How does somebody his size win zero out of seven aerial duels against City? It's unbelievable.

2 hours ago, Argo said:

I disagree. There's a better three from Liverpool alone (Suarez, Owen and Fowler).

He had underrated strength,excellent pace and a freak burst of pace but his technical side was limited which is why David Villa always looked head and shoulders above him for Spain and why he declined so heavily once the injuries took his pace away.

Benitez literally set up a perfect system for him that played to all his strengths and minimized his weaknesses. 

Fair point. Maybe I was a bit over exaggerating. But still, that doesn't change the fact he was miles better than Lukaku is right now.

The KdB interaction at the end was, yes one with a good friend, but also showed he did not suffer any hurt from his performance or the result.

He is a mercenary, plain and simple. Which when he is like Costa is fine, bit when you are poor at so much like he is then the coach needs to take a stand and say to the board "you bought me a lemon"

Does anyone find it frustrating that  we end up with Lukaku for near 100m who is pretty much the worst   expensive striker I have ever seen, whilst we let go 2 players that reguarly  score against us and win their teams titles. ( Bruyne and Salah).

For all our excellent selling price ability in the transfer market we have a pretty shocking record of getting rid of players that then become world class, whilst overpaying for the worst strikers imaginable.

Ironically the only two world class strikers we have had in the last 18 years were Jose buys.

Do not wait for Lukaku to be sold. Sign Vlahovic now and do the best we can to sift lukaku.

The bad news is he's only scored against Arsenal, Villa and Brighton.

Good news is Brighton next.

15 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Do not wait for Lukaku to be sold. Sign Vlahovic now and do the best we can to sift lukaku.

Too soon for him. He is very good but the hype is unreal.

Think he might still help us breaking down smaller sides, but against the big teams we have to start Havertz up front, we beat City 3 times before we started playing Lukaku up top 

1 minute ago, Drogba1 said:

Think he might still help us breaking down smaller sides, but against the big teams we have to start Havertz up front, we beat City 3 times before we started playing Lukaku up top 

Sounds great in theory but in reality no way would he put his ego aside and help win us those games if he doesn't play the big ones.

The " big man " up front as the focal point is out dated in today's game at least for the top teams.

It doesn't even suit our style of play. City play without a centre forward  and Liverpool mostly rely on the skills of Salah etc for goals.

Mind you, Drogba wasn't very good to start with , so you never know.!

come on you BLUES !

Exactly! He will come good. 

7 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

The " big man " up front as the focal point is out dated in today's game at least for the top teams.

It doesn't even suit our style of play. City play without a centre forward  and Liverpool mostly rely on the skills of Salah etc for goals.

Mind you, Drogba wasn't very good to start with , so you never know.!

come on you BLUES !

Drogba led the line for a runaway title win while putting in genuine 10/10 performances against Liverpool and Bayern (imagine us playing the latter with Rom upfront, shudder).

Comparing the two is an insult to Didier's name.

18 minutes ago, Argo said:

Drogba led the line for a runaway title win while putting in genuine 10/10 performances against Liverpool and Bayern (imagine us playing the latter with Rom upfront, shudder).

Comparing the two is an insult to Didier's name.

Yeah, I know how good Drogba was.  I also remember his poor goal scoring record to start with,  which actually would look brilliant if Rom managed the same this season. !

 

47 minutes ago, Argo said:

Drogba led the line for a runaway title win while putting in genuine 10/10 performances against Liverpool and Bayern (imagine us playing the latter with Rom upfront, shudder).

Comparing the two is an insult to Didier's name.

That was all in the latter part of the season though. He had a very slow start, only scoring twice until about half way into the season if I remember correctly.

Comparison is only an insult because of what Drogba became after his early years. There were both performance problems, diving and off the field issues with Drogba early on and he wasn't universally loved as he is now.

Lukaku needs to do better. I don't think anyone disagrees but it's still very early in his second Chelsea career and he may still make it.

With that said. I think some may get their wish and Lukaku leaves the club this coming summer.
But let's not fool ourselves into thinking we'll bring in another striker that will suddenly make this work. I repeat myself but our striker, wheter that's Lukaku now or Haaland or Broja or whoever is surrounded by some absolute dross in attacking areas. There is not an ounce of creativity or ability to beat a man or create something out of nothing in any of them. So we become predictable to play against and teams will know that if they take out our focal point they don't have much else to worry about. Simply because Werner, Odoi, Havertz, Ziyech, Pulisic or Mount aren't good enough to hurt them.

