Posts Tagged ‘daniel sturridge’

Picture of the Week – Daniel Sturridge – W/C 26th July 2010

Going Dutch: Ajax v Chelsea The Preview

Friday July 23 will mark an epic day of football for me as the two teams I support will face off in a friendly game in Amsterdam.  I will be at the stadium amongst the Dutch fans,  although I will be cheering for the mighty blues.

Chelsea are expected to continue resting the players who were on World cup duty, it is likely that they will line with a starting XI similar to the that which faced Crystal Palace. However the most notable absentee is Petr  Cech who has injured the same calf that he injured against Inter Milan in the Champions League last season.

I expect the young players like Daniel Sturridge  and Scott Sinclair to shine, this is their moment to show their true quality, as Carlo Ancelotti will depend on them and a couple of experienced players like Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel and Alex.

Ajax, who are the Dutch equivalent of Barcelona, having bred the likes of Johan Cruijf, Dennis Bergkamp, and most recently Wesley Sneijder. They are a very strong side with Suleijmani expected to lead the attack with both Luis Suarez and Marko Pantelic expected to be rested after playing in the World cup.

Oleguer, Champions League winner with Barcelona, will be holding the line in defense as Assiati and Jan Vertonghen will be in the center of the field .

Two other notable absentees are Dutch shot stopper Maarten Steklenburg and the young and versatile Gergory van der Wiel.  Ajax will also depend on the youngsters and the fans will be looking for a tough game because most probably these young players are the future of Dutch football.

Ajax who finished second last season with 1 point behind the side of our former young Star Miroslav Stoch  Fc Twente with a wonderful 106 goals in 34 matches. Ajax will look to start their championship hunt campaign with a win over the English Champions

Rudi’s Prediction: a tough 2-0 win for the blues

A Striking Dilemma

Is Fabio Borini the Future of Chelsea's frontline?

As the media keeps reporting Chelsea are tracking various high profile strikers, we can only hope that one of these rumours might be true. Torres, Suarez and Aguero have already proved themselves on the international stage and would be great strikepartners to Didier Drogba.

Sergio Aguero has made it known that he would like to play at Chelsea along side the likes of John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba. Furthermore, he mentioned that he would like to link up with Fernando Torres at Chelsea. The Argentinian who is married to Diego Maradona’s daughter has great goal scoring ability.

Torres is well known to Chelsea fans, the fastest man to reach to 50 Premier League goals, he also holds the record for scoring the most goals scored by an overseas player during their debut Premier League season. With Torres hungry for Champions League Football, I hope that he will make the easy choice and choose Chelsea over Liverpool.

Luis Suarez scored 49 goals last season for Ajax and contributed to Uruguay’s dream run to the semi-finals in the 2010 World Cup. Suarez has played a supporting striker throughout his career for the likes of Diego Forlan, Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Marko Pantelic. A potential partnership with Didier Drogba could gift Chelsea Football Club another record breaking goal tally next season.

Looking at less established strikers Romelu Lukaku is probably Europe’s most sought after youngster. A Chelsea fan, he was recently pictured wearing the new Chelsea home kit at Stamford Bridge. The Belgian 17-year old already has 2 caps for Belgium and will give anything to join Didier Drogba at Chelsea.

The real question to ask ourselves is that is it necessary to sign another striker? Especially when we have Daniel Sturridge and Fabio Borini already at the club, there are also others such as young Jacopo Sala desperate for a chance to shine?

Therefore do we need to spend money to make more of a crowd in the striking department? Daniel Sturridge who could be England’s future, should be given a chance in the first team after managing 5 goals in his first season at the club from limited appearances.

The question I put to you and the club is, who should be preffered, should we favour Torres or Suarez over Sturridge and Borini?