Even Lukaku has very little on Benteke, needless to say Nando has nothing on this guy!! No wonder in Belgium setup Chris is preferred over Rom most (ALL) of the time.. He has everything - skill, speed and strength with abundance of energy. But Lukaku leads 13 to 12 goals in the league with limited starts over Benteke. Perhaps he will be available in upper 20 mil range in the summer. He will be a good buy in that region Praying we never fall for Falcao / Cavani & pay over the odds price tag!! what do you say?
this is a good point with a reason, unlike Drog or BM2. trying to create a discussion here. My aim is to get the fans opinions about alternates to our obvious striker targets.. Reason I rate Benteke slightly over lukaku is - Benteke plays for a team which as no backbone and experience. He is one of the spearhead for that team and major reason if they survive.. However Lukaku is playing in a well established setup under Clarke.
Maybe. He's a powerful lad but not someone we'd need alongside Lukaku - too similar. I think Lukaku's scoring in that West Brom side is proof enough of his qualities. A striker I'd have no problem with is Hernandez (I know - shoot me). He'd gobble up any chance our trio gave to him, especially against tiring teams. Lukaku could add that physical power that the trio doesn't possess as well.
Lukaku's not quite there yet over 90 minutes, from what I've seen, but he'll still do a good job and he'd make a very dangerous impact sub, too. Benteke works his arse off and scores plenty of goals, despite his deficiencies. Don't think he'll stay at Villa in the summer.
I have no problem with the discussion, and my reason was that he is dogshit and we already have Lukaku! Lukaku, Benteke and Ba are all too similar to have on the same team. I agree with Varier that someone like Hernandez would be good however I don't think he'd suit our system as he tends to be good at getting on the end of balls crossed/whipped in the box.
I think that's how we'll play him next season tbh, provided Torres ****s off. Ba/possible new signing as our starter with Lukaku coming off the bench. However I do have doubts about this as last season he was extremely Heskey-esq off the bench.
agree with your off the bench comment .. in the beginning even for West Brom he lacked conviction off the bench many times.. however once he got a run of starts - he settled in and now looks confident lad. Remember Studge's Bolton loan - that was impressive like Lukaku's current loan. However Studge didn't get any look in after his return - then we had Drog, Nic & Nando.. Now we have only Ba as our striker.. Even if we get another marquee striker signing - Lukaku will still get ample starts and hope he remains confident and gets the best for us!
I Know I'm like a broken record, but......... we can get Lukaku, Cavani, Hernandez and Falcao, and we still won't score the goals we should be scoring, until we get a midfield player to run the show. Apart from Luiz, who in my opinion should have his name stenciled on the midfield spot, we have a lousy linkage from back to front. We are over run with talent with our other midfielders, but none of them can pull the strings. We have enough talent to score without a striker if we'd only sort that out. Chalobah and Piazon should be in the squad next season, AND get game time.
Benteke is good and as pointed out is playing well in a dour team. I also like the look of Weimann from Villa, has that quick movement and a bit of skill about him. But over those two I would take Wilifred Bony any day of the week, guy has excellent finishing and would cost around 10-12m But if we do go marquee I would prefer Robert Lewandwoski over Falcao, costs less, is younger and offers near enough the same quality. If he does jot off to United then his team mate Marco Reus is another option As for the midfield debate, so we need to sign a centre back as well to let Luiz move forward in the team. Hummels would be brilliant and a double deal with Dortmund would make most of Europe jealous and sit up to take notice
exactly - I have similar opinion like yours.. but hope these Germans if we sign, don't turn out like Marin. need some low profile striker who is still well established, rather than going for mindless big signing with inflated pay check!
No We need players that can exchange passes with and complement our 3 musketeers with movement, intuition and a dose of ruthlessness. Benteke is not that player. Suarez would be perfect.
Kind of agree. it's no coincidence that both Ba and Torres are struggling for goals - suggesting its not them, but our system. Don't think Luiz has the agility or the quickness of mind for a link up role. What we need is someone who can setup counterattacks faultlessly and base themselves as the pivot for our 3 amigos play off. Alonso or Sneijder type players are what is needed, but I can't think of anyone at the right age ( mid 20s) who might be suitable.
a playmaker isn't the solution. We have Oscar, Mata, De Bruyne and Mceachran for that role, all of whom are very young and ooze talent. It's our overplayed formation that's the issue. We don't have a plan B and teams know how we're going to set up every single time. (I'm not blaming Rafa for this, as it was the same under RDM but no problem with Rafa experimenting a little). We should rotate 4-3-3 and our current formation, 4-3-3 could also give Mata a rest. We don't have enough proper wingers to add balance. IMO we look good with Hazard and Moses on either side, gives a very good shape and something for the FB's to worry about. Also, our defence is a major problem. JT still has something to offer due to experience and his leadership but not keen on the other three, especially Luiz and Ivan at CB. I still think Cahill and JT are the best available pairing with Azpi (who has been brilliant) on the right and Cole on the left and in a 4-3-3 Mikel is the perfect person to protect the back four. As somebody said in the skillful thread, Hummels would be a brilliant signing, however he wouldn't be cheap and may not even want a move to us from Dortmund.
