Can't wait to see this guy in a proper competitive match for us. Hazard, Mata, Oscar, KdB, Shurrle, Lamps, Rambo... Gifting him opportunities that 8 out of 10 times he'll get a shot away on. Poetry in motion. Okay maybe a bit OTT but I'm excited!

His finish and positioning for his goal today were excellent, more difficult than it looked. As you say gem, having those players feed him will be great to watch.

Lets just hope he starts

Torres haven't scored against Hull in a Chelsea shirt. So if Jose meant what he said about some teams suit Torres' style better I'd say Hull isn't one of them. So I see Lukaku start. He is not going to grant any favours to Torres which is great to see finally...

Torres haven't scored against Hull in a Chelsea shirt. So if Jose meant what he said about some teams suit Torres' style better I'd say Hull isn't one of them. So I see Lukaku start. He is not going to grant any favours to Torres which is great to see finally...

has torres ever played against Hull? Think lukaku should start regardless of who we are play, as he looks like the only striker we have that actually wants to score goals.

Didn't realize Hull got just promoted. Probably that is the reason Torres haven't scored against them in the blue shirt.

I can't think of any other reason why he wouldn't have scored against them in the Premier League as he is a striker, talented and well known player all over the world.

Lukaku probably starts. I bet that would mean a world to him as well. First league game of the season and at SB.

What makes you think that Jose won't grant Torres any favour? We have no idea how things will go yet.

If Torres performs I think Jose will play him, but unlike our previous couple of managers I think Jose actually has the balls to go to Roman and say that if Torres doesn't perform that he won't play, simple as that. Latter end of last season showed some promise about Nino but to be honest after all this time I will never build any hopes on him. We'll see, but I hope Lukaku will turn out to be our main man come new year.

What makes you think that Jose won't grant Torres any favour? We have no idea how things will go yet.

Can you really see mourinho being told who to play by roman? I think he would be out the door quicker than you can say torres is sh*t

If Torres performs well, he'll play. If he doesn't, he won't.

 

Past performances, board room opinion... none of that will matter to Mourinho.

Edited August 11, 201312 yr by spadefx

http://static3.hln.be/static/photo/2010/1/9/10/20100811112025/album_large_3827950.jpg

 

Lukaku is a beast!

Big ask but reckon he can become as good as Drogba.

What makes you think that Jose won't grant Torres any favour? We have no idea how things will go yet.

Jose has balls to do that. I also think he is smart enough to have said something in the talks of taking the job on playing players and him being the one making the choices and so on. He's followed us over the years and seen the problems. I'm sure he has laid his cards in the way Torres wont become his problem as well.

Can you really see mourinho being told who to play by roman? I think he would be out the door quicker than you can say torres is sh*t

Yes i can actually. I feel this is a totally different Jose than the one we had before. IMO Jose has come back under clear instructions from Roman and the board about his behaviour etc. Look at the change that Jose has suddenly made since leaving Real where he was poking other coaches in the eye to the way he has come in with us. Claiming he is "The happy one" is really not Jose like.

IMO Jose has accepted that Roman rules and if Roman wants Torres to play then Torres will play. Roman has the power. If Jose stormed out then where would he go? There are no other big jobs out there apart from the national team but he has said he doesnt want that job yet. You could say PSG but the French league isnt a challenge. I would guess he would be bored there.

I dont think that Jose wants Torres at the club and knows that Torres isnt good enough anymore but if Roman wants his biggest spend to work out he will do what ever he can to make that happen.

Has Torres been called up to the Spain squad for their friendly international?

 

If so I think Lukaku is going to start because Spain's match is a 15 hour trip and they don't return until late Friday/early Saturday I believe.

 

Mata and Dave will probably sit out the opener too. 

Azpilicueta was called up, Torres and Mata weren't.

 

Couldn't disagree more with Uno's comments regarding Mourinho. He's relaxed, he's happy, he's in charge. Stop looking for conspiracy

I dont think any manager has been forced to play torres.

