Chelsea are experiencing their worst season in the Roman Abramovich era, and though the Spaniard said he was taking a step up when he joined the club in January, he seems to have brought his disastrous luck with him.
Ok, you can’t be that unfortunate to have won both the World Cup and European Championships, scoring the winner in the final of the latter, but Torres won nothing with Atletico Madrid. Though in fairness, few do. He then moved to Liverpool just after their last trophy, the FA Cup in 2007, and so the forward bizarrely has managed to win the two biggest national competitions in the world whilst simultaneously failing to lift a single piece of silverware at club level.
Oh, and he just can’t score a goal, which you may have missed.
But I for one, feel sorry for Torres, because frankly, it isn’t really his fault. In fact, blaming Torres for not scoring since moving to Chelsea is a bit like having a go at the postman for not delivering a letter that he was never given.
The number of shots the Spaniard has had in a Chelsea shirt has been minimal, whilst of those, the proportion which were clear cut chances is even smaller. But the main problem is that Chelsea are not using him properly.
At Atletico Madrid, Torres towards the end of his spell typically played up front with Mista or Sergio Aguero, fast players who naturally move into wide positions and use the flanks. Torres was superb for the Rojoblancos.
He moved to Liverpool, playing mainly as a lone centre forward in a team which played to his strengths, as Rafa Benitez coaxed Steven Gerrard into keeping his passes on the floor (rather than the air, where Gerrard previously had a tendency to send his passes). And again, Torres was superb.
And for Spain of course, Torres played up front with David Villa most of the time, usually in a 4-4-2 under Luis Aragones’ European Championship winners. Villa of course, is a striker who plays from wide positions, much like Thierry Henry used to. And for Spain, Torres was once more, superb.
Enter Torres’s brief career to date at Chelsea. Unlike any other team he has ever played for in his life, Torres has been deployed alongside strikers who like to play in central areas – Didier Drogba, and Nicolas Anelka. And with the exception of Frank Lampard, Chelsea tend to either attack from the flanks or with early balls played over the top of a defence.
So is it any wonder that Torres has not scored for Chelsea? He is being played alongside another central striker, which does not suit him, and has never been tried before (because of course it leads to the obvious problem of a conjested forward line which an opponent can exploit by playing a narrow defensive formation, as Liverpool did in January). And Torres plays best with passes being played just in front of him, which has not happened at Chelsea.
Their players are clearly capable of this, but they are not used to playing with a forward like Torres. Drogba receives the ball with his back to goal most often, and likes the ball played either straight to his feet for him to turn or in the air. Torres does not play best when the ball is played into feet. He is not a link player, like Drogba, but a player who plays best running onto passes played in front of him.
Until Chelsea start to play to his strengths, it may be some time until Torres is as prolific as he was previously. But to blame the Spaniard for his lack of goals seems palpably unfair.
