Squad Ranking system: Where Blues strikers fall out [Part-2]

After King Didier departed, in came the young brigade of Hazard, Oscar, and Moses, with 11- to 12-year-old Mata as their leader. There are some players who are certainly stand-out players in the squad and who obviously become the focal points of attacks. Hazard, Mata, and Oscar made a very strong midfield, and hence Torres and Sturridge needed to blend into a passing game. Sturridge and passing don’t fit together, and hence he was chucked out.

Torres passed and blended whenever required, but we rarely saw the pace bursts in the Premier League that we saw in the Europa League. He took the back seat to Mata plus Hazard and did the job of creating space for the midfielders, and hence we saw an era where Chelsea midfielders replaced Didier Drogba as the X-factor.

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Now coming back to Jose Mourinho and his strikers and his recent honest comment about not having a scorer. He doesn’t have a scorer. Torres is now another squad player who, despite being talented, is visibly outshined by other teammates like Hazard and Willian. Eto’o is old and has lost composure. A 27-year-old Eto’o would have been perfect for Chelsea, but now it is not possible.

Chelsea needs a prolific star who is a bully and a “demander.” Torres himself doesn’t have the confidence to demand passes and service the way Didier would have done. It is a harsh fact that even Drogba didn’t score many in his last two seasons, but he was the one who was forever the goal threat, making his presence felt unlike El Nino, who, despite being a fan favourite, could not cope with the fact of being a second choice.

Chelsea needs that star, for example, Fernando Torres of 2008, to enter the team and demand passes. Even Eto’o got loads of chances in his first start, against Everton, where he was massively disappointed. Ba scored twice in his first start and hence got many chances later in his first season, where he was disappointed.

So a certain Falcao, Cavani, or Costa, who most probably would start establishing themselves from the word GO, because the world is at their feet and they have all the confidence in the world to talk eye-to-eye with Hazard and co. A big money signing would also mean that they’d get more chances to prove themselves (remember Torres got so many chances in his first season, where he just failed… and then in the 11-12 season, his second at Chelsea, where he had that open miss… need I talk more of confidence?).

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Thus, getting a go at the squad ranking, currently, according to me:

Hazard
Terry
Oscar
Azpilicueta
Lampard
Matic
Willian
Ramires
Ivanovic
Cahill
Torres
Eto’o

And it’s true, Sturridge, with his weird attitude, would be considered poorer than Hazard, so he will fail at Chelsea.

Read [Part-1] of this article HERE