dodojojo

It's not the playing time so much. Torres shouldn't be starting fair enough. It's the 8 minute appearances and then it's playing him in formations that are just awful not only for Torres but for the team too. Okay, sub him on today. But why with Anelka? Why not Yossi? Why is Nando replacing Kalou when clearly Torres is an out and out striker and Kalou is more a winger/support striker? Because Ancelotti didn't want to take off Drogba even though the score was 3-0? Come on, it's clear Torres and Drogba are main strikers and it's not only bad to expect the two of them to play together but it's highly unbalanced for the team also. No matter, it'll just be, Torres doesn't score, looks awful and makes the team worse. Yeah, all true. That's what happens when you play a formation that doesn't make any of strikers look good.

It's gotten so ridiculous about having him score the one goal, the holy grail of goals. Let's just set that aside, why is it so difficult for Ancelotti to see that Torres isn't playing in his natural position? I understand the talk about him having to adjust to Chelsea's play but come on, we know how certain players excel. Would you ask David Villa to come in to play Didier Drogba's role? Of course not. Is Villa world class (11 scoreless games withstanding), his track record proves so. Torres can't play Drogba's game nor should he be spending his time out on the fringes of god knows where. It's been clear over the 4 seasons Torres has been in the PL that he's a lone striker. So Ancelotti plays him, not only with Drogba but Anelka too? Yossi in the very little time in the Wigan game showed he could link up well with Torres. So why is Ancelotti refusing to play them together for any significant amount of time? Especially over the last couple of games where Chelsea has led comfortably? Is Anelka/Torres/Drogba a better way to protect a lead? Control the midfield? It's not like the formation makes Anelka look good either so why persist with it? It's gotta be soul crushing for Torres and even if you don't give a toss about him individually, he's meant to be huge investment in the club's future. I know winning games is the primary goal here but I see Ancelotti's management of Torres and I feel like asking, "Are you trying to make Torres feel worse?"

Yep, don't get too wrapped with the body language stuff guys. Torres' face is well, his face. He's always looked like that, when he was scoring loads and when he wasn't. Again, repeat, he's not Mr. Happy Sunshine. I hate hearing stuff about him being lazy or that he doesn't care. Yet all his coaches and managers have said that he's a very professional, works hard and in ten years has only made headlines for footballing reasons. He's never going to be head cheerleader but that doesn't mean he's not trying or he doesn't care.

Exactly, Mod. It's not that they dislike Torres for joining a rival, it's that SOME Liverpool fans continue to blow it all out proportion. They go out of their way to cut down Torres; going onto Chelsea sites, Torres sites, articles, Youtube videos, etc. Really a good way to show they're over him and that he's not bigger than the club, I suppose.

Can't remember him doing any different while he was at Liverpool. He has certain personality traits-bad or good, so don't assume because he doesn't go into histronics, he doesn't care or has given up. That's his usual reaction to close/bad offside calls. I've seen him throw a strop due to obvious handballs that weren't given and he likes to backchat to refs, but otherwise he's not the type to flap his arms for every close call.

Again, how so?

I saw that but what was the point of bringing it up then? Because it sounds like "well this stat is BS but I'm going to place here to show you how poor he's been anyway..." Sorry if I'm being prickly about this but it just tees me off that this stat/argument was apparently published in a national paper. The "story" is not even questionably stupid, it's emphatically so.

You can support him better by not giving any credence to garbage statistics. Torres covered 5.1km in 45 minutes. If he had played the 90, he would have been in the neighborhood of about 10km. Is that a problem? Michael Carrick covered 8.34km. Frank Lampard covered 8.9km. They both played the full 90. Guess those two were poor as well. I agree with your overall sentiment but be smarter about how you support your argument.

Suarez is a supporting striker. Of Drogba and Torres, two center forwards, who would be the SS? This may explain why the OP's argument doesn't really work.

Yeah, but who's more likely to be first to go to jail? Yeah, see, all you have to do is put up a fair question and Carroll will win...

Probably helped that the team in Liverpool played to his strengths. You can't consistently score at the clip he did at Liverpool without the team built to support him. If nothing changes at Chelsea, Torres may sneak in a goal here or there, but he can't deliver on a consistent basis. Similar to the situation with Spain. And yes, I know Spain has the best midfielders in the world and he should be scoring from every angle. But just analyze Spain's evolving game since 2006 and you'll understand why Torres personally struggles while the team has reached the top. He scored 3 in 4 in the 2006 World Cup and was seen as the next big thing and clubs were clamoring to pry him away from Atletico. Spain were also once again the perennial underachievers. Luis Arangones adopted tika taka and Spain went supernova. But the more tika taka Spain went, the more foreign the national game became for Torres. Now, it's even more so as Del Bosque plays a less dynamic and slower version of it as he uses two holding midfielders in Xabi Alonso and Busquets. Yes, Torres' form has been pretty bad lately and of course there were injuries last year but he struggled with the national team even in 2008 when he was one of the best players in the world, nevermind striker. Now it's a combo of poor form and bad fit and he's really struggling. Think it's happening with Chelsea too.

