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| Torres still has it |
Fernando Torres might never live up to his 50 million-pound price tag at Chelsea, but he’s finally showing signs that he might be able to make a full recovery elsewhere.
There were flashes of brilliance in his cameo against Fulham, and more during his excellent display against Swindon. But maybe it's time for the Spanish to consider moving on from Chelsea should he desire to be a top player again.
There were flashes of brilliance in his cameo against Fulham, and more during his excellent display against Swindon. But maybe it's time for the Spanish to consider moving on from Chelsea should he desire to be a top player again.
Mourinho knows, as Roberto Di Matteo did before him, that Chelsea are never going to play the way Liverpool played when Torres looked like the most clinical striker on the planet. At Anfield, 69 percent of his goals were derived from quick, defence-splitting passes. At Chelsea, they don’t do that. They prefer to weave steadily through the defence like a motorcycle courier in heavy traffic.
Against Fulham, Torres was good in looking for space. Against Swindon, Torres scored a goal, albeit from close range into an empty net. Later, his pass for Ramires’ goal was delectable. There was also a run towards the end of the game that brought back warm memories of his golden years at Liverpool in the way that he evaded defenders by simply ignoring them. He proved himself to be still capable of penetrating defenders.
There is a chance that Mourinho is pulling Torres' strings, as he did with Karim Benzema at Real Madrid. Frustrated that he wasn’t allowed a new striker, he told reporters that he would have to get on with it, announcing that "If I can’t hunt with a dog, I’ll hunt with a cat." Benzema, entirely unamused to be labelled as a cat, swiftly grew a mane, redoubled his efforts and became a lion. But it doesn’t feel like Mourinho is trying to coax out a reaction from Torres, and it certainly doesn’t look as if Torres can actually work much harder anyway. It just seems that he’s not right for the role.
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