Torres - The "Groundhog Day" Thread

[Las7]

He doesn't really know what the bench feels like, he has never been substantially sidelined by any of our managers. There was certainly a time under RdM where he was the only option and a dismal one at that 

[Castiel]

I don't understand why Jose keeps playing him.  Chance after chance and he hasn't gotten any better.  Only 2 more years to go.

[1905]

Honestly, keep the faith, he will come good this season, I feel it in my bones, he will play a blinder, astonish and surprise everyone, we will be the ones laughing at all the Dippers and the rest of them this season.

 

Good grief, I've gone and let my spliff go out, gonna go and spark spark up again.........

Edited August 4, 2014 by 1905

[RodriguezTiago]

Honestly, keep the faith, he will come good this season, I feel it in my bones, he will play a blinder, astonish and surprise everyone, we will be the ones laughing at all the Dippers and the rest of them this season.

Good grief, I've gone and let my spliff go out, gonna go and spark spark up again.........

Mwhahahahahahahahahahhaha!!

[Jezz]

We can only pray that he doesn't do that in a real game in what he did against Werder Bremen, however I've been saying that for the past three years.Whatever happens I'll support Fernando for as long as he's playing for the club even if its tough watching him play like that.

 

I really hope Fernando can breakthrough and prove us wrong this season even though it's looking more unlikely that he'll turn things around at the club as time goes on. I've always liked the guy and supported him for as long as I can remember despite some of the criticism I've dished out his way in the past.

In regards to his decline I still can't fully establish but personally I think it's a number of factors and not just one isolated factor. These factors include a loss of confidence, pressure of being a 50m player and the circumstances behind leaving Liverpool to join us on deadline day in January 2011, the decline of his playing abilities (the most notable being his pace) which made him a great striker at Liverpool and the tactics implemented by Chelsea as opposed to Liverpool when he was playing for them. This is my explanation for each factor I've just outlined now:

Loss of Confidence - I think before anything else is said, Torres' decline did not begin at Chelsea as it was occurring at Liverpool from the 2010 World Cup held in South Africa until now. Anyway it's evident that he's lost a lot of confidence. He's second-guessing himself in goal-scoring situations in which he used to thrive in, he's lost that pace that he was aware could beat defenders one on one and was the barometer of his game and the fact that his pace is no longer there and he needs to rely on other avenues to his game to score goals is making him doubt himself in every instance. Also the constant media criticism and the mocking of missing goalscoring opportunities has made him lose confidence. Even Jose Mourinho said recently that Torres seems to be 'lacking self-esteem' to be able to score goals regularly so clearly this idea of lack of confidence is evident in Torres at the present time.

Pressure of being a 50m player and the circumstances behind leaving Liverpool - The constant media attention that Torres has received as a 50m signing for the club hasn't helped his confidence as lack of performance makes him feel extra pressure that other players may not be receiving and every time Torres touches the ball he's under heavy scrutiny which wasn't seen when he played for Atletico Madrid and Liverpool. He's never felt that scrutiny to the extent that I'm discussing ever in his career until he joined Chelsea. The way he left Liverpool obviously angered many Liverpool fans who admired, respected and loved him. He was a hero at Liverpool and played a huge part in their ability to contend for trophies between 2007 to 2010 but the day he left, he instantly became a villain of the club and lost all the respect from their fans. Personally I always sensed that Torres was almost feeling 'guilty' or 'emotional' about leaving Liverpool but he had this desire to win trophies on a regular basis and with a nice wage offered to him, Chelsea was the ideal club for him in the end. Even though Liverpool fans turned on him the most and were most vocal about his departure, there's always been a sense of disapproval and disappointment from the broader football public that he sold himself out as a hero to join Chelsea and he's felt the wrath of that ever since. The stigma of being a 50m signing would definitely have to be a contributing factor in his decline and the fact that most see him as a 'traitor' and 'villain' outside of Chelsea these days. He never experienced this before that.

