Fernando Torres

[Henri 115]

The thing i will say is what i been saying over and over again. Attitude!

Torres attitude is like Berbatov. They are great player, but they are like whatever attitude....

While Sturridge and Hernandez have a totally different attitude. And this attitude helps them a bit.

I think It has nothing to do with his atttude, hunger yes attitude no. Torres has not been great as a Chelsea player thats for sure. He is to blame

but not him alone. The way we play doesn`t suit him, its been told many times. But lets se what will happen with him and Mata. He has to be

that ego striker in front or he will never be useful for us. In Liverpool there was only Torres and every ball came to him, in Chelsea there

are many strikers and egos who has to be satisfied.

[Henri 115]

My fucking god, don't write off Torres before the man has some fucking proper support!

Seriously pissing me off. Mata came on for 20 minutes and Torres had his best chance to score in his 3 games this season.

Yeah, they link well looks good.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

My fucking god, don't write off Torres before the man has some fucking proper support!

Not writing him off at all.

He can still be a good striker and still could get us a lot of goals. But the form that we did pay £50million for, will not be returning to him. This I am, disappointingly, sure of.

[TacticalBlues 2,817]

The Dzeko situation gives me some hope too, he had time to gel, and now has Silva, Nasri and Aguero helping him out. We have Mata and if we get a Modric/Sneijder before the end of the window watch the difference. Torres is a great striker , but needs some more service and balls to be delivered to him. I mean we all know how hopeless our wingers have been and how we've lacked creativity - these don't just impact the wingers/midfielders as well all know but the strikers too. Guess we're just spoiled with Drogba who has sometimes shown he doesn't need anybody, besides he played with Lampard in his prime and did have more service/help than what we have provided Torres. He's the shadow of himself and sometimes I feel he's is looking to pass to Drogba even though he's on the bench! A creative midfielder is needed and Mceachran and Mata (goes without saying) need to be used more.

EDIT: Forgot about Davilla, hope he gets some chances. Really excited about him. Kakuta should be given some too. Those two can definitely far better the Kalouda.

[Guest justin_3d]

The Dzeko situation gives me some hope too, he had time to gel, and now has Silva, Nasri and Aguero helping him out. We have Mata and if we get a Modric/Sneijder before the end of the window watch the difference. Torres is a great striker , but needs some more service and balls to be delivered to him. I mean we all know how hopeless our wingers have been and how we've lacked creativity - these don't just impact the wingers/midfielders as well all know but the strikers too. Guess we're just spoiled with Drogba who has sometimes shown he doesn't need anybody, besides he played with Lampard in his prime and did have more service/help than what we have provided Torres. He's the shadow of himself and sometimes I feel he's is looking to pass to Drogba even though he's on the bench! A creative midfielder is needed and Mceachran and Mata (goes without saying) need to be used more.

This is true.

Just keep Torres main striker. Who cares what Drogba has to say. He did good for the club, but if he wants to stay, he knows hes time will be on the bench and coming on as a super sub.

[Tortilla9 390]

The Dzeko situation gives me some hope too, he had time to gel, and now has Silva, Nasri and Aguero helping him out. We have Mata and if we get a Modric/Sneijder before the end of the window watch the difference. Torres is a great striker , but needs some more service and balls to be delivered to him. I mean we all know how hopeless our wingers have been and how we've lacked creativity - these don't just impact the wingers/midfielders as well all know but the strikers too. Guess we're just spoiled with Drogba who has sometimes shown he doesn't need anybody, besides he played with Lampard in his prime and did have more service/help than what we have provided Torres. He's the shadow of himself and sometimes I feel he's is looking to pass to Drogba even though he's on the bench! A creative midfielder is needed and Mceachran and Mata (goes without saying) need to be used more.

I think Torres is a better striker than Dzeko yet Mancini has managed to fit him into a style of play that suits Dzeko's strengths and the squad's. I don't see that with Torres whether he's playing good or shit. The style still seems to be we're Chelsea of 2-3 years ago when we were in our prime and we're still going to play the same way no matter what. The Chelsea time machine has not changed.

