dodojojo

The new one is based on the old one--translated into Spanish and updated with sections on the national team and transfer to Chelsea. Plus new photos. Yes, his bio was actually in English. This is his first bio in his native language.

And Sturridge was MOTM against Arsenal? Or have you forgotten his foibles in that game? AVB did play Sturridge in the middle against Blackburn--it worked so well, he had Torres on sharpish after HT.

Man is 27 and just released an autobiography In any case, here's a bit of the promo event he did today in Madrid. Apparently the book covers his transfer to Chelsea but since it's in Spanish, I won't know too much about it.

Spain, no formation, now, they're just throwing the kitchen sink at CR's goal. Just desperation now. DB really bottle this one.

Spain still tiki-taka-ing right up the middle...and it's not working. I heard Torres' name. I hope he's not wasted in this crap game and saved for this weekend.

From Google translate roughly: Torres, Torres, Torres, Torres, Torres, Torres.... hahaha Torres, here, I'm blonde (trying for sympathy?) Torres, why are you so bad? (for not coming quickly enough?) Torres, I want to go with you. Torres in front of him, "Hi Torres" (softly and all innocent!) I don't understand the whole autograph thing myself, but good for the team and especially Torres for making those kids happy. It obviously means a lot to the kids.

CR 2 Spain 0. Del Bosque has so much to answer for....I've been whinging forever now that their defense was too slow, too patchy and that you can't be arrogant enough to think you can play without a proper center forward...and that tika taka while fantastic, has to adjust when a Plan B is needed. Basically, CR are bypassing Spain's midfield and the uneven pitch and sending balls over Spain's slow defense. CR's then just outrun them. Hmmm...sound familiar? If DB doesn't get off his fence and actually address these issues, Germany have to be big favorites in 2012.

Spain outplayed and outscored by Costa Rica so far. Can't blame this one on Torres...he's not on the pitch.

I totally disagree. I think the season has shown Chelsea are one good deep lying playmaker away from challenging City. Whether it's Modric or someone else, Chelsea needs someone to control the game which we have sadly lacked. Chelsea also needs someone to get the ball faster up to Mata and then to Torres. Mata has been less effective as he's had to drop deeper to get the ball. He's still one of Chelsea's top players but you can see he flits in and out of games because of the supply. He's good enough to play midfield but his true quality is to be much further up the pitch and he should be closer to Torres. Having Modric or someone like him has huge butterfly effects on this team. Having someone who can cycle the ball faster will also lessen the pressure on the brittle defense. Meireles, Ramires, Lampard and Mikel are good players and are significant contributors but they can't do what Modric does. This is stuff you can't directly measure with stats alone.

Kuyt has no pace at all. But he's hard working and very clever. I fear him helping out Suarez along with Bellamy. Their movement could give Chelsea a lot of problems. We only hope Chelsea's front three troubles their back line even more. I agree Dalglish will go conservative and take advantage of AVB's inevitable attack game plan. Basically Chelsea needs to slam home a couple of early goals to force Liverpool to play. If they score first then it's either they'll close up shop OR get very ugly as they exploit Chelsea as we go forward for the equalizer. Then it'll be Arsenal all over again.

Is Modric takinga Is he taking a break from Tottenham this weekend?

Suarez doesn't really have pace, he's more tricky and slippery. I do fear he will give the Chelsea defense a lot of problems. Let's hope he forgets his shooting boots. More important, Chelsea's attack has to move cleverly and keep Liverpool's defense and tandem of Lucas/Adam preoccupied in their own half. This will force Liverpool's defensive line to drop back and hopefully that will isolate Suarez further up or force him to constantly drop back for the ball. If Torres and Sturridge can click, Chelsea will do well. Problem is I don't think there's been one game where they both played well. It's always one or the other. Their pace and movement should cause Liverpool problems. But if they're static or Sturridge repeats his Arsenal and Man United performances and leaves Torres isolated and frustrated....yikes.

Liverpool won both games last season. Chelsea now have the scorers from those 2 games. Hopefully those two will be scoring for Chelsea this coming week.

