True, we need a goal scorer -  or one of the current lot to step up a level.

10 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Agree but i still don't think we'd win the league with him for 38 games. If Hazard stays and for arguments sake Willian too we don't have nearly enough firepower as i'd consider them more creators than finishers. 

When i look at all of the recent premier league title wins they've all had a top level goal scorer in their team.

Chelsea - Costa 20 goals (twice)

Leicester - Vardy 24 goals

Man City - Aguero 23 goals Yaya Toure 20 goals

Man United - Van Persie 26 goals

We need someone who can get close to these numbers and i sadly can't see it. Great back up to have though. 

Forget the goal scorers, City had 3 other players in Sterling, Sane & De Bruyne who can score 15+ goals and just added another in Mahrez, Spurs have that in Dele & Song. Liverpool have Mane, Coutinho & won’t put it past Klopp to get Shaqiri outperforming.  Pogba, Martial & Sanchez are all capable of hitting double figures. 

We scored the least amount of goals in the top 6, bar Hazard I can’t see Willian or Pedro hitting double figures. Sorry but I don’t see the point of a backup forward whose greatest strength is holding up the ball. Who is he holding it up for if we don’t have a Griezmann/Mbappe?

I get the impression, from looking at some of the Sarri team play clips that the type of striker he will want is the fox in the box type. I suspect he will even allow for an element of laziness from this person providing he comes alive in the box, instinctively knowing when to go front post and when to go far.

I suspect Sarri's game play will not want a striker dropping deep to collect the ball, he will want him right on the shoulder and very rapid over a short distance with killer finishing instincts. I think a Lineker style may well suit him more than an Henry style. Of course if you had MbBappe you get it all.

39 minutes ago, ducavis said:

Forget the goal scorers, City had 3 other players in Sterling, Sane & De Bruyne who can score 15+ goals and just added another in Mahrez, Spurs have that in Dele & Song. Liverpool have Mane, Coutinho & won’t put it past Klopp to get Shaqiri outperforming.  Pogba, Martial & Sanchez are all capable of hitting double figures. 

We scored the least amount of goals in the top 6, bar Hazard I can’t see Willian or Pedro hitting double figures. Sorry but I don’t see the point of a backup forward whose greatest strength is holding up the ball. Who is he holding it up for if we don’t have a Griezmann/Mbappe?

I'd say the reason we score so little is down to the tactics deployed more so than the players at our disposal. 

If we look at the last two season (after the meltdown year) Hazard averages 14 league goals a year whilst Willian averages 7. Willian also spent the majority of Conte's first season on the bench remember which would limit his goal scoring numbers.

Spurs - Son averaged 13 goals and Alli averaged 13.5 goals

City - Sane averaged 7.5 goals, Sterling averaged 12.5, Mahrez averaged 9 and KdB averaged 7 goals

Liverpool - Mane averaged 11.5, Coutinho 14 goals (incl. Barca goals), Shaqiri averaged 6 goals and never hit more than 6 league goals in a year whilst at Bayern so i won't expect too much from him.

Utd - Pogba averaged 5.5 goals and has never scored more than 8 in a season, Martial averaged 6.5 goals and Sanchez averaged 16.5 but has hit a major hurdle under Mourinho's management.

 

Under Sarri and his brand of football there is absolutely nothing to suggest Hazard and Willian aren't capable of scoring more. Just look at Insigne and Callejon's goal returns since Sarri took over. Hazard and Willian could easily score as many if not more than the players you mentioned. 

“AC Milan reps are in London attempting to persuade Alvaro Morata to join the club. Player interested in move (@AlfredoPedulla)”

Aren’t they under financial fair play sanction? Could limit what they’re willing to pay.

Loan with a forced purchase knowing Italian clubs.

Looking increasingly likely we’re going to get Higuain so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Morata go.

I know I’m in a minority, but I still have high hopes for Morata. I’d be gutted if we sold him.

