Kerry Dixon
Can Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba form an effective partnership up front together?
Possibly, but the way the style has been over the last few years they’ve been playing with one striker and it seems to suit.
Isn’t that wasting a perfectly good striker?
Well results suggest it seems to suit Chelsea in terms of what they have in midfield. If you look to play two up front and change the midfield formation which is already congested with quality players like Ballack, Deco, Lampard, Mikel, Essien, they’re all central so it’s going to cause problems in there. I’d say it could work but it would only be tried in the event of something different
Which of the two are best suited to Chelsea’s style of play?
I think Drogba on his day is one of the best strikers in the world. Anelka is having a very good season in terms of scoring goals, he’s top of the Premier League. Both are capable of doing the job, but they’re different.
How do they differ as front-men?
Anelka links the play, moves around and Drogba does it very well as well. In the season that Didier scored 33 goals, he was absolutely outstanding. In terms of this year it’s going to be very hard to dislodge Anelka the way he’s scoring goals and getting on the end of things.
Is Drogba a better striker than Adriano?
They have different styles. Whether Adriano could come and adapt to the Premier League, who knows. At the moment, in terms of Chelsea I’d say Drogba would be the better of the two, that’s bearing in mind that Adriano is an untried quantity in the Premier league, but that’s not to say he’s not a quality player.