Jose Mourinho must stop rotating his strikers if he wants them to find their golden touch

While debate has raged over the plethora of attacking midfielders Chelsea have at their disposal, their strikeforce has continued to falter. Romelu Lukaku was sent out to Everton to get some more experience of regular football and Samuel Eto’o was brought in from troubled Russians Anzhi to join Fernando Torres and Demba Ba to boost Jose Mourinho’s attacking options.

The Belgians spurt of form since his debut at Goodison Park has only served to pinpoint the issues Chelsea’s three attackers have been having at the start of this fledgling season.

The main problem Mourinho has faced is that he does not have a clue which one of them is best suited to leading Chelsea’s line. In the game against Manchester United earlier in the season, he even chose to select no recognised striker with Andre Schurrle being given the duty of leading the line.

Torres has in fact made the most appearances the trio but has only started twice. Eto’o and Ba have both started two games each as well which proves that the Portuguese just does not know which one will be the main man at Stamford Bridge this season.

This inconsistency has seen them all fire blanks so far in the league as Chelsea have shared their goals around midfielders and defenders. Only Oscar has managed to score more than once this season and even John Obi Mikel has scored more than their three strikers in the league.

Spanish international, Torres, has been on the decline for a long time now and it seems they have signed another striker on a downward spiral in Cameroonian Eto’o. As for Ba, he cannot really be judged as he has not even completed a full game as of yet this season.

Since his arrival, Eto’o has struggled to find his shooting boots or been able to link up play effectively. He has attempted eight shots, with four of them going on target with not one of them finding a corner of the net.

The Cameroonian has completed just 28 passes in his three appearances as he has struggled to get involved in play or adapt to the role of a lone striker.

At Inter Milan, Eto’o was effective on the right hand side in Mourinho’s Champions League-winning season but Chelsea’s options in midfield will not tempt him to try the striker in that role again.

Demba Ba Pass Accuracy

Fernando Torres Shot Accuracy

Meanwhile, Torres has been slightly more effective than his teammate but not by much. His problem has been his lack of shots, attempted just four shots in his five appearances.

However, the Spaniard has shown some decent link-up play, making six key passes but the sending off at White Hart Lane has sent his Performance Score (-33) spiralling down into negative numbers.

The third member of the trio, Demba Ba, managed to notch an assist against Norwich and has probably looked more likely to score out Eto’o andTorres. His 60% shot accuracy trumps his rivals for the spot and he has managed one more shot than Torres in three less appearances.

Demba Ba Duels Won

In terms of duels, all three of them need to step their game up significantly and challenge opponents’ defenders much more effectively. They have all won less than half of their total duels with Ba leading the way on 46% with Eto’o (45%) and Torres (43%) just behind.

Despite the trio’s poor start to the season, there is no doubt that they are all capable players who have not been given a decent run of games to get in any sort of form.

Eto’o is still getting used to the pace of the Premier League, Torres showed glimpses of what he can do before his sending off against Spurs and Ba just has not been given a chance.

Lukaku’s temporary departure will inevitably cast a shadow over the Bridge until one of the trio start scoring goals and it is down to Mourinho to pick one of them to be his first choice then stick with them because the chopping and changing that has taken place so far in the Blues’ striking department has not been good for anyone.

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