36 minutes ago, Kentonio said:

I know I’m in a minority, but I still have high hopes for Morata. I’d be gutted if we sold him.

The idea of basically swapping him out for Higuain makes no sense to me based on past dealings. I think the only players the last couple of years over 25 has been Giroud and Drinkwater, and we're going to swap Morata for Higuain? That seems so out of character. I don't think you're in the minority any more on this? Maybe on this forum as I'm new here, but I haven't seen a lot of support for the idea of spending 50M+ on Higuain. I've joked that it's just a ruse to get everyone behind Morata again.

Morata was going just fine until Conte went almost exclusively to the 3-5-2, which I somewhat jokingly referred to as the 8-1-1. Morata was being asked to either take on 4 defenders, or hold it up long enough that Moses or Alonso could come up the flanks. It certainly wasn't going to come out of the midfield with Kante, Bakayoko, and Fabergas at the time. So Hazard and Morata were asked to be the bulk of the attack by themselves. 

I would love to see Morata get another chance.

2 hours ago, Kentonio said:

I know I’m in a minority, but I still have high hopes for Morata. I’d be gutted if we sold him.

Morata is young and very talented, it would be a huge mistake for Chelsea to sell him. 

As much as i disliked Morata last season and think he was on par with Bakayoko with performance levels i would be willing to see him given another chance. Last season was clearly a toxic environment for his first year here and under Sarri he should get a hell of a lot more chances. Let him and Batshuayi battle it out.

I think this is perfect situation for players like Morata and Bakayoko to redeem themselves. New manager in and new ideas. Hit the ground running with Sarri and everything is possible. Both of these are very very gifted players with low confidence. 

I think we have to be honest, we are not in a good position for strikers right now. Morata is a gamble, we don't know if he will turn out good, he wasn't good enough last season. Michy hasn't really cut it in the Premier League but a new system under Sarri might rejuvenate him. Giroud did not have a good World Cup and age isn't really on his side anymore, I think we can all accept Giroud's best role here is rotation, not our lead striker. 

I'm not excited at all by the prospect of signing Higuain, however, if the rumours of a swap deal of Giroud and some cash were true, that might be worth a shot. Otherwise, we'll be taking a big risk by banking on Michy and Morata having a good season in the Premier League. 

2 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

As much as i disliked Morata last season and think he was on par with Bakayoko with performance levels i would be willing to see him given another chance. Last season was clearly a toxic environment for his first year here and under Sarri he should get a hell of a lot more chances. Let him and Batshuayi battle it out.

He was not on par with Bakayoko, that's just insulting. As poor as Morata was in front of goal he did actually have a good few months here at Chelsea and scored some important goals. The only thing that massively let Morata down was missing so many clear chances, Bakayoko was absolutely diabolical. 

On 16/07/2018 at 00:36, Slojo said:

 

I've got a twitter thread that might convince you on Morata Coco and how great he is. 

I think you can make videos of mistakes for any player including the best. Alvaro is an excellent player but he is not a central forward, you get the best out of him when given the possibility of going deep with another central forward working with him. He had a good first part of the season and a bad second, but you are too harsh with him IMO and I would give him another chance before wasting that investment (which was too high, but that is not his fault).

33 minutes ago, Slojo said:

He was not on par with Bakayoko, that's just insulting. As poor as Morata was in front of goal he did actually have a good few months here at Chelsea and scored some important goals. The only thing that massively let Morata down was missing so many clear chances, Bakayoko was absolutely diabolical. 

He was just as bad. A few goals at the start of the season don't change that. 

15 minutes ago, B&Wlegends said:

I think you can make videos of mistakes for any player including the best. Alvaro is an excellent player but he is not a central forward, you get the best out of him when given the possibility of going deep with another central forward working with him. He had a good first part of the season and a bad second, but you are too harsh with him IMO and I would give him another chance before wasting that investment (which was too high, but that is not his fault).