Edited January 15, 20224 yr by Sindre

24 minutes ago, Eight Times said:

Exactly! He will come good. 

When? because I've been waiting 10 years for it. Lukaku is almost 30 and we have all been waiting for this guy to become a star, but every year people just laugh at him, and it wasn't so long ago that we were part of that group. What's changed? nothing. Same player, same weaknesses and now those same people we were laughing with are laughing at us for throwing £100m at Inter just to bring him here.

2 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Do not wait for Lukaku to be sold. Sign Vlahovic now and do the best we can to sift lukaku.

Vlahovic will suffer big time

Scenes at the end pretty much sum it up, doing his happy little secret handshakes with Kevin De Bryune. His biggest highlight as a Chelsea player literally remains that missed Super Cup final penalty. Swear at Chelsea it’s always one step forward, two steps back when it comes to transfer business.

7 hours ago, goose said:

He hasn’t been great but my god those other two have been pure sh*t and have been since they came here. I’m willing to give Lukaku a chance but those other two should be gone. 

At least Pulisic has shown he did/does have proper skills...

37 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Yeah, I know how good Drogba was.  I also remember his poor goal scoring record to start with,  which actually would look brilliant if Rom managed the same this season. !

 

Lukaku's goal scoring isn't even my biggest issue with his game. He could score more goals than Drogba did in his first season and I would still say Drogba offered us more, because Drogba's game wasn't all about goals. Drogba's passing, touch, link up play, movement, defensive contributions, big game contributions, hold up play, all of this was better than Lukaku, and as frustrating as his diving and faking injury was in his first two seasons here, he was still 10x the player Lukaku is today. Just watching Lukaku trying to trap the ball is painful. I have seen celebrities in Soccer Aid control a football better than he can. 

Wasn't he being praised to the heavens early season ?

I don't understand why we bought him, as if a misfiring Werner wasn't enough we just created more problems for ourselves with this outrageously priced player.

We were never going to win the league anyway, despite all the media hype, top 3 would be good, even miraculous now

1 minute ago, Scott Harris said:

Lukaku's goal scoring isn't even my biggest issue with his game. He could score more goals than Drogba did in his first season and I would still say Drogba offered us more, because Drogba's game wasn't all about goals. Drogba's passing, touch, link up play, movement, defensive contributions, big game contributions, hold up play, all of this was better than Lukaku, and as frustrating as his diving and faking injury was in his first two seasons here, he was still 10x the player Lukaku is today. Just watching Lukaku trying to trap the ball is painful. I have seen celebrities in Soccer Aid control a football better than he can. 

I wished I hadn't mentioned Didier now ! I'm just gutted that a player we used to laugh at and mock is playing for us for a record fee !

 

So many bizzare analysis. Most are a bit nonsene. Lukaku did not play great but I thought he was ok. His biggest problem was he had many2 ball losses which was pointed out Tuchel. 

In perfect world we should ask Lukaku to  play multiple role but it was simply impossible today. With ziyech and puli having total nightmare game plus without having two flying wb. Our ONLY way to attack was through high ball recovery and Lukaku hold up. If we played Havertz over Lukaku, which what most fans want it would have been worst. 

 

On 22/08/2021 at 18:49, Sindre said:

That was like watching prime Drogba. Absolutely bullied Pablo Mari.

Excactly what we've been missing for a long, long time. Already clear he's a leader in this team as well which is a bonus.

From August !

plenty more from the early days too.

 

Edited January 15, 20224 yr by The Rising Sun
Explanation added

4 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

From August !

plenty more from the early days too.

s

Sorry for picking you out mate, no doubt I thought the same as you !

 

55 minutes ago, Ballack & Blu said:

At least Pulisic has shown he did/does have proper skills...

It’s been a while and apart from a good game against Liverpool over two years ago and a reasonable match 1st leg against RM last year he has been a major disappointment and we should get rid. He is not cut out for Prem football but maybe he’d do ok elsewhere.

Lukaku has been here half a season in which in he has had a long injury and COVID and yet people just want to go on and on and on the same stuff every f**king post. He may not be the answer to our goal scoring woes  because I don’t think we are a team that suits him but can we at least give him a season.