You do realise than back under Jose when you are imperious, you didn't have a 30 goal a season striker.
But under Jose they had Frank Lampard in his pomp, who was capable of scoring 15+ goals from midfield, not to mention capable backups to Drogba like Eidur Gudjohnsen. They don't have that now.
Faith? Hang on he isn't scoring as much as he should, but his all around game is actually pretty vital to linking your attacking mids.
Link-play is lovely, but if there's no end product to it then what's the point? Torres will link, link, link, then at the end of a lovely flowing move someone will play him in and he'll **** it completely. Personally, in this Chelsea team I'd rather have a striker who was scoring than one that was creating, considering the quality of the creative players behind him.
Again the big issue is actually your inability to defend properly. Even with a replacement striker you will still have that flaw.
Sure, but we're looking at this issue in isolation. Besides, who's to say Chelsea can't simply outscore opponents?
You didn't need a huge amount of goals 2004-2006. It's all very well saying you need a finisher, but the key to the lone forward the way Chelsea players is that he knits it all together with his link up play and running the channels. In short a deep lying forward, which Torres has become. He's got all the hard bits down, just needs to gamble more.
2004-06 is gone. They were a ridiculously efficient unit then, incredibly tight in the back and able to go 1-0 up and then just boss opponents until they surrendered in about the 70th minute.
What you've just done is assumed Torres is synonymous with 'the way Chelsea play a lone striker'. TORRES links play and runs channels as a deep-lying forward. Didier Drogba was less mobile, yet a much finer player and far more efficient in his return. Saying Torres has all the hard bits down and needs to gamble more is easy, but overlooks the fact that every time he does gamble he ***** it up like he was paid to do it.
For someone who "isn't blaming Torres" you are pointing the finger at him an awful lot...
Personally, I
would blame Torres for being ****. It's nobody else's fault but his own. Everyone said he'd need time to recover from his injuries, and gave him time. Then he needed time to settle. Then he needed to gel with his teammates. Then he was short of form and confidence. Now? He's out of excuses. He isn't producing, and he's the undisputed main striker. If there's anyone to blame for Chelsea not scoring as many goals as they should, it should be him.
Burden the team? Are you deliberately ignoring the rest of his game? Also he doesn't slow down the play, his hold up and lay offs that allows your second line to get into shooting positions...
You know what Falcao would do in that kind of situation? Step up, bully his way past defenders, leave the creating to the creative players and get himself in a position to score. Link up play is lovely and useful, but it isn't the thing Chelsea need up front right now. What they need is someone who can get themselves into a position to receive from their talented playmakers, open up space for them, and score from their balls into the box. Otherwise, they might as well just buy Heskey, since his link up play is fantastic.
Coould he be scoring more? he should probably be on 10 goals, but he isn't gambling enough or taking enough shots (averaging 2.25 shots a game) But he certainly isn't burdening the team.
Depends how you define burdening. He's not doing a bad job, necessarily, but he's only not doing a bad job at the stuff Chelsea don't need him to do. He's doing a pretty pathetic job at the thing they need him to do most: score.
