Watching Liverpool in the death throes last night, with last rites to be administered at the weekend for sure, it became increasingly obvious that, unlike United and ourselves, they really do have nothing much in reserve and the two-man team jibes were never truer words spoken in jest than they are at the moment. Take Torres and Stevie Me out of the equation and you have nothing but x and y’s with no solutions whatsoever. In short, if Ngog, Babel or Voronin are attacking answers, Benitez doesn’t understand the question, leading me to a direct comparison with our own situation and this topic - in the absence of our own special players, do we have potential replacements, or merely replacements with potential?

There is a difference, as the Scousers are finding out to their cost, and I suppose any search for an answer to the question must start with some sort of description or definition of the ’special player’, especially in the attacking third, which is where our loss to Villa differed so dramatically to their defeat at Sunderland - we created and didn’t take chances, they looked bereft in both departments. Special attacking players are few and far between, but for all of them the phrase ’two good feet’ seems to be a necessary requirement, to which you add ’quick feet’ in the very special cases, together with ‘quick mind’ should you want to move on to the exalted level of genius.

Of course, as always with Chelsea, there are notable exceptions, for instance the undeniably special Bobby Tambling was virtually all left foot, so maybe I should begin on the worldwide stage and over three decades give Klose (tgf) Schillaci (qf) and van Basten (qm) as an example of a sort of bizarre reverse progression towards genius status in the central striker role. Going back even further and widening the attack a little, I’d place Cruyff, Best and Pele alongside van Basten as finished articles, but would be struggling to add any more names, which goes some way towards confirming the viewpoint that tgf’s bordering on qf’s are about as lucky as most scouts get when spotting talent.

Relating this type of appraisal specifically to Chelsea forwards over the years and only three make it to the top for me - Greaves, Osgood and Zola - and bringing the whole discussion up to the present day I guess only Joe Cole comes into the reckoning from the current crop. That’s not to say Didier and Nico are not special strikers, far from it, but what it does highlight is the standards required before you can even talk about adding to the true greats of the game using any criteria [be it power, aggression or goal scoring record] let alone limit the field to those that are pleasing on the eye. I guess the trick is to look at the potential talent we have under the strongest of microscopes and if we do this now, as Frank Arnesen has been doing for every position on the field since he arrived, four names stand out from the crowd…

Gael Kakuta (tgf) (qf) and, according to every assessor of him from France to FIFA, (qm) must be closest to a breakthrough, litigation permitting. Fabio Borini (tgf) and (qf) with a striker’s instinct that could easily translate into (qm) should he continue his present rate of progress. Daniel Sturridge (tgf) (very qf) and a mind that wants to play quick tricks on the park at every available opportunity. Whether that last attribute can be harnessed without losing its potential or potency is another matter, but for the moment we should be grateful that it is there in the first place and was recognised by Arnesen as something special that the club should pursue against ever increasing financial odds. And last, but certainly not least, Franco Di Santo (tgf) (qf) and, if that lay off for Blackburn’s opening goal at the weekend is anything to go by, undoubtedly (qm) as well.

Four quality strikers at various early stages in their careers at Chelsea and looking at Borini and Sturridge in the Reserve game two nights ago it was easy to see why Frank Nouble (tgf) left to ply his trade for the opposition. Good player that he is likely to become, Nouble saw the potential ’special player’ competition he was up against when he was part and parcel of it and the club’s dogged pursuit of Sturridge was probably a final straw, if not the fact that he was always behind Franco Di Santo during a period when he was also mulling over signing a new contract. It wasn’t a rocket science decision for him in the end and neither was it for Benitez when he looked at his bench last night and had to choose between Voronin and Babel, neither of whom would warrant more than a cursory glance at (tgf) whereas two (qf) between them would be difficult to find.

So there you have it, using this guideline we are indeed blessed with potential striker talent that, long term, might even prove to be better than those players they seek to replace. Are you in agreement, do you have a different way of rating the star striker, or do you still hanker after a certain Sergio Aguero (tgf) (qf) (qm) but hopefully not (MotM) tonight?

Very good assesment for the forward 3rd type of player. I'd also add (gh) for good header of the ball. I also believe that (pp) would need to be added for Physical Presence. Anyway, I certainly think that a lot of these ratings can be added to much of our youngsters, and that is a great thing to have waiting in the wings.

It does beg the question, with Sturridge rating so higly in two, if not potentially 3, of your categories, as to why he has failed to have been selected over others like Kalou? Believe me, this is not Kalou bashing, but I'm just trying to add these ratings to Kalou, and he's got (qf) and that seems about it!

Anyway, here's hoping that one of our youth prospects do turn out to be that Special Player