14 hours ago, Gol15 said:

 

I'm just worried that Tammy doesn't get bullied out from duels once the league games start, I guess weight and size doesn't matter that much because I just remembered Morata that by all means should be capable of standing upright...

I cant see that happening to much The Champ isnt like the Spanish league its pretty physical, yeah the skill level is a bit lower but they put themselves about so if Tammy handled that ok he should get bullied too much

Whats the verdict after a pre-season as first choice striker?

Doesn't look ready to me unfortunately. His hold-up play needs a lot of work and i have to admit his finishing has looked well below par as well.

Does a good job pressing though and runs a lot but i am not overly confident he'll have much luck against PL-defenders.

10 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Whats the verdict after a pre-season as first choice striker?

Doesn't look ready to me unfortunately. His hold-up play needs a lot of work and i have to admit his finishing has looked well below par as well.

Does a good job pressing though and runs a lot but i am not overly confident he'll have much luck against PL-defenders.

I can see Lampard just swapping all strikers to see who is the best fit. I wouldn't be surprised if our strikers struggle to get more than 20 goals between them this season.

Edited August 3, 20196 yr by Scott Harris

As far as I can tell, the strikers situation is our biggest problem this coming season. 

Giroud has experience and at his best can be a useful player, but I wonder how much he's got left in his tank. He is strong and can be a battler but he's slow and can't be relied on to score regularly. He can get away with it for France where he' s surrounded by the world class attacking talent, but at Chelsea he'll be expected to contribute with goals and I doubt he's up to it at this point of his career.

Batshuayi is a good poacher in the box but he's pretty much useless in every other facet of the game. 

Abraham still looks very raw to me. At best, he may be a decent option off the bench for the last 15 minutes to get behind the tired backline, but if he's our first choice this season, we're in a lot of trouble.

Edited August 3, 20196 yr by abramovich

I did say in the preseason thread that I thought it was a bit of a joke that he's been given #9 but perhaps it was in haste. He doesn't look ready to me either but deserves a chance to earn the right to wear the shirt.

I'd have Pedro up front in the big games but that's just me.

2 hours ago, Sindre said:

Whats the verdict after a pre-season as first choice striker?

Doesn't look ready to me unfortunately. His hold-up play needs a lot of work and i have to admit his finishing has looked well below par as well.

Does a good job pressing though and runs a lot but i am not overly confident he'll have much luck against PL-defenders.

Start again United for me, our best option.

Giroud on his own or Tammy and Michy together for me. 

Honestly, I've not been impressed at all by him in preseason but it's only preseason. Admittedly, I don't and didn't really have much hope for him setting the premiership alight because of just how to be dimensional a poacher he appears to be. 

I'd rate Giroud and Batshuayi both over him. Hopefully he goes out onto the pitch against the Mancs and puts on a great performance as he seems to be no.1 in Lampard's mind. 

Giroud is slow, Batshuayi is a good poacher. Tbh Tammy isn't ready but no one ever is, hopefully he gets better with every game.

Giroud is slow, Batshuayi is a good poacher. Tbh Tammy isn't ready but no one ever is, hopefully he gets better with every game.

Tammy is the best option. He is still improving. I carry no torch for any of them but giroud is far too slow and bats has had plenty of opportunity. Tammy will make plenty of mistakes, has limitations etc but he’s fast, improving and the only one with an X factor. The speed gives us the long ball over the top option. 

On 25/07/2019 at 22:21, Dixons said:

A bit surprised by the Drogba stats.  But thinking back, Drogba was a fantastic big game player and not really one for a wet Wednesday night at Wigan. Then you have a striker like Lukaku,  who scores in run of the miil games but goes missing against the big teams. 

I looked at his stats on the bounderfriar site and agree he was not prolific for most of his seasons here though he certainly came good in the big matches.

Drogba in his first couple of seasons struggled for goals partly adapting to the league but he was also playing a very selfless role where he was doing s lot of the dirty work so others could get into positions to score. It would be him battling defences on his own for a lot with the team set up the way it was. 

He also never took pens so that took away from his goal tally also. 

31 minutes ago, GhostOfDembaBa said:

Drogba in his first couple of seasons struggled for goals partly adapting to the league but he was also playing a very selfless role where he was doing s lot of the dirty work so others could get into positions to score. It would be him battling defences on his own for a lot with the team set up the way it was. 

He also never took pens so that took away from his goal tally also. 

I always thought Drogba being crap in his first two season's was a massive myth to be honest, they were actually his best season's for us outside of his two inhuman years.

You don't lead the line for 95 and 91 point teams if you were sh*t.

15 hours ago, GhostOfDembaBa said:

Honestly, I've not been impressed at all by him in preseason but it's only preseason. Admittedly, I don't and didn't really have much hope for him setting the premiership alight because of just how to be dimensional a poacher he appears to be. 

I'd rate Giroud and Batshuayi both over him. Hopefully he goes out onto the pitch against the Mancs and puts on a great performance as he seems to be no.1 in Lampard's mind. 

