The mystery of Chelsea striker Fernando Torres
Spanish striker, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Fernando-Torres-c13707, seems to be on a mission to disprove that the age old adage of ‘Form is temporary but class is permanent’. The one question on everyone’s mind is how can a striker with the talent, promise and ability of Torres wind up as a misfiring waste of a number nine shirt in one of the world’s biggest clubs?
However, that may be overanalysing things a bit too much and the assessment may very well be a harsh one.
The fact of the matter is that wherever Fernando Torres has played, he has had his name in the headlines. At his boyhood club, Atletico Madrid, Torres was so prolific in front of goal he was made the club’s youngest captain in history.
However, a lack of trophies and the club going through a transitional period did not fit in too well with the striker’s ambitions and a move to the English powerhouse, known as Liverpool followed.
Scoring in his second competitive game for the club, his first at Anfield, against what would one day become his future employers, Chelsea; Torres took the first step in becoming a Liverpool legend.
No Liverpool fan, no matter how hard he tries, can ever forget the way Torres beat Chelsea defender, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Petr-Cech-c29837 and into the back of the net.
That season he went on to score an incredible 33 goals in 46 matches and cemented his place in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Liverpool-c39809 folklore.
Then-Liverpool striker continued his goal scoring exploits until the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Torres opted to miss out on half of Liverpool’s 2009-2010 campaign to undergo surgery so he would be fit for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Spain-c3011’s assault on the most coveted prize in Football, the World Cup.
However, the Spanish striker only featured for a few minutes in the final and was largely ineffective. Everyone wrote it off as nothing and argued the striker needed time to recover from such a lengthy absence from the game.
He returned to club action in the next campaign, but something was notably different. The striker seemed to have lost that yard of pace which he used so effectively to terrorize defenders.
In his final season, 2010-2011, at Liverpool he managed to find the back of the net only 9 times in 26 appearances. Not satisfied with the calibre of players around him at the club he opted to move, in dramatic fashion, to London rivals http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 Football Club, for a record fee of £50-million.
The Chelsea faithful however, could not have imagined what was to come. The Chelsea striker continued his inability to find the back of the net and has only managed two goals for the London side to date.
He has had plenty of playing time under his belt and plenty of opportunities to score as well, but nothing seems to be going his way.
However, the recent performances in the Champions League against Bayern Leverkusen and the one against Manchester United in the Barclays Premier League, barring the shocking miss of course, Torres showed signs of the player he was before his lengthy injury.
There seemed to be a real drive, heartfelt passion and the creative guile which he had made a name for himself with. Creating opportunities for his teammates and himself, Torres was by far the best player on the pitch for the away side.
Be if the influence of the new Chelsea manager, Andrea Villas Boas or Torres finally settling into life at Chelsea, no one knows for sure, but one that everyone can be certain of is the fact that if the Blues striker can keep up the tempo he has shown in his previous two matches, it will not be long before Chelsea fans will be chanting his name on a regular basis.
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