Tortilla9

What a weird game. Thought players would be up for it but they weren't. Carlo seemed to have more intensity on the sideline than players on the field did. Watching Carlo walk off the field at half he looked absolutely and rightfully pissed. Defense seemed off kilter today. Was it Terry's back or whatever was bothering him? Was it Luiz' enthusiasm and mistake? Was it the constant pressure they were under because the midfield was absolute sh*t today? The midfield couldn't win a ball, couldn't shut down or disrupt United's attack, and couldn't provide any half way decent service for anybody. Hernandez wouldn't have scored diddly if he'd been playing for Chelsea with that piss-poor service. Lampard may have scored a goal but that shouldn't gloss over the fact he was nowhere to be found for large portions of the game. Ugly performance all the way around.

Dammit! Why isn't Carlo asking us what Torres is best at. We all know. I'm all for no Torres and Drogba together the rest of the season. Start Drogba and let Torres come on as a super sub. I'd rather see Torres and Anelka together. Anelka may be a little slow with the final pass but he and Torres seem to have some understanding with each other. The same understanding that is MIA with Torres and Drogba. Just my two cents.

I may have a little sun damage from being outside most of the day watching youth football. If it was a 1 up top with Torres why did it seem he was playing so wide and deep at times? Is that him not understanding his role or Carlo directing him where to be?

When I try to quote a post I get a bunch of weird stuff. I remember the Malouda won't pass to Torres thread and even posted there. Maybe I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt now because the team is doing well. If he doesn't pass to a wide open Torres tomorrow (or whenever) I promise to be the first to bash him.

I saw the Giggs comment and my first thought was..... YOGA.

At least he doesn't come across as a complete ass and was professional in his comments. I'm one who thinks he doesn't like Torres and/or won't pass to him. I haven't followed him as closely as most of you so I saw a different side. Didn't realize he was 30. Thought he was younger. Maybe anybody 30 or younger seems a baby to me.

Good Malouda read/interview. A few highlights: "The club have been saying that because I am over 30, I have to wait until the last year of my contract to speak about an extension. Questions come into my mind. Do the club want me to say?" "I am much appreciated by the coach. But I need support from the club as well." "Even my son loves Fernando Torres. He's glamour. He's a top striker. My son likes Drogba and Anelka. The strikers are always the one the children seen on TV celebrating.'' "I want Ancelotti to stay. Players come and go but the manager is the key. We can win the Champions League under him one day. We got to the quarter-finals and lost to United, who could win it. We are still in competition for the title. It's not a bad season. Most managers would like this kind of season." "They are complementary. Didier is more like a target player and Fernando likes to go into the space, and attack the line." "Fernando is popular. It's not easy to come into a team in January with great expectations and the amount of the transfer. He's quiet. He's working really hard. It takes time. It took me almost 10 months to fit in. You need patience. That's why Fernando signed a long-term deal." "I never went up to a top striker like Fernando and said 'it will be OK'. I am the one who should be asking him how to improve. But we were feeling the pressure. Everyone was anxious. We are humans."

Torres does have experience playing up front with another world class striker, David Villa, when playing on the Spanish NT. I know he and Drogba are different but Villa is world class. Unfortunately for Torres, it doesn't seem to bring out the best in him although Villa is the first to point out the work off the ball that Torres does. He also mentions Torres' presence takes defenders away from him and gives him space to move. Spain builds up slowly where Torres plays better in quicker tempo game (just my opinion). I hope whatever lineup/formation Carlo has lined up for tomorrow works regardless if Torres starts or not. I'm not an expert by any means but if you want to play Torres and Drogba successfully together right now I think you need Drogba to play behind Torres.

Or blame Torres. Or both, Carlo and Torres.

One question: the quotes are from his agent, any Chelsea comments/quotes?

Maybe Carlo took the two aside and said "You are both fantastic players, we have a change to catch Manchester United, we ARE going to make this work, don't F this up by refusing to play with each other or I'll kick both your asses". Or something like that.

Getting from Carlo's press conference that he's leaning toward Drogba and Torres together. I have very mixed feelings about this. Would love for it to work but don't see it working. Maybe Carlo sees something the rest of us don't.

I think Jose is entertaining to listen to up to a point. I think today's display on and off the pitch will remind Roman why they needed to part ways. I think there's only so much seige mentality one can take. More telling to me were Ronaldo's comments "Do I like to play in a defensive team like Madrid? No, but I have to adapt to what the coach wants". Never a dull day in Jose's world.

I saw that this morning and I don't want to look too much into it. Hopefully it was just a small sided drill and not a clue for Sat.

Goal! Goal gif http://twitter.com/#!/nuevesiempre - has a lot of links for Fernando and other Spanish football related stories, pics

Maddock is a first-class bastard who is part of the Merseyside journalistic mafia that can't understand how anybody could leave the embodiment of football heaven. I get fans and their myopic views but a journalist is supposed to at least pretend to be unbiased. There isn't even the pretense of that in Maddock's rants. This article in February 2011, if you want to call it that, isn't fit to line a bird cage. And he wonders why Torres didn't want to talk to him or any other English press hack. No matter what Maddock thinks or says in this piece of crap, Torres didn't lose the fans until he left Liverpool. Even now you have to wonder if he's lost them because they're so obsessed with saying they're over him, they've moved on, yet they follow his every move. Maddock proving what an idiot he is wrote this article in September 2010 about Torres. A complete 180 from February 2011. Too bad Maddock doesn't write about the Spaniards, Torres and Reina, speaking against Hicks and Gillette while the two Merseyside boys, Carragher and Gerrard, were quietly sitting with their thumbs up their..... afraid to say anything. I can't respect journalists who use their bully pulpit to simply hate a player because they left a club you supposedly report on. I can't respect that as a football fan or an educated adult.

