Morata isn't cutting it. Giroud we can't rely on to stay fit all season. If Hazard can score 25-30 goals, we may get 3rd place. Right now we are lacking big time up top and I can't see us getting anyone of note in January. We will struggle to sell Alvaro if he continues his goal drought, and if we went for Icardi or some other high calibre striker, you're talking €100m at least. 

Thoughts? 

I reckon I've still got a few years left in me, if I cut out all the biscuits and cakes and work hard. I'll give it a crack, if it will help.

Whether Will Grigg's on fire or not, he's better than Morata, that's for sure. (whoops sory yorkleyblue is about) my personal opinion based upon pure conjecture and not meant to be a definite assertion in any way

Edited September 20, 20187 yr by WhiteWall
update

11 minutes ago, Zeta said:

I reckon I've still got a few years left in me, if I cut out all the biscuits and cakes and work hard. I'll give it a crack, if it will help.

Yeah but would you be able to cope on 175k per week? 

17 minutes ago, Zeta said:

I reckon I've still got a few years left in me, if I cut out all the biscuits and cakes and work hard. I'll give it a crack, if it will help.

We'd turn on you in a minute.

edit: unless you come through the academy first

Edited September 20, 20187 yr by Stim

Since 2010, we've had Torres, Sturridge, Lukaku, Demba Ba, Eto'o, Costa, Remy, Morata, Giroud, and Batshuayi at this club. I think its fair to say the club is pretty terrible at recruiting for this position.

Just need to scout properly. If we can do shrewd business and sign solid players like Rudiger and Jorginho for reasonable fees, we should be able to sign a forward for a good price. Really wish Richarlison was signed in the summer as well.

Going forward, Morata needs to leave in January or be sent on loan somewhere (probably Milan who seemed to be interested). 

37 minutes ago, Theafonis said:

Since 2010, we've had Torres, Sturridge, Lukaku, Demba Ba, Eto'o, Costa, Remy, Morata, Giroud, and Batshuayi at this club. I think its fair to say the club is pretty terrible at recruiting for this position.

Costa? Seriously? He in no way warrants being in the same list. By far, our best striker since Drogs banged them in for fun and even better than most prior to Drogba.

 

Giroud also has been shown to be a great purchase 

14 minutes ago, Mod Stark said:

Costa? Seriously? He in no way warrants being in the same list. By far, our best striker since Drogs banged them in for fun and even better than most prior to Drogba.

 

 

Pretty sure batman would give us goals too if we gave him a chance. His link up is where the problem lies.

Players are out there, it’s just a question of how long the club wants to try and persist with Morata.

We showed with Kepa, Morata and Jorginho signings that if need be we’ll spend big on one player.

Personally wouldn’t rule out Morata leaving on loan in January and us buying someone new come next summer.

2 hours ago, Mod Stark said:

Costa? Seriously? He in no way warrants being in the same list. By far, our best striker since Drogs banged them in for fun and even better than most prior to Drogba.

 

Neither do Sturridge, Ba, Remy or Giroud, they were good for the roles the were brought in for. 

Edited September 21, 20187 yr by Slojo

1 hour ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Players are out there, it’s just a question of how long the club wants to try and persist with Morata.

We showed with Kepa, Morata and Jorginho signings that if need be we’ll spend big on one player.

Personally wouldn’t rule out Morata leaving on loan in January and us buying someone new come next summer.

Genuinely curious what players you are referring to?  I think the striker market is quite thin at the moment.

You have to be clever these days. Like Liverpool converting Firmino into a False 9, Sarri converting Mertens into a striker, Tottenham getting lucky with Kane etc

There are very few top class strikers these days & it's one of the reasons Madrid have stuck with Benzema so long instead of throwing cash at anyone with a great record.

I can think of very few strikers (and only the absolute elite) who will score for fun with us. For whatever reason, irrespective of manager, style or system, we have always had our goals shared throughout the team to a much greater extent than any other side. In the current system, we need a proper technical footballer as a forward. I think even Harry Kane would struggle with us now. We may need to innovate (as was suggested)

I would love to see some statistics about the relative contributions of defenders/midfielders/strikers to overall goal output across the European leagues over the last decade or more. 

10 hours ago, enigma said:

Morata isn't cutting it. Giroud we can't rely on to stay fit all season. If Hazard can score 25-30 goals, we may get 3rd place. Right now we are lacking big time up top and I can't see us getting anyone of note in January. We will struggle to sell Alvaro if he continues his goal drought, and if we went for Icardi or some other high calibre striker, you're talking €100m at least. 

Thoughts? 