Then criticize his lack of scoring. Critique why he's not doing his job. Don't conflate his lack of scoring with taking penalties since he's not being a penalty taker for a very long time. The penalty kicking is a strawman argument. What's next, people will start questioning why he won't step up and take free kicks? That's the issue isn't it? He's not scoring, fans are angry so they glom on anything to beat him over the head. The thing you don't even have to because you can just concentrate on the things he is supposed to be doing and currently not doing well. And what he has done and is supposed to do since he's come to England is to score from open play. Simply put, he doesn't take penalties because he's not very good at them and/or Chelsea have deemed that there are better options. Why would Chelsea want someone who isn't very good at PKs to take them?

Why is this so hard to understand? The coach picked two penalty takers for the game. Neither of them were Torres. It just so happened that one of them missed. Torres isn't the best of penalty takers and he hasn't taken them for a very long time. The best penalty kickers should take them for the team. PKs are precious, they're not to be arbitrarily bandied about. I'm not saying media criticism should affect what Torres does on the pitch. I'm saying whatever he does, there will be criticism of outlandish proportions. It's really damned he does, damned if he doesn't. If he missed the PK instead of Luiz, you don't think there would be moans about how Chelsea allowed a rusty (in terms of PKs) striker take the kick? Followed by stories about kow-towing to his ego, helping and failing miserably to buffer his fragile confidence, etc. There was a story in the Daily Fail about how Chelsea were going out of their way to coddle their Spanish superstar by letting him sit next to Juan Mata in the dressing room. This was for the simple matter of Torres having his locker next to Mata's. This was a "newsworthy" story.

Because the game turned into end to end stuff as Blackburn was chasing the goal. Torres excels in the wide open games and quick counters. That's what happened at the Man United game and that's why he did well there too. He struggles with slower games with little space. He should have scored. Made the wrong decision for an awkward ball. Easier to keep the ball down with a header in the situation than trying to kick it.

Was it any worse than Lampard's miss against Genk? I've not paid much attention to the media this week. Did they replay it constantly?

One of those days when 3 points is more than important than the performance. Torres should have done a diving header for the last one. The ball was too high and hence the sky high miss. Team still has issues creating good chances regardless of who's the CF.

I don't understand this reasoning at all. Strikers should take penalties just because they're expensive? What if he had missed? Then the commentators and everyone would be moaning why Chelsea would allow someone twho hasn't taken a competitive penalty in 4 1/2 years and what a greedy bastard Torres was. And everyone would laugh about how desperate he was for a goal. He used to take them for Atletico and even occasionally for Spain. He was okay but somewhere along the way he got into team situations where there were much better penalty takers and he stop taking them. You're either a good penalty kicker or you're not. It's very little to do with position. There are goalkeepers who are first choice penalty takers. I knew this issue would be brought up as soon Luiz missed and the commentator started his whinging about Torres. If he did his homework, he would know Torres has never taken a competitive penalty since coming to England. Maybe that's a good reason why he shouldn't be taking them? Don't remember commentators speculating about Torres when Gerrard or Kuyt missed for Liverpool. Or when Villa or Alonso missed for Spain.

Falcao doesn't score either when he doesn't get service from his Atletico Madrid teammates. The team went thru a stretch where they only scored in 2 games out of 7. And yes, on the AM board, questions were asked about why they just spent all of the Aguero money on Falcao.

I wasn't happy with his performance. He's either not in the right positions or is following instructions to play a certain way. Whatever the case, he still seems to be on a different wavelength with his teammates. How many chance balls seem to be always exactly where he isn't? There's something going on there. But I'm not going to buy the he isn't trying tag either. Should he throw in a few headless chicken runs, scream into the camera to show he cares, he really, really cares? He's trying, but he's being marked out, his movement and positioning isn't good enough, etc. But he's trying. Just a shit week for him.

Torres hasn't hardly gotten the ball for his runs and when he's tip toeing the line. Disappointed neither Anelka nor Meireles have tried a pass to him yet. I don't expect anything from Malouda.

Picture's not so great but it's not hiccuping. BTW, is there only one camera in the stadium? Everything is from high up from the halfway line.

There may be a reason why he stopped taking them? Like, he's not that great at it.

Stupid commentators not doing their homework, Torres hasn't taken a competitive PK for club or country in over 4 years. But hey, let's imply Torres is a coward for not stepping up.