I don't think we will see any movement in January regarding a striker.  I think top 4 and back into the CL will be our priority.  If we are to make a move, I'd rather us recall Bats if that is an option.  I think he and Giroud would be fine to secure top 4.

In the summer, I think it has to be a priority, and I'd add fullbacks into that necessary category also.

Look at the other teams compared to us in this area.

Man City - Aguero and Jesus

Man United - Lukaku and Rashford

Arsenal - Aubameyang, Lacazette and Welbeck

Liverpool - Firmino and Sturridge

Tottenham - Kane and Llorente

 

Out of all of these strikers, the only one I could pick Giroud and Morata ahead of is Llorente. Even Welbeck, Arsenal's 3rd choice striker, is more of a threat to goal than our two combined right now. What is even more frustrating is that Lukaku and Sturridge were both ours at one point, Aguero should have been ours if we actually pulled the trigger and went all in for him instead of Torres. Then there is Aubameyang who was somebody we surely could easily have got last season ahead of Arsenal.

It just seems like we always make the wrong choices in this area. We either get rid of strikers that can score goals, or we bring strikers in that can't score goals. It's really frustrating because we have a really good squad that is capable of doing great things, but so often they are handicapped by the strikers. 

7 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Look at the other teams compared to us in this area.

Man City - Aguero and Jesus

Man United - Lukaku and Rashford

Arsenal - Aubameyang, Lacazette and Welbeck

Liverpool - Firmino and Sturridge

Tottenham - Kane and Llorente

 

Out of all of these strikers, the only one I could pick Giroud and Morata ahead of is Llorente. Even Welbeck, Arsenal's 3rd choice striker, is more of a threat to goal than our two combined right now. What is even more frustrating is that Lukaku and Sturridge were both ours at one point, Aguero should have been ours if we actually pulled the trigger and went all in for him instead of Torres. Then there is Aubameyang who was somebody we surely could easily have got last season ahead of Arsenal.

It just seems like we always make the wrong choices in this area. We either get rid of strikers that can score goals, or we bring strikers in that can't score goals. It's really frustrating because we have a really good squad that is capable of doing great things, but so often they are handicapped by the strikers. 

 It's painful. We're just wasting seasons where we could win so much more by having a great striker 

On 28/09/2018 at 23:16, mad_mac said:

I don't think we will see any movement in January regarding a striker.  I think top 4 and back into the CL will be our priority.  If we are to make a move, I'd rather us recall Bats if that is an option.  I think he and Giroud would be fine to secure top 4.

In the summer, I think it has to be a priority, and I'd add fullbacks into that necessary category also.

Top 4 is the priority and to get that we need a good striker. 

11 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Look at the other teams compared to us in this area.

Man City - Aguero and Jesus

Man United - Lukaku and Rashford

Arsenal - Aubameyang, Lacazette and Welbeck

Liverpool - Firmino and Sturridge

Tottenham - Kane and Llorente

 

Out of all of these strikers, the only one I could pick Giroud and Morata ahead of is Llorente. Even Welbeck, Arsenal's 3rd choice striker, is more of a threat to goal than our two combined right now. What is even more frustrating is that Lukaku and Sturridge were both ours at one point, Aguero should have been ours if we actually pulled the trigger and went all in for him instead of Torres. Then there is Aubameyang who was somebody we surely could easily have got last season ahead of Arsenal.

It just seems like we always make the wrong choices in this area. We either get rid of strikers that can score goals, or we bring strikers in that can't score goals. It's really frustrating because we have a really good squad that is capable of doing great things, but so often they are handicapped by the strikers. 

Morata was not even our first choice, that's the crazy thing. Man Utd wanted Morata, we wanted Lukaku. I don't even think Lukaku is very good, but that's how bad it is, that I actually would take lukaku over our current options. not sure why we sold Batshuayi and loaned out Abraham tbh. 

I worry that if Roman is serious about selling up that we may not invest this winter window. we need to sell a couple players to bring in a striker. Drinkwater would be the obvious choice. 

2 minutes ago, enigma said:

I worry that if Roman is serious about selling up that we may not invest this winter window. we need to sell a couple players to bring in a striker. Drinkwater would be the obvious choice. 

No one wants to take his wages.

We don't have a top 10 PL-striker in our squad. Its going to cost us this season for obvious reasons. Did against West Ham and again yesterday.

I just don't understand the logic in loaning out one of your 3 strikers when you're competing in 4 competitions. Did Sarri really not rate Bats that much?!

Reminds me of Jose's first season back. We've got some good players, but really lacking a goal scorer and that's what is going to make us come up short.

@rtwelch I think at the time he was loaned we still had Tammy and expect Sarri needed to make fast decisions with limited knowledge about the squad.

I also think we need a another striker though don't think January is time to make a huge outlay more a practical one.

Think Bats is not that man he needs to be sold, he cannot read a game or is not suited to the EPL.

On 30/09/2018 at 14:18, Zeta said:

Reminds me of Jose's first season back. We've got some good players, but really lacking a goal scorer and that's what is going to make us come up short.

