Can Demba Ba become Chelsea's first-choice striker?

Demba Ba

Demba Ba seems to have become a forgotten man at Chelsea. The Senegalese international, who was signed from Newcastle during the January transfer window of last season for a fee of around £7.5M. has made only four appearances for the Blues so far this season, out of which two have been starts. He has found himself behind the pecking order as both Fernando Torres and Samuel Eto’o have been picked ahead of him for most games.

It’s safe to say the Senegalese forward has struggled a bit since his move to Chelsea. Prior to his transfer, he had scored 13 goals in 22 appearances for Newcastle United in the 2012/13 season. While he made the same number of appearances for Chelsea, he only managed to find the back of the net 6 times.

At Newcastle, he was accustomed to a different style of play. They were more direct and often looked to use Ba’s ability as a target man. At Chelsea, however, the game largely goes through the attacking midfielders and in order for a striker to fit in to the system, he must be able to link up well with them. Ba’s link-up play and work-rate isn’t one of his strongest points and hence he’s struggled. The fact that his finishing hasn’t been top-notch hasn’t exactly helped his case.

His form hasn’t improved much this season. In the two matches that he’s started, he hasn’t exactly been impressive. During the Aston Villa game, he managed to get caught offside on a number of occasions. And while his hold-up play against Norwich managed to bag him an assist for Oscar’s goal, his finishing was once again suspect as he failed to bury two or three easy chances. Mourinho did praise the striker for doing his job well, but given his suspect finishing, it seems highly doubtful that he will be getting many more starts in the near future.

The harsh reality of the entire situation is that Ba was never seen as a long-term option. He was merely a stop-gap signing to fill the void left by the departing Daniel Sturridge. If Chelsea had managed to sign a top-name striker (say Wayne Rooney or Radamel Falcao) during the summer, Ba would have been offloaded instantly. Indeed, the only reason he wasn’t loaned out or sold on deadline day was because Romelu Lukaku requested a loan move.

If Lukaku had chosen to stay on and fight for his place, Ba would have been farmed out on loan without hesitation. At the moment, he is only at Chelsea to make up the numbers and unless he manages to somehow convince Mourinho that he can bring something different to the table, it’s hard to see him being Chelsea’s first-choice striker.

Ba isn’t a terrible player by any stretch of the imagination; indeed, he can be quite useful if the team play to his strengths. However, Chelsea clearly utilise a style that he is not comfortable with and therefore it seems highly unlikely that he will be Chelsea’s main man anytime soon. He might be a useful squad player, but nothing more than that.