Rafa played ba when he was available at nearly every opportunity.

rdm played drogba in all big games, and then had no option to play torres, when sturridge was injured at the start of last season.

Avb rotated between torres and drogba neither of which perfomed him, with the exception of drogba' performance against valencia.

Carlo rotated between the 2 aswell, but to be fair torres stock was sky high, we had only just signed him and we were chasing united after another poor November. At that point very few would have predicted the next 2 years.

Obviously there is a sub conscious pressure to play torres because of his price tag, the media bullsh*t about romans demands, and also the hope of return to top form, which would have improved the team so much it could have kept a couple of these managers in a job.

If torres had have hit the ground running and we won the title, carlo would have kept his job.

If torres rediscoved his form under avb, we would have at least put pressure on the 2 Manchester clubs and its likely avb would have been given time to continue his rebuilding.

Rdm was never romans choice but if sn on form torres was worth an extra 3 points in the champions league last season then he would have lasted longer.

Rafa was doomed regardless.

Mourinho is better than all of these managers and has shown he can be ruthless, just ask casillas! Torres will not play if he isnt performing.

I dont think any manager has been forced to play torres.

Rafa played ba when he was available at nearly every opportunity.

rdm played drogba in all big games, and then had no option to play torres, when sturridge was injured at the start of last season.

Avb rotated between torres and drogba neither of which perfomed him, with the exception of drogba' performance against valencia.

Carlo rotated between the 2 aswell, but to be fair torres stock was sky high, we had only just signed him and we were chasing united after another poor November. At that point very few would have predicted the next 2 years.

Obviously there is a sub conscious pressure to play torres because of his price tag, the media bullsh*t about romans demands, and also the hope of return to top form, which would have improved the team so much it could have kept a couple of these managers in a job.

If torres had have hit the ground running and we won the title, carlo would have kept his job.

If torres rediscoved his form under avb, we would have at least put pressure on the 2 Manchester clubs and its likely avb would have been given time to continue his rebuilding.

Rdm was never romans choice but if sn on form torres was worth an extra 3 points in the champions league last season then he would have lasted longer.

Rafa was doomed regardless.

Mourinho is better than all of these managers and has shown he can be ruthless, just ask casillas! Torres will not play if he isnt performing.

 

Anyone who feels that Torres wasn't given preferential treatment after last season needs to just remember last season:

 

Drogba -> let go

Kalou -> let go

Lukaku -> loaned

Anelka -> let go 6 months prior

Sturridge -> left to rot on bench whenever fit

Other Strikers -> Not signed until it was plainly obvious that Torres once again won't be able to reach double figures in the League no matter how many games we play him. 

 

We went from FIVE players who were capable of playing up top to TWO this happened in a 6 months time frame during which Torres wanted us to reexamine his role at the club after he didn't start in the CL Final and most of our Big Matches. We then went on to sack a manager who had once again dropped Torres for a big match, even though he was our only fit striker for that match. RdM didn't have Drogba this time and even though he didn't seem to particularly rate Sturridge was going to start him ahead of Torres before his injury. AvB was sacked shortly after comparing Torres to Kezman/Sheva and there was no secret about AvB wanting us to push for Falcao even though we already had Drogba and Torres at the time. Then we went on to sign the only Fat Waiter who had managed to make Torres a consistent goalscorer, he had 2 months of just Torres in the League CWC and Cups and during that time Torres didn't find any consistency.  

 

Our Board just don't want to admit their monumental mistake so everything was done to get him firing - in two and a half seasons Torres has played nearly as many matches for CFC than he did at LFC in 3 and half years. Every new manager who comes in is given the task of igniting that spark but they sooner or later figure out that there is no spark left there, the sun has burned out and all that is left is a blue dwarf which shines but doesn't heat. What we need is a fire and hopefully Lukaku lights up this season for us, because I'm not expecting anything other than the same dross we have seen from Torres for the last 2 and a half years; Ba is a bit out of his depth and we are likely not to sign any other forward. 

