel thread, maybe I am the only who said that Mikel is Chelsea legend. Lol.

I just think that Mata is the only creative force we have at that moment, and now we have Hazard, Oscar, Willian, Fabregas who I think will contribute massively for the creativity more than at 2012. This what I mean "real service", more creativity at the moment, not that they are all s*** back then, and now we are far superior. I don't see any problem with that consideration, maybe some people will disagree but I think there are a lot of people will agree too.

What I really mean in my previous post anyway, is that if Drogba could did something with only Mata as our creative player. Imagine what he can do with all the AM we have at the moment. Just give him time to prove it, and not judging Drogba now is gonna flopped even before the season start and preseason finished.

[Barbara 15,149]

I don't know, to me he just looks like he has lost a step physically and imo it impact his ability too shield the ball or to burst past his man . He has more experience and it is important but he is not really an acurate passer at this stage of his career.

Even in 2009/2010 he only completed 57% of his passes and it was a good year for him , he also turned the ball over almost 5 times (4.8) a game , lukaku has never turned the ball more than 2 times a game on average.

At west brom he had a 71% passing acuracy and at everton 66% while making more passes and having more touches than Drogba in 2009/2010 and we can agree that this Drogba ain't walking true that door .

So even if my eyes deceive me in thinking that Lukaku is way mor clumbersome than Drogba...facts , and number do not agree? and as i said earlier , lukaku appearsq as agile with a ball than bambi on ice but somehow he makes it work.

if what you do right - because of being highly technical - is much bigger and better than others who don't make as many wrongs as you, you're better than them technically and that's the end of it. So instead of focusing on how his accuracy isn't that great, we should be focusing on the quality of what he makes right.

The 2009/10 Drobga you seemed to have tried to convince us was technically worse than Lukaku is one of the best strikers in the world.

And what really irritates me in those kind of articles is that in no moment is mentioned that it wasn't the club's choice to sell the player. It was just the club's agreement (to avoid a bigger evil) to let a player that wanted out to go. Chelsea didn't choose to play Drobga instead of Lukaku. Chelsea definitely knew where Lukaku stood and were stupid enough not to bring a better striker to replace him, but the decision was made firstly and mainly by Lukaku who wanted to leave as his aspirations here couldn't be met or promised to him by Mourinho. The question here isn't if it was a good or bad idea letting Lukaku go because that was his decision, not Chelsea's, so we just fulfilled a player's wish. The real question is if it was a good or a bad idea to think 2014-Drogba is a good replacement. Everybody in the world is convinced it isn't except Mourinho and the board (unless they surprise us with a new signing until August 31st)

[Special Juan 28,141]

Just announced he is retiring from International football.

[The Skipper 20,609]

All ours then... No ACON anymore!

[The only place to be 11,313]

65 goals in 104 appearances is pretty darn good.

Now he can focus on Chelsea and means we won't be without him during the African Nations, which would've ruled him out for the City game and at least two others.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Hooray for that

[Madmax 9,219]

Such a shame he's won nothing with Cote d'Ivoire. One of the biggest bottlers around.