That is literally the only thing Batshuayi bas going for him, oh and he’s relatively good on social media yet you’ve said he’s the better player? Tammy has a better touch and far better hold up plays than Michy, who at times it looks like he’d struggle to trap a bag of sand. 

 

We’re light in the striking department, there’s no hiding from that but Tammy is the best of the bunch and the only one who is likely to improve significantly in the future. Giroud, I like I must admit but he doesn’t score goals in the prem, Michy is a poacher and doesn’t offer enough outside the box. Tammy is raw, but all young players are, even CHO went missing in games last year, it’ll happen.

31 minutes ago, EdinburghBlue said:

That is literally the only thing Batshuayi bas going for him, oh and he’s relatively good on social media yet you’ve said he’s the better player? Tammy has a better touch and far better hold up plays than Michy, who at times it looks like he’d struggle to trap a bag of sand. 

 

We’re light in the striking department, there’s no hiding from that but Tammy is the best of the bunch and the only one who is likely to improve significantly in the future. Giroud, I like I must admit but he doesn’t score goals in the prem, Michy is a poacher and doesn’t offer enough outside the box. Tammy is raw, but all young players are, even CHO went missing in games last year, it’ll happen.

Batshuayi is capable of scoring different kinds of goals, left foot, right foot, long range, with the head... He's got a better variety of finishing ability. Have a look at his goals over the years, Marseille, even in Belgium.  

The guy's also scored a few in the Prem, and for Dortmund. 

Abraham on the other hand looks to be so heavily reliant on having things put on a plate for him very close to the target for most of his goals, and has only done it against championship sides. 

I'll be happily proved wrong though the f he delivers. There's little between the three anyway, imo.

1 hour ago, Argo said:

I always thought Drogba being crap in his first two season's was a massive myth to be honest, they were actually his best season's for us outside of his two inhuman years.

You don't lead the line for 95 and 91 point teams if you were sh*t.

He was pretty poor in the first season, especially in his scoring/shooting. Clumsy technique as well in his overall play on the ball.

He was a key part of the team though because of how he kept defences occupied and how his play helped the rest of the team perform but my memories of his first  couple of seasons - I think.the second was better - is that he was a useful striker to have because of his other abilities, but not really for his finishing / goalscoring.

If I'm not mistaken, he scored around 15 goals in both of those seasons in all competitions playing as the main striker.

@Edinburgh Blue

Tammy Abraham ^

 

Batshuayi ^

(Ps. Other than couple of forums including this one, Not into all the social media nonsense, so none of that means anything to me, personally. Agree that Abraham is young and has a lot of room to improve)

The things we do know is that Tammy is just 21 years old. He has scored 60 goals in his 130 appearances and yes the bulk of those were in the Championship but at aged 19 he scored 5 goals at Swansea in the PL in a side that was relegated.

If , and yes it’s a big if, Tammy scores 15 or more PL goals this season then he will have been a great success but it seems to me that irrespective of his goal tally his worth should equally be judged by the errors defenders make by virtue of his energetic closing down and others backing up his high press.

He offers a type of  mobility and energy that we haven’t had for quite a while and once our wide  and midfield players work out where he wants the ball we will be able to make a far better judgment as to his potential and worth but to write him off as some are doing based on bits and pieces all away from home in a non competitive matches then is strange.

 

 

 

Edited August 4, 20196 yr by terraloon

Probably the best of a bad bunch. Starting birth has to go to him or Batshuayi imo.

If he can score 26 in the championship even half that would do for us this season, he has had 2 seasons of 20 plus goals, he will be confident he can score and confidence is important for a striker, I think he is a promising talent for us and I think he will step up to the challenge.

We have no idea wheter he is going to be great or not but we sure should give him a fair try. Giroud we know. He is not going to do anything more than he does at 32. Michy has had his shot for many times. At Chelsea a fair shot, it is debatable... Tammy needs a chance. But as we know Frank said he will absolutely open the door but it is up to the player to deliver. Frank can't score goals for him.

4 hours ago, evissy said:

We have no idea wheter he is going to be great or not but we sure should give him a fair try. Giroud we know. He is not going to do anything more than he does at 32. Michy has had his shot for many times. At Chelsea a fair shot, it is debatable... Tammy needs a chance. But as we know Frank said he will absolutely open the door but it is up to the player to deliver. Frank can't score goals for him.

I think is fairly obvious now he won't ever be a top top striker, he doesn't have the technical level for such and as seen with the likes of Lukaku (who's youth was always used as a defense for his poor touch) it's not something that just magically turns up one day.

However he can still have a long term role in a squad capacity which in this day in age is still a big role.

He is still young and can improve if he is given opportunities. He will definitely be inconsistent but I think he can score a few goals too. Its not as though we were blessed with prolific options up front over the last 2 seasons so this is not a new problem.

I see some Flo in him. However the game is lot pacier these days.