Torres at his best is playing with the ball QUICKER, not slower, not sideways, not backwards, forwards and quicker. For God's sake, Torres played at Kuyt at Liverpool who has the touch of a tree trunk. BUT Kuyt (and others) played quickly and played forward. Torres could create something out of nothing even at Liverpool. The difference he received the ball sooner and was able to attack quicker. Now, defenders everywhere know Chelsea will receive the ball in the middle of the park, pass it backwards, sideways, and maybe then go forward. It's too predictable and too stagnant.

[TacticalBlues 2,817]

This is true.

Just keep Torres main striker. Who cares what Drogba has to say. He did good for the club, but if he wants to stay, he knows hes time will be on the bench and coming on as a super sub.

Well I wouldn't put it like that at all, Drogba's not subservient to Torres at all. He can still play, and I'm sure he understands that he can't get every game at his age like he used too.

[dodojojo 510]

I think Torres is a better striker than Dzeko yet Mancini has managed to fit him into a style of play that suits Dzeko's strengths and the squad's. I don't see that with Torres whether he's playing good or shit. The style still seems to be we're Chelsea of 2-3 years ago when we were in our prime and we're still going to play the same way no matter what. The Chelsea time machine has not changed.

Torres at his best is playing with the ball QUICKER, not slower, not sideways, not backwards, forwards and quicker. For God's sake, Torres played at Kuyt at Liverpool who has the touch of a tree trunk. BUT Kuyt (and others) played quickly and played forward. Torres could create something out of nothing even at Liverpool. The difference he received the ball sooner and was able to attack quicker. Now, defenders everywhere know Chelsea will receive the ball in the middle of the park, pass it backwards, sideways, and maybe then go forward. It's too predictable and too stagnant.

Kyut, for all his shortcomings, did a lot of donkey work for Torres. And every once in awhile, he would come up with a sublime pass to Torres, remember the first goal last November at Anfield?

It's down to this: Liverpool played to Torres strengths no matter what. Whether or not he was in form or not, all the players would look to him for the final ball. Now I'm not saying they were very good at it for all 3 1/2 years, but the point is Torres knew his teammates were looking for him. And if they didn't, he would let them know about it. I remember games where he would chew out Babel or Kyut or Rodriquez if they egregiously ignored one of his runs . He can't do that at Chelsea. And even if he could, he would spend all game swearing in Spanish and his hands would get really tired considering how often he's bypassed.

Eh, it's frustrating. I wish I could wave a wand and make it all better.

[termninja 5,290]

Simple we should've never bought Torres. Sturridge should've played, and if not then we should've brought Suarez or Dzeko. Oh only if you could change teh past

[Waterfall 893]

I can't believe we paid 50M for a striker who needs the system AND squad built around him to score when 50M strikers should actually be creating chances for himself and others. People point to the lack of service, but he barely scores for Spain either. There are a lot of excuses being made for him, but there's clearly something wrong with him right now and I just hope he fixes it quickly. We need him.

[Guest justin_3d]

I can't believe we paid 50M for a striker who needs the system AND squad built around him to score when 50M strikers should actually be creating chances for himself and others. People point to the lack of service, but he barely scores for Spain either. There are a lot of excuses being made for him, but there's clearly something wrong with him right now and I just hope he fixes it quickly. We need him.

:goodpost:

That is what always come to my mind. Why the hell you need a system for somebody that cost that much?

[lionsden 4,689]

I can't believe we paid 50M for a striker who needs the system AND squad built around him to score when 50M strikers should actually be creating chances for himself and others. People point to the lack of service, but he barely scores for Spain either. There are a lot of excuses being made for him, but there's clearly something wrong with him right now and I just hope he fixes it quickly. We need him.

Great post

We could pay £100m for Heskey and people had still make excuses for his poor performances. . pathetic isn't it. It's no secret Man city, last season, under Mancini's guidance where overly defensive and short of creativity with a midfield trio of De Jong, Yaya toure and Barry (3 defensive MF) Yet a certain Carlos Tevez still managed to bang in bucket load of goals which earned him the golden boot. Add to that, he achieved this despite playing as a lone striker for most of the season.

Like you rightly asserted, a £50m striker should be able to create his own goals. I'm sick of all these excuses.