Playing Abilities - On top of the mental factors that have hindered Torres, I also feel that his playing ability has declined dramatically in the past four years. His biggest strength as a striker was his pace as opposed to having extraordinary technical skill. Before he joined the club it's well-known that Torres had suffered from hamstring and knee injuries which hampered his pace. At Liverpool, pace was the barometer of his game but after these injuries occurred in the latter part of his Liverpool career and then he joined Chelsea it was well-established that his pace couldn't help him anymore and with an already ordinary set of skills this made him far more exposed as opposed to other strikers. Torres' ability to beat one-on-one defenders is rare these days but I do see the occasional glimpse of him doing it, but generally he struggles to shrug off defenders which he was so good at doing when he was Liverpool. As a result of his loss of pace, Torres has struggled to beat defenders and this means he's struggled to score goals for Chelsea. If he was better in his skill level then he may have been able to sustain his goalscoring form from the Liverpool days but without it it's left him exposed and found out by defenders. Along with a loss of pace, age is probably catching up with him as well. He just turned 30 earlier this year so he isn't getting any younger for a footballer.

Change of Tactics - I also believe a change in tactics hasn't helped Torres' cause. At Liverpool he used to play as the lone striker with Kuyt supporting him on various occasions and Gerrard setting him up with through balls and exquisite passes in which he could latch on and beat defenders in. At Chelsea the tactics are different. There's a greater emphasis of collectivism in the way the team plays and there didn't seem to be this emphasis on building the team around Torres so much despite the signings of Mata, Hazard and Oscar at the time. Torres also seemed to change the way he played. He became more unselfish and was setting up others to score goals as opposed to going for them himself so this idea of collectivism has been instilled into him since he left Chelsea but again the loss of pace is a big contributing factor for the way he plays today. However if Torres lost his pace in 2007 for example, he would have struggled at Liverpool as well in my opinion as his game was based around pace and beating defenders to score goals, so I don't think Chelsea has played a massive role in his overall decline as a player in the past four years.

I find that overall Torres' decline is difficult to explain and to ascertain the exact cause of his decline and current problems. There's various factors that need to be considered and I don't think his issue is purely an isolated one. If it was, then I think the problem would have been addressed a long time ago by the Chelsea coaching staff.

All we can hope for now is that he responds in the way most of us don't expect now and he can have a good season and be a useful striker for the club behind Diego Costa. His ability to work hard on the training track cannot be questioned (he's been praised by Mourinho for being a hard worker on the training track) so I hope his hard work can be rewarded in matches this season.

[Sheva]

I think he has a very similar scenario as Michael Owen. Both similar players that started out very very young in the first team and both faded as their careers went on due to injuries and age. It's happening to Rooney but he has other aspects to his game which has made him drop deeper. 

 

He started playing at 17 and his peak years were at Liverpool, the extra injuries and bad seasons have just contributed to him losing most if not all of his ability.

[Guest RFC_CFC]

Rooney is still scoring and looking dangerous.

Torres is a different kettle of fish.

[Sheva]

Rooney is still scoring and looking dangerous.

Torres is a different kettle of fish.

 

I'd argue that Rooney has had his peak years a couple years back. Like I said he still has the ability, he just doesn't look like the frightening player he was years ago. 

[TorresBlue9]

Cos he's a Liverpool fan...

And he's going as far as to buy a rival team's shirt just so he can take the p*ss out of Torres?

There are no words.

[General]

as suggested on another thread perhaps their is an economic not fotballing reason driving his inclusion in the squad  - shirt sales that we are not privy to

 

this coupled to the transfer fee and wages that the club would like to recoup partially (fee) and be free of 100 % (wages)

 

and the x-factor , the unknown patron at board room level

 

 

could be keeping him here until he puts in  atransfer request which aint gonna happen, he has FA Cup, CL & Europa Cup winners medals while he got shyte at Loserpool

and now he must feel he has a decent chance at more medals this season

 

 

so we are stuck with him and vica versa, can we not 'forget' about him, remain optimistic and hope he scores a few,   more than last season ????????

[bluegraham]

SHALL WE ESCALATE?

What a bellend

[charierre]

as suggested on another thread perhaps their is an economic not fotballing reason driving his inclusion in the squad  - shirt sales that we are not privy to

 

this coupled to the transfer fee and wages that the club would like to recoup partially (fee) and be free of 100 % (wages)

 

and the x-factor , the unknown patron at board room level

 

 

could be keeping him here until he puts in  atransfer request which aint gonna happen, he has FA Cup, CL & Europa Cup winners medals while he got shyte at Loserpool

and now he must feel he has a decent chance at more medals this season

 

 

so we are stuck with him and vica versa, can we not 'forget' about him, remain optimistic and hope he scores a few,   more than last season ????????

 

 

I think we should send him on a two year world tour signing shirts, give him the incentive that anything over 175k per week he can have as a bonus.

