TrojanMan

I hope he does come back in the summer. Despite the influx of creativity with Mata, Hazard, and Oscar, we're still not Barca. And we're never going to be Barca. There is always going to be a fair number of crosses into the box, and long balls played over the top. We need someone who can get on the end of those. Ba does a good job, and Lukaku is even bigger. He has some growing to do. As already mentioned, his first touch needs work. But he's still a kid. And if we ever do go back to playing a 2 striker formation, what back line in the Premier League would be excited about slamming into Ba and Lukaku for 90 minutes?

I like Lukaku a lot. I think he could've handled this particular question a little better, though. No need to say, "I don't care what Chelsea are doing...." and possibly upset the fans of the club. He could've just said, "I wish Chelsea well, but at the moment, all my efforts and focus are on helping WBA." That being said, he's a kid. To expect him to be a master with the media is unrealistic and unfair. My preference for next season would be to have Lukaku back at Chelsea. But that's assuming he actually plays. He doesn't need to start every game (unless his on-field performances were to merit that), but he can't sit on the bench week after week after week either. If the latter is the likely scenario, then it's better he stay out on loan. My concern with that, though, is that he might fall out of love with Chelsea. Remember how impressionable you were as a teenager? Even if you're confident, humble, as grounded as can be, etc., when you're 18, 19, 20 years old and you've got a situation where you are the big fish in the small pond, everyone around you tells you you're good, etc., it'd be very, VERY hard to leave that and go back to a place where you're most definitely a small fish. I'd almost prefer that if he were to go back out on loan, it be somewhere other than WBA, just so his affinity for that club doesn't surpass his feelings for Chelsea. One of the things I liked most about his signing was that he's a Chelsea fan. That can't hurt when he's on the pitch. You'd assume he'd want to win at least as much, if not more so, than other players.

The thing about Fellaini is that he would give us options. At home, against a weaker team, when we want to attack -- he could play the defensive role and have a more offensive minded player (Oscar?) next to him. Against a team with size, like Stoke, you could put Mikel as the primary defender and Fellaini next to him as the guy tasked with getting the ball to the advanced players. Two big strong guys shielding the defense, and one of them able to jumpstart attacks. If we need more size forward, Fellaini could play behind the striker, with some combination of Mata, Hazard, Oscar, Moses, Marin deployed on the wings. I like guys who can fill a variety of roles, and Fellaini that type of player. I'd love to hear that he's Chelsea-bound.

I agree with that too, Davey. But back in the Liverpool days, he was a young, amazingly fast, top-of-the-world striker. And for all reports of him being a completely humble man, he had to know how good he was. With that knowledge comes swagger. And with swagger comes the goals you mentioned -- brave headers, predatory instincts, etc. I wish he was mentally strong enough to "fake" that swagger until those instincts come back, but that's not easy for most people.

That's a fair post. I would just differentiate between "CAN" Torres be a great striker again, and "WILL" Torres be a great striker again. Can he? Sure. First and foremost he needs to develop some confidence as a different (slower) striker. The first touch and quicker decision making could follow that. Will he? Seriously doubt it. I think he likely will continue to improve some (be it here or at another club), but will never get back to what he was. You CAN teach an old dog new tricks, and as I've said, I credit Torres for trying to adapt his game to a different style, and to different abilities personally. And that's why I say I think he will still continue to improve, little by little. But if I had to guess, he never had to learn/develop all the little technical nuances that, say, RVP did. When in doubt, turn on the jets, dust a defender, and shoot. He can start developing those skills now, but at 28, he'll never get them down as well as someone who started developing those skills when he was 16.

I think the loss of pace IS the culprit, here. Your previous post was accurate in that, too often, Torres doesn't make the proper run or get into the "right" space. But he didn't make great runs before, either. He was just so fast that it didn't matter. Without that world class pace, he's a little lost, and his confidence has obviously suffered. It's understandable. As I said yesterday, any professional athlete who loses his most valuable physical tool is going to start to doubt himself. Torres COULD be a great striker again, but he'd need to learn to be effective without that pace (like RVP, as you mentioned). He's tried to adapt his game -- he doesn't play the same way he used to at Liverpool. But to this point, it hasn't been good enough. There are plenty of strikers who are lethal, but not "fast." Torres needs to improve his first touch, make quicker decisions, and get some confidence back. He HAS scored some goals like that. He anticipates, make a great run, and gets a head/toe/whatever on the end of a pass/cross, and knocks it in. But then he reverts to "bad Torres," where he stops doing those things.