What happened to running at defenders, cutting inside for a shot at goal, shooting accurately from long range, chasing after every lose ball (Tevez comes to mind) and anticipating potential weakness to exploit (mata, Raul), getting into the right areas/positional awareness (all hail Raul, Nistelroy, Chicharito, inzaghi) what happened to that? What is he doing to enhance his own performance and form?, just waiting until we sign Xavi, Iniesta and Ozil? I have no sympathy for someone who's not willing to grab the bull by the horn and take some initiative.

[Tomo 21,733]

I think the main problem stems from the very start of his Chelsea career, the Liverpool match, he should not have played or been near the team that match, it was too much. Maybe if we had Liverpool in April, May after he has been with us a few months and scored a few times but it was that match that killed his confidence IMO. He was getting kicked about all game and had a shocker. Fulham away would have been the perfect time to introduce him playing him in the Pool match was criminal.

[Spike 12,049]

We really screwed this situation up, didn't we?

All he needs is two games where he scores in both.

On another note, I hate to say it but we have to trim the fat and just simply get rid of some players and replace with hungry, young and dynamic players. Namely; Kalou, Anelka, Malouda, Drogba and sadly Lamps. We are too sentimental we should just let some people go, we let great players like, Zola, Gudjohnson, Flo, Robben, Wise and Makelele go, why can't we do the same for this lot?

The entire club not just the players are stagnating, I think come next year AVB will be brandishing an axe.

Maybe I'm just rambling but I think, someone like Torres needs a better environment to suceed. He needs someone to say that 'he is the best player in the world and everyone else is just fucking with him'.

Hell, we probably had a better squad in the late 90s and Early 00s than we do now.

[DJ Nevin 24]

I agree re that match when SB was like a bear pit and the media hounding that followed only added to this and took the pressure off Liverpool who seem to have taken wing from the destruction of his career and reputation. The reality is that the problem appears to be more psychological than physical. He's always been a player who has constructed a view of himself based on loyalty and playing for the underdogs which led him to reach his mid twenties without any club trophies. Despite his claims that romance is dead in the game he doesn't seem able to recover from the deconstruction of his personal mythology. In a strange way his intelligence seems to be hindering him. The man obviously thinks too much. He needs some of Rooney's animal force and lack of reflection as these are the qualities that are of value on the pitch. If he doesn't sort it out this is going to remain a big problem for Chelsea.

[Hysteria 159]

I've always thought every mananger that we had with a millionaire sign have a big pressure on him...if you paid 50 million for one player its like, "you have to use it". Anyways, i still have faith in Torres, my main reason is our midfield without creativity, how many chances can you have with our midfield? =/ Also i think he needs a boost of confidence, he need a game with 3 goals or something...

[The Rising Sun 709]

The biggest problem with fernando is not only the 'lack of service' from our midfield. What he does not do, and indeed should be doing regardless of whether he is being passed the ball or not, is to 'MAKE SPECULATIVE RUNS'. The only reason he scored in pre-season was because he was making a speculative run, hoping to get the ball in his path, which it did, and he did score.

Many times our players manage to get forward but i always notice torres is not anywhere for a tap in, rather he is standing at the edge of the 18 yard box. That speculative run is very important and god knows why AVB etc are not telling him that. A miss hit, deflection, 'an unlikely pass' could find his foot for a tap in. Simple as that. And the Goals start coming from then on.

For me, i would love to give him as much time as possible, but i think this next(sunderland?) game will be a turning/stagnation point for nando. No drogba so he's the main man. Support from Mata and Sturridge. No excuses there. Hopefully we have modric by then. If then he doesnt score/hit post/have shots on target/trouble the keeper, then a good performance by him is not good enough. I mean come on, the lad needs to score once every 4 games in order to reach double figures for the season.

What do you guys think? I am not pessimistic or anything. I just watched both Manchester Clubs play yesterday.

[Beast 85]

He needs to pull his head out of his loving ass and realise that playing at Chelsea is not a joke, and he is dragging the club down. I agree with what the other posters said, why do we need to build a team around a 50M man? He needs to create chances on his own aswell. I support Torres but i'm on thin ice. Dzeko realised that the EPL is no fun and games so we whipped some ass by scoring 6 goals in 3 games. Torres is a liability to the club and personally I'm going to give him 5 games to see what he can do, by then we should of brought in a playmaker.