David Villa, Spain's greatest ever striker, hasn't scored in 8 games for Barca. Villa. Barca. Goal droughts, purple patches, that's life for strikers. P.s. having said that, Nando should have slotted in a goal or two against Wigan. I'll always support him, but I'll call it when he's missed a golden chance.

Don't know if I'd vote him MOTM, but this is a very good and salient point. If he's dropping deep next season to collect the ball and setting up others--then Houston we've got a problem. He should be at the front of the formation and loitering in the penalty box. That's the comparative advantage of Torres and if that's not exploited, then it's a waste. Too bad it can't and likely wont happen this season. I did some good signs of passes to him in front of goal. There was the cross and header of course. Early in the game, there was a waist high pass that he try to put his head to, even with Ferdinand sticking a boot in (how can you say he's not trying or doesn't care?). And late in the game, there was a pass in the middle of the box where the defender had the position but Torres tried to stick a toe in. I think he was called for a foul, you could see he was giving it his all for even the tiniest chance. He got a bit desperate with the dive but I'll put down to the dying final moments syndrome.

It did but that's more with Ancelotti subbing out Ramires rather than bringing on Torres itself. The midfield was gutted and Chelsea lost control. Torres can't help with that, he's an out and out striker who's not playing like one at Chelsea.

Don't know if it would have been an easy pass...to give Lampard the benefit of the doubt. At Liverpool, Torres would have gotten it back. You could see him wide open in the box as Lampard was taking a tumble. No, it wasn't a penalty.

Completely unbalanced team there. Why not Zhirkov and Torres on for Anelka and Malouda? I didn't have a problem with Torres being benched today in anticipation of the United game but there will be a lot of second guessing now. Chelsea had been winning and playing well with Torres starting. Very frustrating. Torres looks almost scared to shoot.

I was going to post the Sport interview with Torres that has yet again set off Liverpool fans frothing at the mouth. I was going to point out how long the interview is and how little of it is about Liverpool. Or that it's in Spanish and how a lot of Torres said may have lost some of the nuances in translation. But you know I can't be bothered. If Nando said he liked eating liver and swimming in the pool--the blithering idiots will somehow find a way to slate Torres for bringing up Liverpool. My favorite laughable claim is the mob going on and on about how Torres has regretted his decision to join the sinking ship Chelsea and that's why he keeps talking about Liverpool. Yes, it must be depressing to have a shot at winning the PL and CL titles. He really regrets not being in 6th place and watching any European match on TV. No you dunderheads, Torres talks about his departure because it was the biggest transfer in English football and any journalists worth his salt will ask related questions. Torres answers candidly because he probably feels like he got treated like sh*t (even though he stayed through the broken promises, the lack of cover for his position and having to play unfit, the erosion of a decent team, etc). That's why he brings up Atletico--they allowed him, the club and fans to go through with his transfer with dignity intact. He was naive to think he had built up enough good credit, like he did at Atletico, for Liverpool FC and fans to give him some slack. They didn't and I think that's why he's angry. Nando, let it go, you're never to win that war with the scousey ones. Atletico may have less titles, but they proved to be the classier club. Atleti will always love you. And you now have the opportunity to bring joy to Chelsea fans.

Mentioned in my post that it's perfectly normal and sporting behavior to be proud of your team's accomplishments but the degree of Liverpool fans’ adherence to spouting the tired mantra of 18/5 titles is really pathetic. Though I admit I won’t have a problem with Liverpool fans shouting from the rooftops about their 18 league and 5 EC titles—a decade from now.

Liverpool fans have PhDs in History--PhD (Pile it Higher and Deeper). I can understand fans being proud of the club's accomplishments but the pathological need to always point to them is pathetic and a sure sign that there's nothing to brag about today. It's also ridiculous to expect players to share this pathetic need. As a World and Euro champion, why would Fernando Torres bask in Liverpool teams winning 5 Euro cups? As a world class player who wants to actually win his own medals, why would he cling to the fact Liverpool won 4 of those trophies on and before the year he was born? How does it stoke his competitive fire to hear about how great his club used to be? I honestly don't get it. I'm sure when Torres was at Liverpool, he looked at his two national team medals and thought, "Sure, it's nice to have actually won them, but gosh, I feel so much happier about the 18 league and 5 Euro cup medals won by Liverpool teams that I had nothing to with!"

