Fernando Torres Woes – Who’s To Blame?

The signing of Fernando Torres from Liverpool FC was one of the most surprising moves that happened in the winter transfer window of 2011. 

Ever since his big-money move to Stamford Bridge, Torres has failed to live up to his reputation and convince people he is the old Torres and is still one of the best strikers in the world. The question is – Is Torres not good enough anymore or is the entire team responsible for his downfall?

Win as team, lose as a team. This is a concept that many of the fans and critics have forgotten. As long as the team was winning Torres was only not scoring, but we still stood behind him. Now the team is not performing and results aren’t going our way, Torres is feeling the brunt of the frustrations.

The tired and slow midfield we have at the moment (even after boasting the big names like Frankie Lampard and Juan Mata) is nowhere near the required quality. Raul Meireles is a fighter, he runs, attacks, defends, but he isn’t one of those players who makes those incisive passes that make strikers score. Though Juan Mata is a player of that technique, him being employed at the wings does no good to our strikers. Danny Sturridge is the other problem. He has made public his desire to play as a center forward, and so he wanders more in the box than he should be. So our midfield and wingers are not exactly set up in a way to help the Spanish striker.

Torres has tried over and over to make those good runs and score goals. The goal against Manchester Unied was an absolute beauty. No other striker would had lifted the ball over the keeper at such tight angle. AVB tried putting Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres together hoping that they could form a partnership together. I feel, though it didn’t work out, Chelsea should still try with the formation that includes both of them. Since playing alone isn’t really working maybe AVB should gamble on playing them together again.

I still believe the Torres we once knew is not gone just yet, he is only 27, so he is yet to play in his peak years. Roman Abramovich bought Torres to start a rebuilding project of our ageing squad. So the main objective this summer should be to continue rebuilding the squad, keep Torres, and build a new team around him. If the Torres we all believe in is still in there can find his form, Chelsea can become the dreaded force we used to be.

Thanks to ChelseaFanatic for this guest post