WHY FERNANDO TORRES MAY NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN

        

Since that last day of January 2011 when Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich did the unthinkable and splashed out a record 50 million pounds for striker Fernando Torres, the jury has been out on the Spaniard. Was he worth that kind of price tag? Did Chelsea really need another forward at the time? Would he fit into the playing style of The Blues? These were some of the questions many asked. But to Roman, after refusing to splash the cash for months prior to this time, securing the services of one of the most feared strikers at the time and for such a fee was probably,  to make a statement to the Manchester City’s of this world that he wasn’t going to be a pushover in the transfer market.

However, a return of just one goal in the remaining five months of the 2010/1011 season, 11 last season and 7 in the current one has seen the once feared striker become the joke of many. That invincibility, the aura that got many a defender worried seems to have gone. In fact, a new lexicon, “Torres” has now been added to the unofficial Nigerian dictionary whenever someone misses a sitter.  “He just Torresed that chance,” now seems a normal phrase amongst football followers. As if this isn’t enough, several reports have suggested that maybe, leaving out Fernando for the Juventus defeat may have ultimately got Roberto Di Matteo the sack. Are you in doubt? Well, according to The Daily Mail’s Neil Ashton (who actually broke the news about RDM leaving out Fernando for the Juve game), RDM had a certain Radamel Falcao at the top of his wish list before the season started. However, when this list was presented to Abramovich, the reply was short and simple: Torres MUST play.

And so, Torres has played almost all 13 league games scoring 4 goals. Or better still, 7 goals in 21 games, that’s just about a goal every other three games. Truth be told, that isn’t a bad conversion rate. But Torres has had a nightmarish run since his 50 million pounds move to Stamford Bridge culminating in just one goal in 18 games in his first season (albeit 5 months); and 18 in 49 games last season. Question is, why has Torres not reproduced the form that made him one of the most feared forwards some years ago. Well, here are my thoughts on this well publicised issue:

Injuries have had a horrific effect on Torres. The spaniard has had two knee surgeries to correct a torn knee cartilage, the last one just before the 2010 World Cup. At that year’s global fiesta, Torres was a shadow of himself and even the first six months of the next season, 2010/2011, Torres could not hit the heights of the former years. This is as a result of losing that yard of pace that has always gave him an edge. Torres’ game is based on that burst of speed that takes him away from defenders. Against City at the weekend, Torres had two of such opportunities where he was one-on-one with Vincent Kompany. The Torres of old would have had an edge over the defender. Unfortunately, since that surgery, that pace has deserted the Spaniard.

More importantly, moving to Chelsea was (and in my opinion still) a wrong career move. At Liverpool, Torres was sorrounded by two of the best ball passing midfielders: Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso and fed off their incisive passes. In fact, Roberto Di Matteo reportedly carried out a research in his bid to cure the Fernando malaise and discovered that out of the 81 league goals Torres scored for Liverpool, an astounding 56 of them (about 70%) where scored from defence splitting passes, usually from Alonso and Gerrard. But at Chelsea, only Juan Mata can be said to be in the mould of the Liverpool duo in terms of defence splitting passes. More so, Chelsea’s game at the time of Fernando’s arrival were not the ball passing team like Liverpool. This in no small measure contributed to Fernando’s one goal in 18 games. Don’t agree? Consider that the first five months of that season, even though Torres’ form had become bad, he still managed 9 goals in 26 games for Liverpool. 

Yes, a lot of Blues supporters will be quick to bring up the argument that Eden Hazard and Oscar have been added to the team which has changed Chelsea’s pattern of play. However, looking at both acquisitions critically, how many times have both played those defence spliting passes which created goal-scoring opportunites for Torres? Hazard and Oscar are players who like to run at opposition and dribble past them or as in the case of Oscar arrive late in the box with a burst of speed to finish off a move. They are not in the mould of Mata, Cesc Fabgregas or David Silva who can open up defences with just one pass on a regular basis. Maybe manager Rafa Benitez had this in mind when he had this to say about Fernando after the game against City.

“You could see he was trying very hard. He had a good chance.” Benitez said. “But I think the team has to help Fernando and create more chances, and he will score goals.You cannot expect a striker to score on his own, so we have to create more and better chances for him with the players we have.”

Looking at Torres’ problem from another angle, a combination of lack of confidence; media hype and pressure; as well as possibly the weight of a hefty price tag  may have ultimately contributed to Torres’ form. A closer look at Fernando’s career before Liverpool shows that  the Spaniard cannot be described as one who will guarantee you 25 goals every season. In fact, in seven seasons at Atletico Madrid (two in the second division and five in La-Liga’s top flight), Fernando only managed to score at least 20 goals in all competitions twice, in the 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 seasons. But his first season at Liverpool saw the 28 year old bag an incredible 33 goals in 46 games, his best goal tally till date. He went a step further to score Spain’s winner at Euro 2008 and all of a sudden the tag ‘world class’, ‘world’s best striker’ by the media (especially the British) became associated with Fernando.  Was he really worth that tag judging from his records?  

Every striker will tell you confidence is everything. Having paid a record 50 million pounds for Torres, the onus was on the Spaniard to justify the outrageous fee. Torres has since been faced with an intense media scrutiny of his every move. Scoring just a goal in his first 5 months at Stamford Bridge has also not helped and the seeming lack of confidence may have had a psychological effect. Who knows if the Spaniard constantly questions his ability in his head? Maybe, just maybe, that is the reason for the seeming hesitations and lack of quick thinking whenever Fernando is faced with a good opportunity to score goals.

So can new manager Rafa Benitez solve all these problems and get Torres firing on all cylinders? Hey, why am I bugging my little head when  that is why Roman Abramovich is probably paying Rafa all the millions to sort that out. While we wait for the next seven months to find out if Benitez’ plan will work, here’s my take: I seriously doubt we will ever see the Torres of the 2007-2008 season.