I accept that he is never going to be first choice but here's one totally off the wall.

Carlton Cole.

It seems that big Sam is not sure if he wants him or not so even if you invested half the money Wolves paid for Saville it would be a decent back up

He would qualify as HG in both the PL & CL but just as important he qualifies as cub trained in the CL

 

Think I'd sooner save Kerry from jail.

Enigma,

Of course, we do have better players at present. Nevertheless, we have an injury prone Costa & no reliable backup. That must be resolved until Monday.

Lukaku could have had his chance now. Impatient idiot.

Yes but when our main guy is injured or suspended (like Everton) we are going to have to rely on a 36 year old Drogba who doesnt look like he's anywhere near ready enough to do that job.

That's why I think it was a poor decision in bringing him back. I'd have rather kept Ba tbh.

We all love Drogs and we all would love him to be what he used to be but the head rules the heart here.

Personally, I don't think ba is better than drogba, even at drogs present age. Ba isn't technically efficient, whereas drogba is technically better.

Also, we really don't know how good drogba is at the moment as he's been used sparingly so far with costa playing every match.

blimey! reading through you would of thought that we aren't going to win anything because our strikeforce is supposedly still a weak point! the way i see it JM will not be playing Costa in every match like atletic which i imagine fatigue contributed to his end of season injury. no disrespect to other teams but even harry's wife can score against them! so i don't see the problem of playing torres or drog and giving a rest to costa. factor in the fact that we have midfielders and defenders who contribute to the scoreline. 

Not to nitpick this one point but we should only have 3 options. We only play with 1 striker so having 4 would be a waste. 2 top and 1 backup.

 

City play 2 up front so they can get away with having 4 since they will all get game time as they usually use 3 in a game whereas we only use 2.

 

I agree Stim, but what I meant was, if we cannot offload him then act as if Torres doesn't exist. So we have Costa, Torres is No.4 (but with no or little intention of playing him) so we need 2 more strikers of some quality - NOT a 36 year old on his last legs. I would personally be happy with 1 more quality striker and then have Bamford or Brown as No.3 coming off the bench.

If we replace Torres with an adequate replacement I have no worries with Drogba as a 3rd choice. Hopefully this will be the case come end of the window.

Edited August 28, 201411 yr by Stim

Personally, I don't think ba is better than drogba, even at drogs present age. Ba isn't technically efficient, whereas drogba is technically better.

Also, we really don't know how good drogba is at the moment as he's been used sparingly so far with costa playing every match.

 

He may well put in a decent shift every now and again and I expect that will be maximum 30 minutes in a game. But anyone clinging on to some faint hope that we have the Drogba of old who will step up if Costa is out injured for any length of time is going to be seriously disappointed. However fit a player may be / have been, age catches up with everyone and at the very top level, you will get found out.

 

I was not a fan of Ba, but he would be a better option as 3rd choice (or God Forbid 2nd choice striker).

Edited August 28, 201411 yr by Nibs

Chelsea have told sky its a "minor muscular injury" and will be monitored over the next few days.

He may well put in a decent shift every now and again and I expect that will be maximum 30 minutes in a game. But anyone clinging on to some faint hope that we have the Drogba of old who will step up if Costa is out injured for any length of time is going to be seriously disappointed. However fit a player may be / have been, age catches up with everyone and at the very top level, you will get found out.

 

I was not a fan of Ba, but he would be a better option as 3rd choice (or God Forbid 2nd choice striker).

True, but even at 36, I think drogba can go head to head with almost any striker (give or take a small handful) in the league this season in terms of technical ability.

I think Hernandez would be a good 2nd/3rd choice and he is available. He scores those critical winners when he comes on from the bench like ole Gunnar did for united. Player like this would be a game changer in a deadlocked game at stoke for example

What a huge sigh of relief. Costa has a minor injury only.

blimey! reading through you would of thought that we aren't going to win anything because our strikeforce is supposedly still a weak point! the way i see it JM will not be playing Costa in every match like atletic which i imagine fatigue contributed to his end of season injury. no disrespect to other teams but even harry's wife can score against them! so i don't see the problem of playing torres or drog and giving a rest to costa. factor in the fact that we have midfielders and defenders who contribute to the scoreline. 

 we are playing everton away

we are playing everton away

Very hard game, I'm hoping lukaku and eto don't have the last say

This time it may only be minor and he may only miss one game (a game he would 100% have started in if fit) but this has really highlighted our problems up front. It's almost inevitable that Costa will suffer one or two other minor injuries throughout the season and it's equally likely that he'll pick up five yellows or maybe even a red card or two. I don't think many fans will disagree that we are still light up front for a club with our ambitions and expectations.