Very fashionable to now claim Torres has done nothing since 2009. In a season where he had a major groin problem and two knee surgeries, he scored 22 in 32. Wonder if Liverpool will call Carroll horrible if he puts up those numbers? He also fired them into the semi-finals of the Europa League, scoring two goals against Benefica in the 1/8 after he had injured his knee early in the game. Liverpool petered out against Atletico in the semis without him. Their late season effort to finish in European places also failed and only got in at 7th because of Portsmouth's problems. If Torres wasn't good enough, what does that say about the rest of the club? Less than zero? Blame Torres? Most neutrals asked what the hell was he still doing there.

Sid Lowe’s interview with Reina made it clear that 1) Reina wasn’t impressed with the club’s treatment of Torres and I bet he knows more than all the know-it-alls on the Liverpool boards and 2) the reason why Reina is still at Liverpool is that the club that wanted him in the summer didn’t come back around in January. That’s the difference between “Judas Twat†Torres and Pepe Reina. They both wanted to leave last summer and both had bids rejected by the club. Torres got a lifeline in January, Reina didn’t. Don’t know if Reina will leave in the summer—mainly because it’s really due to how much Arsenal or Man U are willing to pay. He’s already stated that he wants to stay in England and he can’t go back to Spain because the two clubs capable of winning anything already have national team keepers. If he does stay in Liverpool, it’ll probably be a combination of limited options and the owners demonstrating solid investment in improving the team. I would laugh too if Reina walks. On the other hand I want him to stay because Reina at Arsenal will make them significantly better. He would at the minimum maintain Man U’s current level. And let’s face it those two are more important threats to Chelsea’s position than Liverpool. Liverpool will win the league next year. They have to, right? Fernando Torres won’t be around to jinx them or to bring down the team. If they don’t win it, who will they blame? Yes, Torres was to blame for the black mood at Liverpool. Surely it had nothing to do with the clownish owners, the threat of administration, the debt, the accelerated decline of team quality, stalled sales process, hiring of a journeyman manager, etc. Blame Torres. I wished he had walked away last May. He would have had a whole season with Chelsea, his transfer fee would have gone to Liverpool’s debt rather than team improvement and Liverpool would have been bartered off for a six pack of beer. Personally, I wouldn’t have had to watch half a season of the football Hodgson imposed on viewers and Torres. Talk about a win-win-win-win-win opportunity gone to waste. Deg, thanks for the transcription.

Is the exchange btw Seedorf and Hansen available online? Good for Seedorf, he was class during his prime with Milan. I imagine as a pundit, he's much like he was a player, not afraid to stand his ground without losing his cool.

Aside from the Blackpool game, it's clear Torres has improved and just generally looks sharper. He also did some nifty work to get the ball back. The problem is that he's not had the opportunity, since Fulham really, to show if his shooting is just as sharp as the rest of his game. I'm in the camp of Malouda either won't or can't play with Torres, but of course realize that there are many factors to why he just isn't getting any decent striking opportunities. Is he making the wrong runs? I think he's spending way too much time out of the box but even when he's there and unmarked, he doesn't get the ball. It also can get a bit crowded in there as Malouda spends as much time in the box as Torres. You can see he's frustrated when he's standing somewhere alone and someone else lofts a shot well over the crossbar. Does he need to put himself into better positions to receive the ball? A pity that a couple of his great skills did not result in a goal or even a shot on target. You can see the quality, I'm just at a loss to see how that quality can show up in some shots on goal.

Fernando Torres was questioned after today's game about his goal drought. The striker was unhappy with not scoring against Manchester City but insisted he was delighted Chelsea won the game, leapfrogging their opponents to third place in the league table. He is also optimistic that his efforts will continue to help his team win in the league and in Europe where Chelsea will face Manchester United in the Champions League quarterfinals. When he was asked about Liverpool fans mocking his goal drought, Torres declined to take the bait though he did wish his former club the best as they pursue the trophy for 5th place. He also wished them well in the European League as he knows how famous the European nights are at Anfield. When he was reminded that Liverpool had lost in the round of 16th to the European powerhouse, Braga, Torres replied, "Puta de madre, no sh*t!" From True News Network (TNN)

DKW, exactly why I posted the Q&A here. Just because the English press selectively interprets an interview doesn't mean the player said it, believed it, implied it, thought about it subconsciously, etc. This interview is no different from the ones Torres has given throughout his career. If you follow him, you will see this. Liverpool fans didn't have a problem with his interviews, especially the ones where he explained why it was best he left Atletico. Guess they don't like hearing it now.