I think it was during the transfer there was some talk about Fernando and the press and the lack of press interviews he did. A lot of Liverpool fans referred to the interview Torres supposedly did with an English paper in December or January (can't remember specifically) stating he was staying in Liverpool. Based on this "interview" they said he was a liar and traitor. According to Torres' confidants he hadn't done a paper interview for several months. Torres didn't come out and deny anything which is his style. Torres will give interviews to the club and let the club post online, etc. I think he trusts that the club will do what's right. He'll do more interviews in Spain when on Spanish NT duty. But he doesn't do a lot of sit down interviews with the English press. Some say it was because initially he didn't speak English. Once he did learn English he still wasn't comfortable and the potential for misunderstandings between him or the reporter was there. While his English has come a LONG way, it's still his second language and I think he'd rather not. So because the media can't speak to him (or he won't speak to them), they're against him. Or they're just first class lazy pr*cks.

Going back to the game - did you notice Torres seems to be wearing the shirt and shorts looser? In my expert analysis I've decided that was one of the key factors. Seriously, what is in the goal scoring water this week? Villa scored. Torres scored. Dzeko scored. Sure most of you don't care, but Donovan scored in MLS. But we all know nobody took as much flack as Torres. Even my bratty daughter wanted to know why everybody hated Torres so much.

Adult small work for you? We have Torres shirts from Atletico she got when she went to Spain on a school trip. My daughter said the affection and love they still have for Torres is so genuine. We have Torres shirts from the Spanish NT in red and blue. After they won the WC she wanted the new one with the star. I had to finally say no to that. We HAD Torres shirts from Liverpool. I was going to keep them even after the stupid scousers started burning his shirt. Once the media/Liverpool attack on Torres started I had to get rid of them. My daughter's friend was going on a mission with her Church to an orphanage in Mexico so we donated the shirts to them. Her friend said the shirts were a huge hit. That said, I still can't believe the brat had the nerve to get on the bus even for a few matches.

My resident 16 year old football expert has been a little bit a of brat lately and jumped on the Torres stinks bus (even after I bought her 3 Torres shirts, ungrateful brat). I told her we weren't watching any more games together. So Saturday came along, we came home after her Saturday game at the 87th minute. Saw the score was 2-0. I knew Frank had scored the 1st goal but didn't know about goal #2. We rewound the DVR and watched the goal. HAPPY DANCE! I told my daughter she could stay and watch and she said "That's the Torres I know. He played like a BAMF on the field like he is." I said that was an instinctive strike. She was more impressed that he immediately made the run off Anelka after Anelka got his head on Cech's punt, kept his composure, and knew where he was on the field. She said that's harder than it looks to stay on your feet, know where you are in relation to the goal and defenders in that short timespan, and shoot on target. She was also impressed with Anelka giving Torres the great through ball. She said it's like they knew exactly what the other player was going to do and it's so simple, yet so hard. Then she had the nerve to ask if she could have the new home kit. Brat. (I'm thinking about it. I'm a sucker)

That's a great clip. The crowd roars when Anelka slips the ball through to Torres, the sound decreases, then the incredible roard when he scores. Classic! Kudos to those at SB for the atmosphere.

I think this kind of sums it up pretty evenly. Torres Scores "But the hysteria and vehemence that people spewed forth in the following months was so over the top that I couldn't help but root for him. So to finally see him end football's longest statistical anomaly today—well, let's just say I was relieved." We all were! "The drought was over, and now this likable but outlandishly persecuted figure could get back to doing what he does best: scoring goals."

If he plays for your team, he's quirky and has some idiosyncracies. If he plays against you, he's a headcase.

I love Torres but I'd rather he not play with Drogba at this point in the season. Let them both lead the line in their own way and give Tottenham something to think about.

After watching (and re-watching) Torres first Chelsea goal this weekend I had a few rambling thoughts: 14 Chelsea games, 732 minutes, average 52 minutes a game 14 Chelsea games, 1260 minutes if he'd played 14 full games The start may not have been what he or anybody else expected but it is what it is. Torres has played with the team, they've gotten used to him and vice versa. He hasn't run himself into the ground playing injured (with Chelsea). Hopefully with a summer off and half a season under his belt, he'll come back better than ever. Maybe in the long run this awkward and painful transition will be the best for him and the team. I think most players can empathize with a player going through a bad "moment" and appreciate the hard work and frustration. The camaraderie from the team when he scored was something I haven't seen very often in sports. They all truly seemed happy for him and that says something about the players and Torres. I loved Carlo's reaction on the sideline too. Torres has handled himself like a true professional by all accounts in the dressing room and Carlo. This is the worst stretch of his professional career and like they say "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger". The goal, that swivel turn and finish was instinctive finishing. That was the Torres I remember watching. He played with a swagger and purpose and it was fun to watch. Maybe the comforts of moving into a home and being with his young family were the missing puzzle. When he scored his first Liverpool goal this season he looked tired and relieved. When he scored his first Chelsea goal he looked ecstatic. Frank on Torres