[the special one]

I think it will be interesting to see what impact a) the physical presence of Costa in the CF role b) Fabregas' creativity have on Torres this season. In certain scenarios Torres as a LCF has some potential. Then again it is Torres....

[Bluehatter]

I think it will be interesting to see what impact a) the physical presence of Costa in the CF role b) Fabregas' creativity have on Torres this season. In certain scenarios Torres as a LCF has some potential. Then again it is Torres....

Agreed. I've said for a while that we should know longer be using torres as a lone striker. I think if he had someone up there with him like costa then he would score goals. Costa would be the battering ram and take the pressure of torres. Look at someone like eden dzeko. When he is used as a lone striker he is nowhere near as effective as he is when he plays alongside someone,

 

To play that lone striker role in a big team you have to be special. Unfortunately for us and torres he no longer has a special quality about him but he can still be useful if we use him right. I don't know why we don't try the 2 up top against the weaker sides that we struggle to break down. City,united and even liverpool all do it and to good effect. We seem to want to wait until we are still 0-0 or 1 down with 20 left until we try it.

[evissy]

I'm tired of wanting to see him back at even some decent level. Maybe Cesc brings him back...no way! He needs to be somewhere else. Chelsea-shirt is not for Fernando. 7 goals for him this season.

[Joe The Hobo]

I seriously think Torres will score more goals than before, I wouldn't be surprised if he hit the dizzying heights of 10 league goals because no one is actually expecting anything of him even though we all support him for as long as he wears blue. So, saying this with a bit of optimism, I think he'll chip in with a reasonable haul because we really need him to take some pressure off Costa and he has came through (sometimes) at those types of moments eg. Europa League final, CL semi final when we've needed him, so I have a good feeling he just might this time round

[Ballack & Blu]

I seriously think Torres will score more goals than before, I wouldn't be surprised if he hit the dizzying heights of 10 league goals because no one is actually expecting anything of him even though we all support him for as long as he wears blue. So, saying this with a bit of optimism, I think he'll chip in with a reasonable haul because we really need him to take some pressure off Costa and he has came through (sometimes) at those types of moments eg. Europa League final, CL semi final when we've needed him, so I have a good feeling he just might this time round

I'm going for a stellar Dozen,  no no no not 12 stella. ;-)

[JM7]

He scored 22 goals the season before last. I know some of them were against mediocre opposition...but still,22 goals.

[Zeta]

So? He scored 11 last year. 

[big blue]

He scored 22 goals the season before last. I know some of them were against mediocre opposition...but still,22 goals.

20 league goals in 110 games.

If u are trying to find any positive with torres, it's probably best if you don't use stats!

[HazardsLeftPeg]

20 league goals in 110 games.

If u are trying to find any positive with torres, it's probably best if you don't use stats!

 

Its not much but..

 

[Scott Harris]

He scored 22 goals the season before last. I know some of them were against mediocre opposition...but still,22 goals.

 

And he needed 64 games to get to that total.

[Roadie]

He scored 22 goals the season before last. I know some of them were against mediocre opposition...but still,22 goals.

19-05-13 Chelsea 2 - 1 Everton 1

23-12-12 Chelsea 8 - 0 Aston Villa 1

08-12-12 Sunderland 1 - 3 Chelsea 2

06-10-12 Chelsea 4 - 1 Norwich City 1

29-09-12 Arsenal 1 - 2 Chelsea 1

22-08-12 Chelsea 4 - 2 Reading 1

25-08-12 Chelsea 2 - 0 Newcastle United 1

Premier League goals 8 All the rest came from national cup League Cup Europe and Other.!! To many good players have be sold because torres had to be number ONE.

Edited August 6, 2014 by Roadie

[Guest RFC_CFC]

19-05-13 Chelsea 2 - 1 Everton 1

23-12-12 Chelsea 8 - 0 Aston Villa 1

08-12-12 Sunderland 1 - 3 Chelsea 2

06-10-12 Chelsea 4 - 1 Norwich City 1

29-09-12 Arsenal 1 - 2 Chelsea 1

22-08-12 Chelsea 4 - 2 Reading 1

25-08-12 Chelsea 2 - 0 Newcastle United 1

Premier League goals 8 All the rest came from national cup League Cup Europe and Other.!! To many good players have be sold because torres had to be number ONE.

They didn't have to be sold and he didn't have to be no 1, the club made that call not Torres.

[evissy]

I don't even like to see these stats anymore...