I dont think any manager has been forced to play torres.

Rafa played ba when he was available at nearly every opportunity.

rdm played drogba in all big games, and then had no option to play torres, when sturridge was injured at the start of last season.

Avb rotated between torres and drogba neither of which perfomed him, with the exception of drogba' performance against valencia.

Carlo rotated between the 2 aswell, but to be fair torres stock was sky high, we had only just signed him and we were chasing united after another poor November. At that point very few would have predicted the next 2 years.

Obviously there is a sub conscious pressure to play torres because of his price tag, the media bullsh*t about romans demands, and also the hope of return to top form, which would have improved the team so much it could have kept a couple of these managers in a job.

If torres had have hit the ground running and we won the title, carlo would have kept his job.

If torres rediscoved his form under avb, we would have at least put pressure on the 2 Manchester clubs and its likely avb would have been given time to continue his rebuilding.

Rdm was never romans choice but if sn on form torres was worth an extra 3 points in the champions league last season then he would have lasted longer.

Rafa was doomed regardless.

Mourinho is better than all of these managers and has shown he can be ruthless, just ask casillas! Torres will not play if he isnt performing.

Agree entirely. I think this "pressure from above to play Torres" business is nonsense (except possibly when he was just signed). Even the board and especially Roman will want us to win above all else. They aren't idiots who are going to force a manager to play Torres even if cant score. It doesn't take a genius to see that Torres is past it.

 

Unfortunately over the last season or two, we really haven't had better strikers. No manager has consistently played Sturridge as a striker. Anelka was aging and it was time to let kalou go. Ba hasn't been very good himself. Lukaku has only last year established his potential. Drogba was quite inconsistent during his last season. We have been trying to sign big names even if we haven't been successful.  Also, as we are seeing now, it is very difficult to offload Torres even if we wanted to. Torres has often played because he really hasn't been too much worse than the rest.

Dont you find if strange then in Robbies last game when he knew he was getting the boot he opted to play Hazard as the striker instead of Torres. Maybe i read too much into these things but to me that suggests that he knew he was on his way out and thought he would go out playing the team he actually wanted to play.

Also people say that managers arent told to play Torres then explain this to me, why on earth does he play so much? He doesnt deserve to play, quite frankly I would have rather had Heskey up front for us sometimes. Torres wasnt being picked because he has really good game. As limited as the options were, we still had other options and decent ones at that.

RDM had the pressure to play him, with Rafa it was made very clear he needs to play him as Danny was sold and they have the history.

I think Jose have already said to Roman he needs complete freedom to choose whoever he sees fit. He wont be trapped into this prison called Torres. That is not in the interest of the team's success. He is too clever to fall into that pit. Di Matteo I think fell in there because of his inexperience in board politics. This is just my opinion. I have no idea what's been said.

I'm glad we have Lukaku as an opition for the striker position as we really don't know what he can do in the league for us. With Torres it was too much expectations and still is. It is a total lose-lose for Chelsea and the man himself.

drogba chose to leave, kalou rarely played as cf, and people were generally happy to see the back of him. Anelka was ready to go, we had 4 strikers for 1 spot. Lukaku needed that season on loan and has come back a much better player. Sturridge should have had more chances, but again there was a lot of people happy for him to leave.

Avb wasnt sacked because he compared sheva to torres, he was sacked because we got smash by napoli and were struggling badly in the league.

Rafa who was apparently brought in specically for torres, played ba ahead of him at every opportunity.

I agree torres has had preferential treatment, however I dont buy into roman demanding he plays. As I stated in my first post, there are alot of personal reasons for managers to have s top form torres.

We all know that ship has sailed and im not expecting anything other than the sh*t he has produced for us to date, but I dont think mourinho will favour torres now he had lukaku and ba, christ, even benitez didn't.

edit. that was in reply to las7.