I think I've been one of the few posters on here who has been very lenient on Morata. I've always supported him and I do think he can become good, however, there is something deeply wrong with missing that many chances. I've never seen chances like the squandered before, it's not heard of. Kane misses a lot of chances but he still scores over 30 goals, it's not excusable and I say that as a fan of his. 

12 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

He was just as bad. A few goals at the start of the season don't change that. 

He wasn't though... You say that as a Bakayoko fan who was big on him when we first signed him. Bakayoko was disastrous in every way and showed no signs of improving, Morata on the other hand did and can actually play football. 

"a few goals" well-done mate, once again solidifying the maturity of your argument. 

Edited July 17, 20188 yr by Slojo

4 minutes ago, Slojo said:

I've never seen chances like the squandered before, it's not heard of.

Torres?

Just now, Michael said:

Torres?

I don't think Torres even got that many chances, Torres was terrible and much worse. But I think with Torres it was simply him missing open goals like at United away that put a spotlight on him. The 50m price tag and goal draught put a ridiculous amount of pressure on him, but in 2010-2011 not even Cristiano Ronaldo could have scored in that dreadful team we had. 

Just now, Michael said:

Torres?

Torres was a proven World class striker of the top order, so you always had hope it would come back to him. Alvaro has never shown any signs of being a world class striker, apart from some really nice headers.

3 minutes ago, Slojo said:

He wasn't though... You say that as a Bakayoko fan who was big on him when we first signed him. Bakayoko was disastrous in every way and showed no signs of improving, Morata on the other hand did and can actually play football. 

"a few goals" well-done mate, once again solidifying the maturity of your argument. 

Not sure what me being a fan of Bakayoko when we signed him has to do with anything? I can still admit he hasn't lived up to expectations and was very poor against the smaller teams this year.

Post-November Morata was worse than Torres. Couldn't hold the ball up, dribbled into players, missed absolute sitters, hit the deck at every opportunity. I honestly can't think of a single thing he did right in the second half of the year. That said i'd still try him under Sarri but i imagine Batshuayi would very quickly replace him if both are kept. 

Just now, RIP Mourinho said:

Not sure what me being a fan of Bakayoko when we signed him has to do with anything? I can still admit he hasn't lived up to expectations and was very poor against the smaller teams this year.

Post-November Morata was worse than Torres. Couldn't hold the ball up, dribbled into players, missed absolute sitters, hit the deck at every opportunity. I honestly can't think of a single thing he did right in the second half of the year. That said i'd still try him under Sarri but i imagine Batshuayi would very quickly replace him if both are kept. 

2

You can't have been supporting Chelsea for long then, because nobody would forget how bad Torres was for us. 

Just now, Slojo said:

You can't have been supporting Chelsea for long then, because nobody would forget how bad Torres was for us. 

Give Torres the amount of chances as Morata got in the second half of the year and he wouldn't miss as many. Morata couldn't even hit the target most of the time when 1 v 1. As you said above, Torres didn't get many chances but f**ked up the ones he did. Morata got a hell of a lot more chances and couldn't even get his shot on goal. 

19 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

He was just as bad. A few goals at the start of the season don't change that. 

No getting away from it, Morato had a poor season overall. However, Bakayoko had one of the worst seasons any player has ever had in a top team. He really was atrocious on every level - appalling ball control and passing. Positional sense of Stevie Wonder. Worst of all was the way he strolled back when losing the ball for the upteenth time. Lack of ability I can forgive but not lack of effort.

14 minutes ago, Slojo said:

I think I've been one of the few posters on here who has been very lenient on Morata. I've always supported him and I do think he can become good, however, there is something deeply wrong with missing that many chances. I've never seen chances like the squandered before, it's not heard of. Kane misses a lot of chances but he still scores over 30 goals, it's not excusable and I say that as a fan of his. 

Kane with Croatia missed 2 even bigger chances in 1 game, Suarez,Dzeko or Lewa or Higuain all miss chances at some points and in other moments score with any shot, it happens. Getting in front of a goal frequently means that the player knows how to move then there are moments in which the ball does not enter.