Didier Drogba

[mufilika 101]

3 goals in 3 games; youth is temporary, class is permanent.

I see the haters have ran into their caves!

[Barbara 15,149]

Hail the King

[mufilika 101]

He is a class act, Didier Drogba out having photos with young Shrewsbury fans, 30 mins after final whistle. http://t.co/zgy4oxAHJi

— Mark Chapman (@markchapman) https://twitter.com/markchapman/status/527221375480897536

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He is a class act, Didier Drogba out having photos with young Shrewsbury fans, 30 mins after final whistle. http://t.co/zgy4oxAHJi

— Mark Chapman (@markchapman) https://twitter.com/markchapman/status/527221375480897536

[Jase 43,479]

Doubted Drogba before the United game, only to then see him play 2 games in 3 days and score 2 goals in the process.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

I was against this move from the start, this is no way to end his legacy.. coming back like this. Cost us 3 points today, I blame Jose for starting him though.

ah shaddup!

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Don't think we'll see much more of him, he's painfully old

Many like you will be eating your words.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

horrendous. ruined the match. this is what happens , when u take the piss by playing pensioners.

offers nothing, almost every involvement was a mistake.

Lol... I'm highly amused by all of the negativity so early in his return. Makes you question if the people here who doubt him know anything about the heart of this Lion

[Hybrid Angel 2,130]

I've just noticed something. His style of goals so far is almost exactly like his goals in the 2012 Champions League, except he is going backwards. His first against Maribor was just like the penalty against Munich, the header against United was exactly like the header against Bayern, and today's goal was a left-footed shot down the middle after a pass from his left, like that goal in the first leg against Barca.

[Heisenberg 1,824]

I've just noticed something. His style of goals so far is almost exactly like his goals in the 2012 Champions League, except he is going backwards. His first against Maribor was just like the penalty against Munich, the header against United was exactly like the header against Bayern, and today's goal was a left-footed shot down the middle after a pass from his left, like that goal in the first leg against Barca.

His next goal will be a header then ! Just like Napoli at home !

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Was awful. Normally, I think small sample sizes are absurd to look at it, but in this case, there is reason for concern. If a player looks out of rhythm or mistiming things, that is very often down to just lack of gameplay, but Drogba this is pretty much how he can be expected to play. He is 36 YO and has not been a top striker in about 5 years. He was declining quickly even with Chelsea, becoming effective in only a handful of games in his last couple of years with us. Look at it this way, had Drogba stayed after the CL win what would have happened? Almost certainly one more year of continued decline before Chelsea not offering him another contract and him going on his way. Because he left Chelsea, people didn't see that decline, but it was there. We have a much worse player than the one who was mediocre for us 3 years ago. (16 goals in 60 league games the last 2 years at Chelsea).

I've been thinking a lot about Drogba. Drogba has been a great servant to Chelsea, seems like a genuinely good human being, was a real pleasure to watch, and was key to a lot we did , but his legacy is going to get seriously re-examined the further we get away from the emotions of winning the CL. He was a very good player playing mostly on great teams but not really close to being one of the best Premier-League strikers or the best Chelsea player ever. This is a player who scored over 16 goals in a season only twice with Chelsea and only more than 12 in the league twice. These are not particularly high benchmarks and are fairly low benchmarks on what was a high scoring team.. Wayne Rooney has done 16+ goals 10 straight years. Henry had 7 straight seasons of at least 22 goals. Van Persie has done 16 5 out of the last 6 years. Hassailbank did it 8 times.

Drogba 3 TorontoChelsea 0

[chelseafc9010 224]

Well Drogba's goal today was nothing like the one against Barca but I get your point.. hopefully he scores one like he did against Tottenham.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

So, explain why Drogba is close to being one of the greatest Chelsea players please. TWO years of 12+ goals in the league. Apart from those two seasons, he had a pretty mediocre goal-scoring record for the other 6 (87 goals in 237 games is not good). He was a very good striker who had two fantastic seasons and happened to play on fantastic teams so he had a lot of big game moments (he also had a lot of bad moments in big games which is normal) . We have had a lot of very good strikers but none have ever been on teams like Drogba was so never had the opportunity to have those massive games in front of the world. Chelsea have had a lot of very good strikers. Bentley, Osgood, Dixon, Tambling, Greaves. What makes Drogba stand apart from any of those players except that he played on better teams and was able to play and score in big games? By and large, those players played for longer for Chelsea and were more consistent. You look at someone like Lampard or Terry who were excellent players for Chelsea every single year for about a decade on the same team. I'm not saying Drogba was not a great player overall, just that because of his big-game moments, many Chelsea supporters have elevated him to a status he doesn't belong to.

As for belonging to the best of PL forward, there's not really a serious case. Henry is the best Premier League striker ever IMO (but Shearer is very close). Henry got UEFA team of the year 5 times in 6 years (he scored 26+ goals 6 times). Wayne Rooney has scored more than 16 goals in 10 straight years. Hassailbank did it 7 times. Fowler did it 6 times, Shearer did it an amazing 11 times. Michael Owen did it 7 times. Van Nistelrooy did it 5 times in 5 years. Van Persie has done it 5 times. Drogba did it twice. You're comparing a player who had two excellent seasons with players who were excellent for 5-10 years.

Hassailbank is a good comparison to Drogba because they both played 9 years in the Premier League (and both played with Chelsea.) Here is where Drogba finished in the EPL scoring race in his career in the EPL. 16, 10, 1, 24, 54, 1, 12, 59, X. Compare that to Hassailbank who finished 4, 1, 1, 2, 14, 13, 4, 14, 113 in his Premier League time. You don't see the difference? Hassailbank was a top-5 scorer in the league 5 times. He was a top-15 striker in the league 8 straight years. Drogba finished top-5 in the league in scoring twice. He was top-15, 4 times in 8 years (and won't be this season either obviously). Hassailbank also had a year in there with Atletico where he finished second in the league in scoring in Spain (24 goals in 34 games). You don't think if Hassailbank played on the slightly later Chelsea teams, he also would have scored lots of big goals in big games? Of course he would have. Drogba was a great player but not an all-time great.

Look at his record in cup finals... None of your ridiculous obsession with numbers means anything Drogba is probably the greatest winner the club has ever known.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Incredible how you 1. Think current Didier is better than Remy 2. Absolve Didier from any blame whatsoever, as if Didier never had some of the greatest chances of the game created for him.

No point in discussing it with you is there really.

Its not about better its who suits a certain game

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Football is a funny game, if he didn't score that goal and the result was a draw I am sure he would get shit throw at him now. What we can conclude from this performance though is he is still a great 3RD CHOICE STRIKER. He can play one or two games at 100% per month or so therefore he is fine for us.

legend though <3

No doubt you would've been one throwing the shit.

He is always gonna be a legend even if he never scores another goal.

[The Skipper 20,593]

Its not about better its who suits a certain game

The game at that time would've suited Remy a lot more IMO.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

The game at that time would've suited Remy a lot more IMO.

Very early into his chelsea career.

[The Skipper 20,593]

Very early into his chelsea career.

Doesn't really matter, it was against a defensively unstable Schalke, Remy's pace would've caused a lot more problems. Also think at the time Remy showed he was sharper than Drogba in the minutes he had beforehand.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Doesn't really matter, it was against a defensively unstable Schalke, Remy's pace would've caused a lot more problems. Also think at the time Remy showed he was sharper than Drogba in the minutes he had beforehand.

but it does though, you need to have an understanding with those you are playing with.