This. I am, and will forever be, a Fernando Torres fan. And it's precisely because he DOES still try hard, he HAS tried to adapt his game to account for the lost pace. Yes, I know, some on here like to say he's a pouting cry baby. I couldn't disagree more. I think he tells the truth. And from an athlete, that's sort of refreshing. A guy with his track record -- the medals, the period of time being one of the best strikers in the world, etc. -- SHOULD want to play all the time. He should want to be involved with everything. And as I and others have said several times, if he really was a whiny cancer in the dressing room (as some on here proclaim), his teammates wouldn't mob him every time he scores. Yet they do. So he must be a better teammate than a lot of people think. Now, back to Torres the player. His pace isn't there. And that article is precisely right -- even in his early Liverpool days, his first touch wasn't great. It didn't need to be. He could poke the ball somewhere past the defender and then turn on the jets and beat him to it. He obviously can't anymore. But I commend him for TRYING to change his game. He's worked on improving his link up play. He's become a very good passer/crosser of the ball, and is unselfish (to a fault, too often). I wish his killer instinct and confidence would come back, but you can understand how a man stripped of his most valuable physical tool would start to second guess himself. So what do we do now? I don't know. He can't be option A in every game anymore; that much is clear, and has been for awhile. He's pretty expensive as an option B. Though, to be fair to him, he's on pace for what....30 goals this season in all competitions? That's nothing to sneeze at. So either he gets sold (probably back to Spain) in the summer, or he accepts a rotation policy. He's never going to score enough to justify his price tag, but for me, that doesn't make me like him, respect him, or cheer for him any less.

I'm not ready to say it's a failed experiment. What has he had....5 games there? He's not perfect, but I think he can develop into a very good CDM. The physical tools are all there. His passing wasn't great against QPR; it's usually better than that. And I'm just guessing here, but it looked like he was trying to take on a little more of the chance-creation responsibilities with Mata and Hazard both on the bench. With them in there, he's not quite as direct with his passes.

I'm not apathetic at all. Win, lose, draw, whoever the manager is, whoever the striker-du-jour may be, I'm always excited to watch the next game.

Exactly. Lukaku said he loves Chelsea and his dream is still to be in Chelsea's starting XI, but he doesn't want to come back now and sit on the bench. He wants to play; and if that means staying at West Brom another 6 months -- or another year and a half -- so be it.

I'll echo what some have already said --- why are so many of you "extreme" on the Torres issue? Why must you love or hate him? I lean a little towards the pro-Torres side, as opposed to the anti-Torres camp. I'm not going to make endless excuses for him, but I'm also not going to criticize everything he does (including the goals he scores). When he gets involved in link-up play, passes well, works hard, etc., but doesn't score, it's: "screw the rest of that. He's a striker. If he's not scoring, he's worthless." When he plays like today -- a goal, an assist, but MIA for much of the match -- it's: "who cares that he scored? The goal was lucky. And the opposition is poor. And his hair is stupid. And I don't like his choice of boots." Here's what matters to me: He's a Chelsea player. And at the moment, he's our only striker. He has been playing better since Benitez came, and I hope it continues. I will continue to root for him every time he pulls on a Chelsea shirt. But, we still need another striker. Whether Torres stays or goes, we don't have enough quality or depth at the position. Hopefully Roman and Rafa address this in January. I'm one of the people who hopes Torres stays, but I hope it's in addition to a Falcao, Huntelaar, Cavani, etc.

This. Thank God for DVR. No way I'm staying up until 2:30 -- or getting up that early -- not even for Chelsea.

If he's actually out that long, I think recalling Essien is a very good idea. I'm also one of the people who think Fellaini would add some much needed muscle to our midfield. Perhaps this increases the odds we make a run at him?

This. Generally I can get behind any player I don't like if/when he joins Chelsea. But Busquets would test that. I really, really, really don't like him.

I agree with this. Torres used to make decent runs, and nobody picked him out (that was more of a problem last season, though). He was very active early in games, but no one was sending the through ball he craves, so he'd get frustrated and stop making those runs. Now, he seems to have stopped all together.