dodojojo

Sanity restored to the thread...

And picking out a bad pass from a 3 on 1 situation from the most recent game in isolation is as fair as pointing out a player couldn't complete 50% of his passes for a game. I know Drogba is a more complete striker than Fernando. The point is Torres, the entire time he was at Liverpool, a tip of the spear striker. Has he been played like and played to like one since he's been at Chelsea? I'm not absolving him from blame but there's plenty to make you stop and think a bit isn't there?

I don't know if the media started it but honestly reading Chelsea boards/forums today, I feel like I've walked into a shit stirring conference led by the Sun, People, and Daily Fail. It's really bizarre and fascinating how crowds can turn savage. It's the same with the interview, another molehill turning into a mountain. Sure Torres should have been more discreet but really, is it headline news? Did they read the entire interview? Or is it enough to go nuclear on one or two sentences he uttered? Isn't this the equivalent of when Kalou said that there were players who sulked when they weren't picked for games? And in the way he worded it, implying it was Torres? Did that they make the top story for all the papers? Was it investigated by the club? Did he get fined? Did we care about on the board? How many posts or threads were devoted to that one utterance by Kalou? Furthermore, that interview was out about 4 or 5 days ago. Did it cause a frenzy amongst Chelsea fans? Not that I could tell, but now that it's being 'investigated', let's see how something that was merely 'meh' 48 hours ago is going to turn into the world's greatest problem ever. Ever.

It's extraordinary the frenzy that swells on a turn of a dime. Three weeks ago we were optimistic that Torres was going to be much better this season but in one week's time, he's been dropped by Spain, dropped by Chelsea and had a poor 15 minutes in the most recent game. And it seems all of the frustrations have blown the top off the volcano. Whereas if you step back, you would see a striker who was relative to his teammates; MOTM in his first game, good in his 2nd game, below par in his 3rd and poor in a brief sub appearance. Can you honestly say as a center forward he received adequate service? If he had good service during the Stoke and in his fine form, grabbed a goal or two, how different would the situation be now? Has he had a chance to play with the faster and more creative players in the team? Has he fluffed chance after chance? And Drogba is a better passer than Torres? Maybe. But in the Norwich game, he didn't even complete 50% of his passes. Torres can't score for Spain even with their great midfielders, yadda, yadda...except the facts show he's only started two games for them since the WC, scored a brace in one of them and a concussion in the other. He's played the equivalent of 3 halves of football for Spain in the last 14 months and has 3 goals. His scoring rate is every 98 minutes. David Villa has 7 goals but has started 12 games and scores every 116 minutes. Am I saying Torres is better than Villa or that he shouldn't have been dropped? No of course not, but having a look at those facts tell me that Torres can be criticized but the shitstorm he endures in ratio to his time on the pitch is undeserved. Also how do you explain that even when Torres was at his absolute peak, he was never the star striker for Spain? What's the long-winded point then? Just step back a bit, let's see if he can play with the evolving line-up AVB is putting out there. With the the addition of Mata, Meireles and return of Sturridge, you have much more different team than the one against Stoke, WBA and Norwich. Can I guarantee Torres will perform. I wish, but of course not. But how about simply giving him and the team some time? Because the fact that is lost in the past hours of slinging is he's not played a single minute with that team. I understand the criticism of Torres and even more so the frustration. I'm just astounded by the eruption within the last 24 hours though.

This is a CL game against the 4th best team in the bundesliga. This is infinitely going to be more difficult than Sunderland. It's a bit strange that a few fans (here and other boards) think it'll be an easy game. BL is likely the best team Chelsea will face so far.

Of course his touch looks good in the video, they're all before he scores. Where's the video when he has a bad touch and doesn't score? He had those moments and days for Liverpool too. He's always, always had an inconsistent first touch. It's why he's struggled with tika taka Spain ("struggle" in relative terms, good enough to get 88 caps for the best national team of the last half decade) and he's always the first to be subbed. If Spain need or want to control a game, they take him off. If and when Torres comes good for Chelsea, he'll still have the inconsistent first touch. He's always been that way. I've said this before the long, long slump...if Torres had a world class first touch, he would be up there with Messi and Ronaldo because he is or was in 2007-09 so physically gifted. Even then with an iffy first touch, he was one of the top 5-10 players in the world.

Do they train well together or something? Carlo and now AVB insists on playing at the same time. Yet, all of us have seen a distinct lack of link-up between these two players in games. It's baffling.

I thought there was another Rugby world cup thread around? I remember posting on it... Anyhow, I'm rooting for the All Blacks as I lived there as a kid. My maternal family are in Australia and NZ, so there's divided loyalty. Pity the games are in early morning for the US and I won't be able to watch any of them live. Unbelievably, the games are being shown on a free channel in my area which makes missing them worse. Edit: however, I'll be able to catch replays in the late evening, yay!

And it's there. The translation is still a bit off but much better than Google. http://www.fernando9torres.com/index.php?p=4705

Weird that Romeu would start but not Meireles. Anyway, if that's from the Guardian, they've gotten starting lineups wrong many times before.

Correct. I think he'll be very good for Chelsea but also realistic that he's not Messi. He'll have some so-so and bad games. Just hope someone else can provide creativity and spark when Mata's having a bad day. That's why I wanted Modric, overpriced as he was.

"Dream experiment" They really should play a game or three before we start calling them the dream team. We're just having fun for now. But we won't know until we try so I'd like to see them in action for a good chunk of time tomorrow.

Did he say Ivan has a big bum?

Barca with Villa, Messi and Pedro?

Yeah, you would, wouldn't you... Why do I see a lot of posts being deleted shortly by the mods :redcard:

In English, very nice.

TenQ

Okay, how about MataDorreS? LOL, this is silly but fun...

How about MataTorS? That's what they'll be if it works

True. He should do a Malouda and keep whacking the ball until it goes in. Surely, even Torres' luck can't preclude him from a lucky defection every now and then.

Classic

Liverpool actually could have played Suarez in that game but held him out and debuted him in a smaller game where he scored a slightly lucky goal. Ancelotti should have started Torres against Fulham. Honestly, I wanted Torres to start against Liverpool but Ancelotti as the manager should have known better. It wasn't just Torres, Chelsea didn't have a player who could break down Liverpool playing 9-0-1 basically. Benayoun was still out and McEachran wasn't considered. Hopefully Sturridge and Mata will change that. Spilt milk and all. Hopefully Torres will slowly but surely recover and AVB will have the guys ready for revenge in November.

Pretty sure Lampard had scored the penalty so Chelsea were up 2-1.

Beauty and the Beast there...

http://www.sportyou.es/blog/home/noticia-portada/2011/09/08/fernando-torres-he-hecho-mucho-antes-y-despues-de-aquel-gol-a-alemania-363262.html Nando did a long interview while on international duty. Hopefully his site will translate the interview as it sometimes does. If you can't wait, google translate is your friend. Very good bits about Chelsea. He brings up the same points about speed of Chelsea's game, integrating younger players and being more vertical. Very, very kind words about Sturridge.