Fernando Torres

[Zoro 151]

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

In football the longer you go without scoring, the more the opposition believes they can get something from the game. If Torres is missing chances or losing possession constantly then eventually our defences comes under pressure. You cant blame only Torres, but he has been a big factor for us losing quite a few games last year.

[Slam Dunk 1,442]

That's a lot of hypotheticals in one post. I'm not saying that without a better striker than Torres, we'd have possibly finished in a better position, it's just your original argument that he was the reason alone why we didn't challenge for the league was laughable.

[Las7 951]

That's a lot of hypotheticals in one post. I'm not saying that without a better striker than Torres, we'd have possibly finished in a better position, it's just your original argument that he was the reason alone why we didn't challenge for the league was laughable.

Had we won 3 of the matches we failed to do by a one goal margin(plenty of which were 0-0 draws btw) - we would have hope for the title come May.

QPR we finished 0-0, Torres played 80 minutes did nothing.

Swansea we finished 1-1, Torres wondered around for 90 minutes.

Liverpool we finished 1-1, Torres was actually still playing for Liverpool that match judging by his performance

Man City we finished 0-0, once again Torres put on his Ghost costume for 90 minutes

Fulham we finished 0-0, nothing meaningful from Torres yet again

QPR lost 1-0, not a hope in the World cause Mr. Torres plays 90 again

Reading draw 2-2, no goal

Newcastle lose 3-2, yet again no goal

Liverpool, Tottenham should I mention those two gems 2-2 with yet again Torres getting 180 minutes and doing jack

Tell me how many of those matches might have been effected if we actually had a capable striker up top who didn't either do his best to sabotage his team mates or went into ghost mode.

I'm not saying we would have won the League without Torres I'm saying if we had a capable striker instead like Lukaku; Sturridge we would have been challenging at the very least till April and if we had a World Class one like RvP we would have won.

[Slam Dunk 1,442]

That argument could easily be pulled apart by saying that if we didn't concede once or twice in a match, we wouldn't have lost it. Which has little to do with the striker.

Let's just agree to disagree, because this is getting tedious.

[Special Juan 28,133]

What's getting tedious is we are all hoping Torres still comes good, what sort of sad state of affairs is that?

What annoys me more is the fact he is still here receiving that extra loud Cheer when he scores because people actually feel sorry for him and also the fact Drogba left and we are left with Torres when we should of at least busted a gut to do everything in our power to keep Drogba here to cover the arse of Torres.

[Las7 951]

That argument could easily be pulled apart by saying that if we didn't concede once or twice in a match, we wouldn't have lost it. Which has little to do with the striker.

Let's just agree to disagree, because this is getting tedious.

Your opinion states that Torres is not at fault, mine states that if we had a capable striker who didn't have the statistics of mostly loosing the ball; having low passing success %; failed to end up in goal scoring position; failed to pressure defenders inside the box; failing to score one on one chances; failing to have MOTM performances in big matches; failing to score tap ins because he is outside the box; failing to not occupy position which Mata/Lampard/Hazard get into hampering their movement we would have finished higher and finishing higher would mean we challenged for the title.

The same argument could be made in reverse would Barca be a better team without Messi - do you expect them to win more points or less

Would Real be better without Ronaldo - do you expect them to win more points or less

Would Tottenham finished higher without Bale - do you expect them to win more points or less

Would United win the title without RVP - do you expect them to win more points or less

A lot of teams have a clear top player in our case, currently it's Mata if we didn't have Mata last season I would confidently state we would have finished outside the top four, because he is match changer - big matches small matches it doesn't matter he is the full package. The same is applied in the opposite spectrum to Torres.

[Slam Dunk 1,442]

Your opinion states that Torres is not at fault,

I said no such thing. To repeat myself, I said he's not solely to blame, which was your original argument.

[didierforever 7,349]

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-stay

AM boss wants him and yet no official bid.

valencia article is a dailymail and any1 who reads those are well....

jose wants WAYNE ROONEY. despite us having 3 strikers already. we have a 50mil striker with us and still are going after another 30mil striker? why is that? is that because JOSE is happy with torres? or do u actually think that if we buy rooney we ll keep 4 strikers with us in a predominatly 1 striker system (be it 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3). BA might become the scapegoat here if we end up getting rooney (or etoo, etoo for god's sake, a 31 year old past his prime striker, that should tell you exactly HOW HAPPY jose has to be with our strikers) and he ll probably leave because 1. he would be worth 10-15 (same as torres), 2. he has less than half of torres' wages, 3. he is 100 times a better player than torres.

[didierforever 7,349]

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-stay

AM boss wants him and yet no official bid.

valencia article is a dailymail and any1 who reads those are well....

jose wants WAYNE ROONEY. despite us having 3 strikers already. we have a 50mil striker with us and still are going after another 30mil striker? why is that? is that because JOSE is happy with torres? or do u actually think that if we buy rooney we ll keep 4 strikers with us in a predominatly 1 striker system (be it 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3). BA might become the scapegoat here if we end up getting rooney (or etoo, etoo for god's sake, a 31 year old past his prime striker, that should tell you exactly HOW HAPPY jose has to be with our strikers) and BA will probably leave because teams will actually want him and even make a bid for him unlike floppes because of these reasons

1. he would be worth 10-15 (same as torres),

2. he has less than half of torres' wages,

3. he is 100 times a better player than torres.

so tell me one reason why torres should not get any stick. i mean the person who had the bloody balls of complaining about his place in the team 2-3 days after we won the CL and the person who was made the sole striker of the team by selling off anelka, letting go off drogba and kalou, loaning out lukaku and shifting sturridge to right wing which ultimately made us sell him, and then he screws us over with a string of god-awful performances.

so forgive me if i cant see a silver lining anywhere in this

[Mouri_Matic 560]

Had we won 3 of the matches we failed to do by a one goal margin(plenty of which were 0-0 draws btw) - we would have hope for the title come May.