In my 35/40 years watching Chelsea, I can only think of 4 proper centre forwards we've had, King Kerry, Jimmy Floyd, Drogs and Costa, we've had other decent strikers, but only these 4 out and out centre forwards that have been a success, one every 10 years, Hayley's comet comes round more frequently!

Which top quality striker is currently available? It's all well and good to dismiss Morata and I agree that he's been terrible but who's out there that can replace him and represents a guaranteed upgrade? I can't think of anybody.

6 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Players are out there, it’s just a question of how long the club wants to try and persist with Morata.

We showed with Kepa, Morata and Jorginho signings that if need be we’ll spend big on one player.

Personally wouldn’t rule out Morata leaving on loan in January and us buying someone new come next summer.

Can't see him going in January. It would leave us with just giroud, unless we make another stop gap signing.

 

Yes there's not a lot of quality out there and I can only think of about 3 or 4 options off the top of my head. Take a chance to convert martial into a false 9 but would united sell to us? Icardi is the closest thing to proven out there (and he's a leader) but is he intricate enough to work in Saris system. Werner seems to have a lot of hype but having only seen him at the world cup is that all there is to it, hype? And then there's working with what we've got going on loan again seems like Sari isn't keen on batshuayi and how much time can you give to moratta before cutting the losses

1 hour ago, abramovich said:

Which top quality striker is currently available? It's all well and good to dismiss Morata and I agree that he's been terrible but who's out there that can replace him and represents a guaranteed upgrade? I can't think of anybody.

We aren't paid to find these players. We have hundreds of scouts scattered across the globe, if they can't find someone that fits Sarri's profile then what's even the point of them. 

If we're talking simply about an upgrade on Morata though, we could sign any league 2 striker.

I think Sarri needs a particular style of strike. he doesn't have to be an elite striker, at a marquee club and for a marquee fee. Giroud works well as a pin man for our busy attacking midfielders to work off of and a player of a similar mould but maybe a bit more clinical than Giroud would be ideal (I'm a big fan of Giroud by the way) Similarly a small, fox in the box who always play between the posts but has good natural movement and can find space could also be ideal, when acting as the final piece of our intricate passing play. Sadly Morata fulfills neither function. Also, unfortunately  I, along with many others, jam not convinced that either Abraham or Bats are natural finishers. A Dybala would be fantastic, Fekir looked good, but I would be happy with a natural finisher with potential from either this level or the level below.

In a market where decent top strikers are at a premium, maybe we should be looking at taking a punt and unearthing the next marquee striker.

Its an area of the pitch that I think we can afford to be ruthless. If we run through six players and bin them off until we get the right one, what does it matter. I would rather work through six £10m players, some of which may have to be moved on for break even or possible small losses, rather than one £60m striker that ends up a flop and we have nothing to fall back on.

7 hours ago, mwblue10 said:

Genuinely curious what players you are referring to?  I think the striker market is quite thin at the moment.

Would all depend on what attributes Sarri wants from his striker. Goal scoring might not be the most important aspect, could possibly be that link up play is important, who knows. 

Players I'm thinking of would be along the lines of Ciro Immobile, Timo Werner, Icardi, Belotti. We were linked quite heavily with Lewandowski in the summer, he would have been a good signing... But we have an extensive scouting team, they've got to be able to identify someone. We've made some brilliant signings in other positions within the team where the player was relatively unknown and they've gone on to establish themselves as a key players for us, so I see no reason why we shouldn't be able to do the same with a striker. 

1 hour ago, big blue said:

Can't see him going in January. It would leave us with just giroud, unless we make another stop gap signing.

Might recall Michy from his loan at Valencia, especially if he isn't playing regularly. Depends if there's a release clause/call back in his loan agreement though. 

I wouldn't rule out a stop gap signing. Morata in his current form is almost useless to us, so if we can send him on loan with a view to a permenant deal in the summer it wouldn't surprise me if we let him leave. Could be someone like West Ham's Arnautovic that we signed, someone who would probably be open to a move to a bigger club but knows he isn't necessarily going to first choice long term.

Game after game it looks like Morata is a finished product so no wonder nobody ever gave him a key role and if someone like Sarri can't make him better than nobody can!
We didn't dodge a bullet there we shot ourselves in the foot, if only Diego Costa had been a decent man things would have been much better but then again if he was a bit nicer he would be a worse player so you can't have it all.

 

It just looks like, he does't want to be here. 
There is a YouToube Video on his misses last season...I really think he is the reason for us playing in the europa league now instead of the CL. These clear misses were awful and he could have easily 25+ Goals last season instead of 10. And his recent form is just a replay of last season.

I’m afraid we have to expect next season for a new striker.

Given that Sarri works with what he has could Moses offer something.

He has pace, reasonable in the air not so sure about his link up play and holding the ball up yet could see him playing off the shoulder of the last defender.