Drogba

Many people had a wry smile on their faces two years ago when Chelsea signed the Marseille man for £24m. The price seemed somewhat ridiculous in that he had never scored more than 20 goals in the inferior French league and that he had effectively been a lump of shit rotting in the reserves a few seasons previous.

He started his career at Chelsea and immediately people were on his backs - he had no skill, he was overrated, the lad tried hard but couldn't cut it and most often were the 'cheat' and 'diver' comments.

But yet last season the guy began to transform - he scored 14 goals in the league I think and also was top of the assist charts. He has also cut out the more unsportsmanly parts of his game, although he does still seem to aggrevate a few of us on here with his post match comments.

And the guy has come on further leaps and bounds this season scoring important goals against both Liverpool and now Chelsea.

So has Drogba finally turned into a £24m striker?

It certainly looks a fantastic investment compared to the Sheva deal, esp seems as the guy is still just 27, compared to 30 yeay old Andrey.

Still not worth 24 million, now with seasons in the league his price should be around 15-20 m not more.

still a bit of a headless donkey.... but obviously this can be prove to be a positive rather than a negative.. the man is a monster at times... typical of him last night though to produce a special goal but miss a sitter... he also spends half the match running up blind alleys ala baros. but when he's winning matches who cares

Tweedledum wrote:

And the guy has come on further leaps and bounds this season scoring important goals against both Liverpool and now Chelsea.

So has Drogba finally turned into a £24m striker?

I dont think he scored any own goals Tweeds.

On a serious note, the price Chelsea paid was way over the market price for him. Marseille held the Russians to ransom and full credit to them. A year later Lyon did the same, and this year Man U extorted huge sum for a player that never played for them. It is Chelsea's fault that Drogba cost 24 million.

But unfortunately he was expected to produce the goods of a 24 million striker. Maybe this year is going to be his year, but all of us (including me in the past) have been harsh on him. For example he was routinely called a cheat and a dirty player, even though there were worse cheats (Robben) and dirtier player (Essien) in the same team.

True.

he has been scintilating this season though - the guy has been truly World Class esp both his winning goals against Liverpool and Barca.

I think this could be Chelseas year in the CL - the only team that IMO could realistically stop them is Barca and they looked very poor last night.

Milan may have a chance but IMO Chelsea>>>Milan and should be an easy game for them.

Can Liverpool stop them again?

Interesting though that it looks as though two very good teams will be finishing second: Barca and Inter

He's been superb this season. For some reason I still expect the form to stop at some point but I wouldn't be surprised if he proves me wrong.

Still not sure he's worth £24 million but its a price Chelsea can afford.

On the subject of Essien, I think he will prove to be value for money as shocking as it sounds. He's an immense player and he could be at Chelsea for 10 seasons. Its kind of the return we expect from Rooney.

Inter may not make it , if Sporting gets a draw against them.
I didnt think Chelsea vs Barcelona was a good game, another team taht can win the champions league is Lyon.

You think Sporting will draw away to Bayern?

It looks tough, one thing I can say though is that Inter look overrated and IMO aren't as good as some people on here make them out to be

Tweedledum wrote:True.

Interesting though that it looks as though two very good teams will be finishing second: Barca and Inter

Actually three if you count in Roma who are likely to finish second in their group behind Valencia. Also Madrid who will finish second still have a half decent team

I am actually dreading the round of 16 this season

Milan/Valencia/Lyon/Bayern Munich if we finish second

Barca/Inter/Roma/Madrid/PSV/Celtic/ if we finish first

Drogs goal was class, but I think like Saha, scores the hard goals and misses the easy ones. When he has time to think, he will miss as he lacks compusure, but when he doesnt have this luxury, he is capable of the sublime.

My opinoin of Drogba completely changed after the WC were he was magnificent for the Ivory Coast. I still hate him as a player and dont think he is worth anywere near £24m (But i guess compared to Shevas £30m transfer, he maybe) and I wouldnt want him in my team.

Well all ties are going to be difficult Aby but Barca and Inter are a different class of opposition to Madrid and Roma IMO.

The only teams that I'd be worried about us facing would be Barca and Milan - everyone else I think we could beat on our day

Rez wrote:Drogs goal was class, but I think like Saha, scores the hard goals and misses the easy ones. When he has time to think, he will miss as he lacks compusure, but when he doesnt have this luxury, he is capable of the sublime.

Instinct players.

Tweed , I meant Sporting will probably get a draw against Inter away and both will lose away to Bayern to Inter may not make it.

We can only pray. I'd much rather face Sporting than Inter

I would be worried to face Barcelona and Lyon , but I am confident that we can beat anyone on our day.

Yeh - I think Man Utd would struggle against Milan again as well though.

Apart from the English teams who we can't face anyway, I'd like to avoid Milan, Barca and Lyon.

