Fernando Torres

[Heisenberg 1,824]

I should clarify that by attacking midfielders, i meant wingers as well(Hazard, Schurrle, Moses) and not just Mata, Oscar and KDB!

What you say about them is right but it's pretty textbook stuff! It's not necessary that that is what will happen in the game as well! Now a days, CFs are used to create spaces for the AMFs to run in on goal, CFs are used to knock the ball down for the AMFs to get to them and score! Football has evolved a lot(thanks to Barcelona lately) when it comes to attacking options! Gone are the days where teams would line a simple 4 4 2 formation and only CFs were supposed to score the goals. Hence as i said in my last comment, we were the 2nd highest goal scorers in the league!

And the third best team in England.

Barcelona have Messi, he create spaces for teammates but at the end of the day he is their top scorer.Suarez does the same, van Persie in a different role but still help a lot his team, Rooney back in the 2010 season, Henry at Arsenal...all are very good center-forwards but all are top scorers before anything else.Gone are the days where team would line a simple 442 ? 442 was never a simple formation, it was the most used one because if your players respond well to your ideas it works.Ferguson with his 442 or 4411 could only agree, use well your talents, not adapting them to your schema.

[Las7 951]

Here's a 4 month old article where Atletico Mdrid's boss wants him. http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/386551/Diego-Simeone-wants-Fernando-Torres-back-at-Atletico-Madrid

Valencia are reportedly interested in him : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2381357/Fernando-Torres-wanted-Valencia-replace-Roberto-Soldado.html

Here's Jose saying he is happy with him : http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/330223/Banish-those-blues-Jose-Mourinho-urges-Fernando-Torres-to-st

No one wants Torres, if they did he would have been sold long time ago. He alone was the difference between us challenging for the title and scrapping for forth last season. A striker that scored 1 goal in 321 minutes on the field for us in the EPL last season and his goals are against some of the worst sides, with the only quality opposition he scored against were Everton and Arsenal virtually any other goal he scored was against Relegation threatened teams. In about 1/3 of the playing time Sturridge scored 11 goals in the EPL, managed to be MOTM against US and Manchester City and scored another goal against United. Lukaku managed a hat trick last season against United and scored a goal at a higher rate than RvP and Suarez in a lesser team. Meantime Torres struggles with virtually the two best chance creators in the Premier League - Mata and Hazard

[Ankit 3,176]

And the third best team in England.

Barcelona have Messi, he create spaces for teammates but at the end of the day he is their top scorer.Suarez does the same, van Persie in a different role but still help a lot his team, Rooney back in the 2010 season, Henry at Arsenal...all are very good center-forwards but all are top scorers before anything else.Gone are the days where team would line a simple 442 ? 442 was never a simple formation, it was the most used one because if your players respond well to your ideas it works.Ferguson with his 442 or 4411 could only agree, use well your talents, not adapting them to your schema.

4 4 2 is now not used by top teams that extensively now, most of them line up in a 4 3 3 or more so in a 4 2 3 1 formation. Now i am not saying that we don't need a prolific striker but our midfield(esp Lampard) has always scored lots of goals which most of the other teams don't have the luxury of! 2nd highest goals scorers but 3rd in the league, for me that shows that Attack shouldn't be our first priority, midfield and defense is and we already have a much better MF and Defense than last time around!

[Slam Dunk 1,442]

He alone was the difference between us challenging for the title and scrapping for forth last season.

That's ridiculous. Losing at home to teams like QPR, and failing to hold onto an 1-0 or 2-0 advantage were more to blame than Torres.

[Ankit 3,176]

No one wants Torres, if they did he would have been sold long time ago. He alone was the difference between us challenging for the title and scrapping for forth last season. A striker that scored 1 goal in 321 minutes on the field for us in the EPL last season and his goals are against some of the worst sides, with the only quality opposition he scored against were Everton and Arsenal virtually any other goal he scored was against Relegation threatened teams. In about 1/3 of the playing time Sturridge scored 11 goals in the EPL, managed to be MOTM against US and Manchester City and scored another goal against United. Lukaku managed a hat trick last season against United and scored a goal at a higher rate than RvP and Suarez in a lesser team. Meantime Torres struggles with virtually the two best chance creators in the Premier League - Mata and Hazard

I certainly believe that if Jose wanted to offload Torres, he would have been offloaded a long time ago as you said! Again, i have to say i am not a Torres fan boy or anything but he certainly wasn't the reason of us losing out on title! We had RDM(fairly inexperienced) and Fat Waiter at helm and we gave away too many leads to either draw or lose! Nothing Torres or any other striker would have done!

