I pray for the day we have a 20+ goal a season striker...

[big blue]

2 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

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. 

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.

I really hope we don't make a stop gap signing, it would just be another player on the books that we would need to move on. 

Arnautovic will 30 at the end of the season, and I'm sure West ham would want more than the £30m they paid for him 12 months ago, so that would be a none starter in my opinion. 

Recalling Batshuayi is an option, although if he isn't playing and scoring regularly for Valencia, wouldn't we be replacing one out of form, and low on confidence striker for another? 

Out of the 5 options you mentioned for the summer, I think lewandowski and immobile are now past the age the club will be willing to commit big money for. 

Icardi or Werner would be fantastic, but expensive. 

Belotti needs another big season, to warrant spending big on him. 

It's a really tough market for strikers at the moment, and we might be competing with Madrid, Bayern, PSG, and Barca, who all have main strikers that are 30+. 

 

[enigma]

12 hours 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.

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). 

This is the thing. I don't know if it's scouting because Sturridge still is a really good striker when fit. He had a fantastic season for Liverpool in the "slip" season. Lukaku, despite his criticism, is improving and is still a pretty good striker. He has good goal stats everywhere he's been. Demba Ba was decent back up striker. Eto'o was past his prime, but still capable. Torres was a total flop, barring the CL goal. Remy used to be good, but he is B level striker. Costa is the only one who's been successful.

I still think we should have kept Falcao tbh. He was unfairly judged due to injury. He was capable of scoring goals, but he's not the Falcao of past obviously. I mean after leaving us, Falcao went on to score 21 goals, 5 assists in 29 apps for Monaco in 16/17, and then last season scored 18 goals and 4 assists in 26 apps. This season he has 2 goals and 1 assist in 4 apps. I suppose the situation was different then because we had Diego though. 

[enigma]

I dunno what others think, but it seems Liverpool recruit well for Klopp's system. Mane and Firmino have been very good signings. Both capable of scoring 30-35 goals together and then add Salah's goals and you pretty much have 45-50 goals from that front three. I am excited to see what Sarri can do with the current set of players over time. I really do think he can turn Pedro/Willian into much better players, not to mention Hazard who is capable of scoring a hatfull like Sarri said. I think we need to recruit exactly for the Sarri system and try bring in a guy with potential who Sarri can coach to be better. 

[tmarmsi]

4 hours ago, chi blue said:

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!

How can you forget Zola???

[yorkleyblue]

18 hours ago, Stim said:

We'd turn on you in a minute.

edit: unless you come through the academy first

And even academy lads get abuse if they happen to make a cock-up on the pitch.   Look at some of the reactions in here to Christensen.

Edited September 21, 2018 by yorkleyblue

[Aryagorn]

13 hours ago, Gilvorak said:

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.

Madrid couldn't signed the likes of Falcao, Aguero, Lewandowski, Suárez, Icardi, Aubameyang, Cavani etc. if they didn't rate him.


And let's be honest; why would Madrid discard Benzema who's scored 44 UCL-goals in 88 games for them and 4th highest top scorer in UCL history? The guy is one of the biggest reasons for Madrid winning 4 UCLs in 5 years. Never mind that Benzema has been a forward who made almost 200 goals + 100 assists for RM whilist being an amazing all-round footballer. Was consistent to deliver around 20 goals in all comps for years (barring 09/10 & 17/18). An impressive feat despite being not always being an out-and-out striker whilist being a 3rd fiddle behind Bale/CR7.

 

You don't play for a club of Real Madrid's caliber for almost 10 years if you're sh*t.

Edited September 21, 2018 by Aryagorn

[Skinnedy]

17 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.

 

Why not, he is one of the strikers that was recruited since 2010. The OP listed all of them. He didn't say they were all bad, just that overall the position has been pretty poor. If you can only pick out one exception on that list, then I'd say the OP had a pretty good point.

[chi blue]

5 hours ago, tmarmsi said:

How can you forget Zola???

He wasn't an out and out centre forward, we've had some good strikers in my time, speedie, Wilson,Durie, eidur, Franco etc but they weren't out and out centre forwards

Edited September 21, 2018 by chi blue
Spelling

[Theafonis]

1 hour ago, Skinnedy said:

Why not, he is one of the strikers that was recruited since 2010. The OP listed all of them. He didn't say they were all bad, just that overall the position has been pretty poor. If you can only pick out one exception on that list, then I'd say the OP had a pretty good point.

 

6 hours ago, enigma said:

This is the thing. I don't know if it's scouting because Sturridge still is a really good striker when fit. He had a fantastic season for Liverpool in the "slip" season. Lukaku, despite his criticism, is improving and is still a pretty good striker. He has good goal stats everywhere he's been. Demba Ba was decent back up striker. Eto'o was past his prime, but still capable. Torres was a total flop, barring the CL goal. Remy used to be good, but he is B level striker. Costa is the only one who's been successful.

I still think we should have kept Falcao? tbh. He was unfairly judged due to injury. He was capable of scoring goals, but he's not the Falcao of past obviously. I mean after leaving us, Falcao went on to score 21 goals, 5 assists in 29 apps for Monaco in 16/17, and then last season scored 18 goals and 4 assists in 26 apps. This season he has 2 goals and 1 assist in 4 apps. I suppose the situation was different then because we had Diego though. 

Totally forgot Falcao and Pato were at this club, 

Martial would be an interesting candidate. Doesn't play much other than usual sub appearances, seems destined to have a career like Anelka rather than Henry.