QPR we finished 0-0, Torres played 80 minutes did nothing.

Swansea we finished 1-1, Torres wondered around for 90 minutes.

Liverpool we finished 1-1, Torres was actually still playing for Liverpool that match judging by his performance

Man City we finished 0-0, once again Torres put on his Ghost costume for 90 minutes

Fulham we finished 0-0, nothing meaningful from Torres yet again

QPR lost 1-0, not a hope in the World cause Mr. Torres plays 90 again

Reading draw 2-2, no goal

Newcastle lose 3-2, yet again no goal

Liverpool, Tottenham should I mention those two gems 2-2 with yet again Torres getting 180 minutes and doing jack

Tell me how many of those matches might have been effected if we actually had a capable striker up top who didn't either do his best to sabotage his team mates or went into ghost mode.

I'm not saying we would have won the League without Torres I'm saying if we had a capable striker instead like Lukaku; Sturridge we would have been challenging at the very least till April and if we had a World Class one like RvP we would have won.

I agree completely apart from some of the results like against Reading and Newcastle, we lost points in those match because of pure shit defending instead of Torres but it doesn't help that he doesn't do shit for us either. Some of the games against big teams are understandable because he is not a big game player anymore but games against the likes of Fulham, QPR are UNACCEPTABLE because they are as shit as it comes to in the league. If he can't do shit against them then how the hell does he stands a chance against half decent teams?

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Had we won 3 of the matches we failed to do by a one goal margin(plenty of which were 0-0 draws btw) - we would have hope for the title come May.

QPR we finished 0-0, Torres played 80 minutes did nothing.

Swansea we finished 1-1, Torres wondered around for 90 minutes.

Liverpool we finished 1-1, Torres was actually still playing for Liverpool that match judging by his performance

Man City we finished 0-0, once again Torres put on his Ghost costume for 90 minutes

Fulham we finished 0-0, nothing meaningful from Torres yet again

QPR lost 1-0, not a hope in the World cause Mr. Torres plays 90 again

Reading draw 2-2, no goal

Newcastle lose 3-2, yet again no goal

Liverpool, Tottenham should I mention those two gems 2-2 with yet again Torres getting 180 minutes and doing jack

Tell me how many of those matches might have been effected if we actually had a capable striker up top who didn't either do his best to sabotage his team mates or went into ghost mode.

I'm not saying we would have won the League without Torres I'm saying if we had a capable striker instead like Lukaku; Sturridge we would have been challenging at the very least till April and if we had a World Class one like RvP we would have won.

You can't really blame Torres for moreorless any of those results. Did he fuck up a 1v1 when 2-0 on Reading? Nope. Blame our piss-poor defenders.

[Mr_President 404]

You can't really blame Torres for moreorless any of those results. Did he fuck up a 1v1 when 2-0 on Reading? Nope. Blame our piss-poor defenders.

Whilst I agree that it isn't just Torres's fault, and much of the blame can be laid at the feet of defenders (and a certain manager who shall not be named), you can't say just because he didn't miss a 1v1 means he didn't have a negative effect. I believe the poster was meaning Torres wasn't creating any chances for himself with his lack of movement, or 'ghost mode' as he put it, which is a very important part of a strikers job.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Whilst I agree that it isn't just Torres's fault, and much of the blame can be laid at the feet of defenders (and a certain manager who shall not be named), you can't say just because he didn't miss a 1v1 means he didn't have a negative effect. I believe the poster was meaning Torres wasn't creating any chances for himself with his lack of movement, or 'ghost mode' as he put it, which is a very important part of a strikers job.

Granted, and I see what the poster is saying. But Torres is Torres. We know he can't carve a slice of cake the same way Didier could: Fernando needs to be spoon-fed. That's the type of striker he is. But we knew that at the start of the season - Torres was our best striker; better than Ba and better than Sturridge. The fact he isn't able to cut the mustard every other game any more is a failing by the club to sign another forward after selling Anelka, Drogba and Kalou without replacing any of them. My point is we can lay the blame of Torres all we like, but was anybody blaming Drogba when we lost games in 2011/12 and he didn't do anything? Because, trust me, there was as many performances from Didier between 2011 and 2012 that were as bad as - actually, probably worse - than anything Torres has done for us. No-one likes it when people bad-mouth Drogba, but it seems to be fashionable to make out Torres is at fault for everything! It's a very ineffective analysis.

[Hutcho 8,443]

Why did I click on the Fernando Torres thread. I have no idea... I already regret my decision.

[mediator 2,026]

Why did I click on the Fernando Torres thread. I have no idea... I already regret my decision.

Same here