[Tomo 21,751]

That's ridiculous. Losing at home to teams like QPR, and failing to hold onto an 1-0 or 2-0 advantage were more to blame than Torres.

You can't say Torres has not cost us results last season?

[Slam Dunk 1,442]

You can't say Torres has not cost us results last season?

I didn't say that though, did I? I just said he wasn't the sole reason we ended up 3rd instead of 1st.

[Pizy 18,877]

He certainly wasn't the only reason. If he had just had a handful more goals in the league we almost certainly would've finished above City.

Only 8 league goals is an utterly embarrassing tally and it did obviously did cost us points.

[Las7 951]

That's ridiculous. Losing at home to teams like QPR, and failing to hold onto an 1-0 or 2-0 advantage were more to blame than Torres.

Yep and who exactly is scoring goals to beat those teams - right we are lacking a striker and playing with 10 men for the majority of the campaign.

I certainly believe that if Jose wanted to offload Torres, he would have been offloaded a long time ago as you said! Again, i have to say i am not a Torres fan boy or anything but he certainly wasn't the reason of us losing out on title! We had RDM(fairly inexperienced) and Fat Waiter at helm and we gave away too many leads to either draw or lose! Nothing Torres or any other striker would have done!

There is nothing Jose can do to offload Torres, otherwise he would have offloaded Kaka while at Real Madrid.

If Torres had done his job - scoring goals, we would have been challenging for the title in the League. When your striker's major contribution is loosing the ball and playing for the opposition it's convenient to blame RdM(who wasn't the one that chose Torres) and it certainly isn't the Fat Spanish Waiter who was just an appointment by the board to give Torres one last chance to recapture some form. When you are an unemployed Fat Spanish Waiter and some guys offer you a part time job you take it for some money cause being Fat and Spanish is tough

[Tomo 21,751]

I didn't say that though, did I? I just said he wasn't the sole reason we ended up 3rd instead of 1st.

It was the reason we were struggling for 4th, if we had a proper forward we would never be losing at home to QPR, ever!!!

[Zoro 151]

Really wanted Torres to succeed at Chelsea but he has been given enough chances to prove he has some sort of quality left. 8 goals in the league last season is a complete joke. He needs to leave.

[Heisenberg 1,824]

4 4 2 is now not used by top teams that extensively now, most of them line up in a 4 3 3 or more so in a 4 2 3 1 formation. Now i am not saying that we don't need a prolific striker but our midfield(esp Lampard) has always scored lots of goals which most of the other teams don't have the luxury of! 2nd highest goals scorers but 3rd in the league, for me that shows that Attack shouldn't be our first priority, midfield and defense is and we already have a much better MF and Defense than last time around!

The Lampard example isnt really an example, it is an exception.It is natural for him to score goals just like it should be for any top striker.

Attack shouldnt be our first priority, because we are not playing to win the Champions League, you'll say different message if you think we have a chance.In the Premier League yes, we should fix our midfield problem, with van Ginkel it seems he has the balls to play for us and perform, I dont think Essien and Mikel can do their job properly to win us the league.

[Heisenberg 1,824]

That's ridiculous. Losing at home to teams like QPR, and failing to hold onto an 1-0 or 2-0 advantage were more to blame than Torres.

We lost to QPR because of Torres, who missed a big chance in that game if you remember, and we lost the CWC because of him too, we also lost the Champions League because he wasnt up to the challenge vs Juve, Shakhtar (both games)

[Slam Dunk 1,442]

It's the strikers fault when the team concedes, or when the team fails to hold on to a 2-0 lead? Ok then.

[Las7 951]

It's the strikers fault when the team concedes, or when the team fails to hold on to a 2-0 lead? Ok then.

We had 25 matches that we either Won; Drew or Lost with a ONE GOAL MARGIN a striker that actually takes a shot or finishes one of the chances he creates for himself might have not only put us in contention for the title last season but it might have made us Champions. Because even games that were won by a ONE GOAL MARGIN are usually down the the wire and players like Mata; Hazard can not be subbed off for some rest for future matches. If he had done the job for which he was signed - putting the ball in the back of the net we would not have had to battle for the last spot in the CL but instead would have been in our rightful spot over the last decade as challengers - the rest of the squad was more than capable.

Also tell me when he has produced the goods in a big match in the EPL? A performance like Lukaku against United; Sturridge against us and Man City you know a Man of the Match performance with big contribution something that top strikers do on a regular basis