 

It does seem a bit odd that after Jose being publicly critical of our striking options last season that they have only fractionally improved this season - and that improvement is solely down to the signing of Costa. Eto for Drogba is pretty much like for like and Torres in effect replacing Ba as our 3rd choice is retrograde. Costa's quality is sufficient to result in an overall improvement but it still looks below the level of striking quality that you'd expect from a team that wants to win the big trophies.

 

But anyway, whether the reasons for this are down to Jose, the board, Roman, FFP or any other factors, I don't expect that anything will change in the next few days and we'll just have to hope that Costa stays largely fit and suspension free and that Torres and Drogba can find the fitness and ability (respectively) when called upon.

We'll be fine with Drogba for a couple of games. We have plenty of quality elsewhere in the side!!

Ah bollocks hope it's not too serious was hoping this wouldn't happen, With Torres seemingly on his way out, we NEED to get a top class back up to compete with Drogba.

I wouldn't take the club's stance on this at face value just yet. Yes, they've said it's only 'minor' at this point, but they would say that to alleviate our concerns for the time being. The proper prognostic scans haven't been done yet. Bear in mind that injuries of this kind tend to take in the region of 4-6 weeks to recover from, so the very best I think we can realistically hope for is that he's back for Swansea after the international break.

It's an interesting shout but no. We don't just need another striker for the sake of it, we actually need a forward to influence our game, Carlton Cole wouldn't really offer that, he's a below average player by Premier League standards.

We wont be able to name 8 HG players in our PL squad and because of the additional requirements in the CLwe will be maybe up to 4 short of the 25. In effect he wouldn't be taking away the opportunity for a decent 3rd striker but he will be an experienced back up whose games to goal ratio was 6 in 26 last season.

The reality is that FFP and squad requirements have to be taken into account meaning the days of buying expensive back who isn't HG will just compound the problem

I wouldn't take the club's stance on this at face value just yet. Yes, they've said it's only 'minor' at this point, but they would say that to alleviate our concerns for the time being. The proper prognostic scans haven't been done yet. Bear in mind that injuries of this kind tend to take in the region of 4-6 weeks to recover from, so the very best I think we can realistically hope for is that he's back for Swansea after the international break.

 

It'd be pretty stupid of them to alleviate our concerns now if he turns out to have a long term injury. Don't think they'd do that.

True, but even at 36, I think drogba can go head to head with almost any striker (give or take a small handful) in the league this season in terms of technical ability.

 

Sure, but regretfully, technical ability is not as much use once the legs start going, especially when you play the pressing game Mourinho has us playing.

 

I have my fingers (and everything else for that matter) crossed that we sign a "number two" striker before the window closes.

We wont be able to name 8 HG players in our PL squad and because of the additional requirements in the CLwe will be maybe up to 4 short of the 25. In effect he wouldn't be taking away the opportunity for a decent 3rd striker but he will be an experienced back up whose games to goal ratio was 6 in 26 last season.

The reality is that FFP and squad requirements have to be taken into account meaning the days of buying expensive back who isn't HG will just compound the problem

 

I'm speaking in terms of if Torres leaves.

 

Because right now we can't sign even a decent forward unless Torres leaves, we need to get rid of him as fast as possible and hopefully we have already got Destro nailed on, that's if the reports are true, I don't think we have already captured him otherwise BBC and Sky would already be reporting it.

Like I suspected, the papers guessed and it's actually something minor...had the Desired effect though judging by the rants in here since last night

"Minor injury" and diego costa. Ring any bells from the end of last season any one? I would say we just need to give him a couple of weeks off and hope it clears off but we can't seriously be going into a game at everton with a 36 year old drogba as our only striker? And if costa is rushed back it will only end in the same way it ended for athletico last year and that is with him going off after 10 minutes and missing a lengthy period of time.

 

Just got to hope drogba can muster something up. Still can't believe it has come to this again!

Like I suspected, the papers guessed and it's actually something minor...had the Desired effect though judging by the rants in here since last night

 

 

I would love to believe it was another piece of calculated manouevering by Jose in using the situation to help achieve his goal of a Torres exit and a replacement in.

 

Whatever. Hopefully it has the desired effect on Roman and his yes-men board.