Next in queue for a spearhead in Blue: Chelsea's quest for a striker

Romelu Lukaku – Is he the answer to Chelsea’s striking woes?

If there is one question that’s heavily doing the rounds this summer, it is as about who will be the Chelsea‘s star striker this season. The Galacticos possess their Benzema, the Blaugrana their Messi, the Die Roten their Mandzukic (Lewandowski soon to follow), the Les Parisiens their Cavani and the Red Devils their Robin van Persie. Being a top European club, without doubt comes with the requirement of a top quality team and most notably a world class striker.

The transfer window opened with options ranging from Stevan Jovetic to Edinson Cavani all across the tabloids. All set to pay Napoli close to their record transfer fee, Chelsea lost out to PSG in the bidding war and very soon, most of the other names available as well.

With Wayne Rooney, now leading the list of Mourinho’s options, it leaves the Chelsea faithful wondering if they really want to see an out and out Red Devil in a blue jersey. As puerile as it sounds in club football, one must recollect the hostile welcome Rafael Benitez received on arriving at Stamford Bridge, despite his formidable reputation.

Romelu Lukaku definitely fits the bill to be present in the Chelsea roster. But both Torres and Ba have been a question-mark in the consistent goal-scoring aspect. The sale of Demba Ba is probably on the cards. With Mourinho having confirmed that El Nino will continue at Stamford Bridge this season, playing him at a withdrawn role, just behind the striker makes ample sense as his statistics in a blue jersey show a huge lack of goals but a decent crop of numbers in assists. Also, Torres has seemed more comfortable passing the ball to anther player approaching the goal than penetrating the defence single-handedly (like Didier Drogba).

‘The Special One’ himself has quoted, ”When we see Torres plays with his back to goal surrounded by two or three opponents, we know that he is not going to produce a piece of magic. He’s a striker, more comfortable when he has space behind for those runs to get behind defenders. He has it more difficult when opponents are very close, when opponents are compact and when he has to play in small spaces. He’s more a player to go into a space than to play with the ball on his feet. When Chelsea play with that philosophy he can [rediscover his best form]. When we play against a very close team and you have to play him in small spaces, he will have more difficulty.”

Strikers like Torres are far more lethal when given through balls in space running behind defenders to tap in the that finish rather than receiving it ahead of the defender and then wrestling to get a clean shot in. One of the few top strikers still present in the market goes by the name Edin Dzeko. Much speculation had surfaced the headlines close to a month back. With City stacking their ‘arsenal’ with the recent purchases of Alvaro Negredo and Stevan Jovetic, Edin Dzeko would be easy to lure away and will definitely turn out a quality yet cheap addition to Chelsea’s striking combination.