Although hopefully Milan and Lyon should top there groups like we hopefully do with ours.

We can beat them , Rooney and Ronnie have matured from the last time we met, also have Carrick who can be very useful in Europe.
A better CB partnership in Vidic and Rio.
Have VDS in goal.
Saha offers more to the team then Ruud did.
We are just lacking a hardman in midfield and probably a winger but Park will be back by then.

Last time we played them we were playing Quinton Fortune in the midfield(although he played very well).

& we gave them a very good game at Old Trafford, it was just Carroll's fuck up and two glorious chances missed from Fortune and Scholes.

It was only at the San Siro that we got outplayed.

We also got the better of Lyon a couple of seasons back in the group stages, drew 2-2 in France and beat them convincigly 2-1 at Old Trafford.

I was at the Milan game and the three major turning points were:

Fortunes miss

RVN replacing CR7

Carroll the idiot

The San Siro game was depressing, that was our worst performance in years, Rooney and Ronaldo, looked like lost boys that night. But i think if we played them again, we could beat them as the afore mentioned are much better now.

I would like us, to play a good team like Barca/Real, as we havent had a big European night in ages. I am not saying that we could beat them, but the games would be awesome, like the united v real 2003 match

We were poor in the game at the San Siro but it was our own making because we were behind in the tie.

We had to go 4-4-2 and chase the game with Scholes and Keane in central midfield, whilst they crammed the central area with Gattuso, Pirlo, Rui Costa and Seedorf.

Fucking Carroll.

Drogba is a marvellous player in my eyes.

He's by far and away the best targetman in the EPL in at the moment. Only Mido came close last season, and alongside, Adebayor, Berbatov & Kuyt he's easiluy the best of the top 5 currently in the Prem at the moment.

He's led his country to their 1st world cup finals - a great acheivement.
I think when Chelsea come in for a player, the price goes up by a third, so is Drogba worth £16-£18m right now? Yes.

A world-Class forward - He leads the line tremendously, stong off either foot, can beat you in the air or on the ground and is hugely underrated technically. He has great vision and he fights for his team. What we're seeing now is what was happening at Marseille - You won't get a better lone striker than Drogs, but when he has a partner, of any sort up front, he's that much more of a direct goal threat.

The 1-Man Gang!

Wouldn't say he is woth 24 M. There are very few strikers I would put at 24M. Probably only Eto, Henry, Sheva(irrespective of current form) players who have been consistent scorers for years.

People you know will pop up with goals for you anytime anyplace, whether sublime or ugly. Composed finishing and instinct finishing as well. And please don't turn this into a Henry = Choker thread.

TeamSpirit wrote:Drogba is a marvellous player in my eyes.

He's by far and away the best targetman in the EPL in at the moment. Only Mido came close last season, and alongside, Adebayor, Berbatov & Kuyt he's easiluy the best of the top 5 currently in the Prem at the moment.

He's led his country to their 1st world cup finals - a great acheivement.
I think when Chelsea come in for a player, the price goes up by a third, so is Drogba worth £16-£18m right now? Yes.

A world-Class forward - He leads the line tremendously, stong off either foot, can beat you in the air or on the ground and is hugely underrated technically. He has great vision and he fights for his team. What we're seeing now is what was happening at Marseille - You won't get a better lone striker than Drogs, but when he has a partner, of any sort up front, he's that much more of a direct goal threat.

The 1-Man Gang!

His main weakness is his first touch, which can be erratic on a par with Emile Heskey at his very worse.

Which is strange because his second and third are usually sublime, and therein lies the Enigma Of Didier

@TeamSpirit
Kuyt is not a targetman , and you missed people like Kevin Davies there who in my opinion is one of the best target man in the league.
There are others pretty good like Saha,Ashton etc.

But (as we all know) Chelsea have a totally different conception of value to the rest of us. What they pay is almost irrelevant, and what they got was a striker with fantastic physical ability who can play alone up front and link up play.

Regarding this season I wonder if Mourinho has been thinking about the World Cup. For his country Drogba seems to stay on his feet more and really try and lead the team. He's a better player when he's bullying the oppsition than when he's trying to be artful and cunning. That said he isn't perfect - he's damn good but they might have done better.

It depends what you mean by 'best targetman'

Davies is good as a target but he ain't a good striker - if players are being judged merely on the merits of how BIG they are then davies wins but IMO there are quite a few better targetmen oit there.

Would you say Berbatov is a target man?

I have never seen a player pass so brilliantly with his chest as Drogba. To be honest, he does look clumsy at times but he does brilliant things that i don't expect him to do, probably why I'd agree with TS that he is underrated technically

Doublepost

Kevin Davies may not be best striker, he's more of a decent player for his team, , but pretty good targetman.