Edited August 12, 201312 yr by big blue

Yes i can actually. I feel this is a totally different Jose than the one we had before. IMO Jose has come back under clear instructions from Roman and the board about his behaviour etc. Look at the change that Jose has suddenly made since leaving Real where he was poking other coaches in the eye to the way he has come in with us. Claiming he is "The happy one" is really not Jose like.

IMO Jose has accepted that Roman rules and if Roman wants Torres to play then Torres will play. Roman has the power. If Jose stormed out then where would he go? There are no other big jobs out there apart from the national team but he has said he doesnt want that job yet. You could say PSG but the French league isnt a challenge. I would guess he would be bored there.

I dont think that Jose wants Torres at the club and knows that Torres isnt good enough anymore but if Roman wants his biggest spend to work out he will do what ever he can to make that happen.

I'm not going to pretend that I know mourinho inside out because I don't and I've never even met him but from the outside looking in I just can't see jose being told what to do by roman.  You say he has come back a different man but how would you know that when the season hasn't even started yet? He isn't going to start playing mind games with the managers of the teams we play in pre season. Wait until at least november to decide if he is a changed man.

 

How have you come to the opinion that if roman wants torres to play then he will play him? We haven't played one competitive game yet! 

 

I'd also like to know how you have come to the opinion that jose doesn't want torres the club? Just because you don't it doesn't automatically mean the manager doesn't.

drogba chose to leave, kalou rarely played as cf, and people were generally happy to see the back of him. Anelka was ready to go, we had 4 strikers for 1 spot. Lukaku needed that season on loan and has come back a much better player. Sturridge should have had more chances, but again there was a lot of people happy for him to leave.

Avb wasnt sacked because he compared sheva to torres, he was sacked because we got smash by napoli and were struggling badly in the league.

Rafa who was apparently brought in specically for torres, played ba ahead of him at every opportunity.

I agree torres has had preferential treatment, however I dont buy into roman demanding he plays. As I stated in my first post, there are alot of personal reasons for managers to have s top form torres.

We all know that ship has sailed and im not expecting anything other than the sh*t he has produced for us to date, but I dont think mourinho will favour torres now he had lukaku and ba, christ, even benitez didn't.

edit. that was in reply to las7.

 

When your board leaves you with two options one of which is Torres and the other one you don't particularly rate it's not exactly a plethora of choices. It's fairly obvious there is quite a bit of pressure to get their first choice player firing - when he exhausted all different things he could've done to get Torres playing well(watching all his goals for Liverpool - something I doubt he did for Lukaku or Sturridge) he gave up but lacked any alternatives. 

 

I don't know too many CL winning teams that start of a season with two strikers, one of which can't get into double figures of goals in the League despite playing over half our league games. I doubt RdM was too happy with the options he had at the start of the season but due to him always feeling like second choice to Roman he didn't have the clout even after our CL victory to get a better striker for the way we played. 

 

This summer I feel we have tried to sign a number of high profile Strikers something which should have been done on the back of our CL Victory last season Cavani we were priced out, while Looney doesn't represent the right values when you figure in his age; wages and most likely hefty transfer fee due to his current club being direct rivals. 

 

At least I know that unlike in the past Jose will play players based on performance rather than being a slave to our board and their wims. 

I think the only form of "pressure" that has been put on a manager to play Torres has been a lack of alternative options made available.

 

I doubt there's ever been a discussion between Abrahmovic or the board and any manager regarding Torres' selection, personally think it's daft to consider it, but the media love a good conspiracy.

 

Torres has been selected (rightly or wrongly) when our managers have felt he's the best man available for the job. Jose will be no different.

When you have two strikers is that the Manager's problem or the board who handled the transfers? 

 

Sure the Manager selects the players who play but it's a bit of a joke to say there is no pressure to play him when you have virtually zero other alternatives(specially November and October of last year).

 

Like I have said no manager in their right mind would be happy with such a situation even if their first choice striker was banging goals in - specially when we are talking large clubs like our own which play in a variety of competitions.