Yeah, but even that season our three strikers scored 19 league goals all in all. Not great, not even good really but I think Giroud and Morata will struggle to get to that even this season.

On 30/09/2018 at 14:04, rtwelch said:

I just don't understand the logic in loaning out one of your 3 strikers when you're competing in 4 competitions. Did Sarri really not rate Bats that much?!

Well I thought I read that Michy wanted to go on loan. The club obviously wanted Sarri to see what he could do with Morata, but it hasn't worked out so far and probably won't.

I wouldn't be surprised if Morata was loaned out in Jan and we buy a stop gap striker until next summer transfer window. We are unlikely to find the elite quality of striker we are looking for in the winter window. 

Probably end up selling Giroud and Morata next summer and bringing in a top striker. 

We could have had Higuain in summer but turned him down. He pretty much said as much himself after joining Milan on loan. I think it was probably fair to give Morata another crack under a different coach seeing as he was the club's record signing for a striker. 

We are being linked with Krzysztof Piatek from Genoa. Not sure if he's any good, anyone seen him play?

Never heard of him, but looks like he has already scored 8 goals in Serie A this season

I'd also never heard of him until I googled him just now. He seems to have come almost from nowhere (wasn't even in the Polish World cup squad, although he did have a good season for his Polish club) and is smashing records in Serie A. Definitely one to keep an eye on. Anybody can have these purple patches so it will be interesting to see if he can sustain it in a decent league.

Good range of goals - headers, shots from long and close range, one-on-ones. Appears composed and confident. However... that rubbish goal celebration is a deal-breaker for me, unfortunately.

Edited October 5, 20187 yr by bluedave

This season reminds me of Jose first season back, where we had a good team, but Torres, Ba and Eto up front, and we just didn't get enough goals.

Morata is not the answer. One goal against Hungarian minnows isn't going to suddenly springboard him into a 20-goal a season player. He's had over a year and he's just not clinical enough.

Giroud is a good option off the bench, but you can't base a title challenge around him.

And Batshayaui is just not improving, he still looks poor at Valencia.

 

The problem is, I don't see who else we could realistically get, who will get us the goals we need. 

1 hour ago, bluedave said:

I'd also never heard of him until I googled him just now. He seems to have come almost from nowhere (wasn't even in the Polish World cup squad, although he did have a good season for his Polish club) and is smashing records in Serie A. Definitely one to keep an eye on. Anybody can have these purple patches so it will be interesting to see if he can sustain it in a decent league.

Good range of goals - headers, shots from long and close range, one-on-ones. Appears composed and confident. However... that rubbish goal celebration is a deal-breaker for me, unfortunately.

WTF? Who does he think he is 

 

1 hour ago, Zeta said:

The problem is, I don't see who else we could realistically get, who will get us the goals we need. 

It doesn't matter if we as fans can't id a striker to bring in, but it would worry me if i knew the club were not actively searching for a new striker for the January window, we cannot afford at any cost to miss out on CL football next season, the odd season every decade you can live with, but not back to back seasons of depression, and no chance of hodling onto Eden if we don't. So it's a massive thing for the club to make sure we do get top four. And it's unthinkable that they aren't seriously looking right now. 

2 hours ago, bluedave said:

I'd also never heard of him until I googled him just now. He seems to have come almost from nowhere (wasn't even in the Polish World cup squad, although he did have a good season for his Polish club) and is smashing records in Serie A. Definitely one to keep an eye on. Anybody can have these purple patches so it will be interesting to see if he can sustain it in a decent league.

Good range of goals - headers, shots from long and close range, one-on-ones. Appears composed and confident. However... that rubbish goal celebration is a deal-breaker for me, unfortunately.

Watching this only tells me one thing. Defenders in other leagues don't defend as if their life depended on it like they do against us. For every one of his goals it seemed that the defenders were only halfheartedly attempting to win the ball. Compare that to last nights match where every ball was contested as if  their teams lives and family's lives depended on it! 

We need a battler up front for us, in the mould of Costa or a Drogba. This guy would probably suit Liverpool or City better than us.

I worry about mid-table strikers like Piatek because the skillset required to succeed at mid-table clubs is quite different from that required to succeed at the very top. 

At mid-table clubs you can get away with having a sub-par or average first touch because defences are more likely to leave space in behind for strikers with sufficient pace (ala Lukaku) or predatory instincts (ala Belotti/Vardy) to run into. However, defences often drop deeper against the very top sides, so you would really want your striker to possess a good first touch alongside either top-class movement to draw defenders out of position or a serious aerial presence (Drogba at his best displayed both features). 

From what I've seen of Piatek, his finishing is impressive - he often hits the corner. His movement looks good and he's reasonably threatening in the air, but I'm not sure about his touch yet. 

Batshuayi > Morata.  Get him back. Offers something different too.  

Different, doesn't mean better.

should have signed higuain

23 minutes ago, enigma said:

should have signed higuain

Doesn't matter how many times you say it, it still doesn't make it right!.