Who of you thought

[Joe Le Toff]

What i DO think is that it's too early to get carried away...

While i tend to agree with you to a point, i think its hard not to when you look at his performances so far. IMO, the true test for Torres will come when he's been "found out" a little further into his career over here, because at the moment hes still an unknown quantity and clearly defenders dont know how to handle him.

I think it was Tony Adams who once said that new strikers get their first season for free in the Prem, its in the second season when players are used to their style that youll see if theyre truly class.

Time will tell but from what ive seen so far Torres is a striker of the highest calibre.

[Los Rojos]

Another Torres thread but a good one at that

He's turning out to be a better player than I thought we were getting. Early days I know but there are so many positives to drool over.

He's lightening quick (as fast if not faster than Owen in his prime according to Carra), he's got great positional awareness (good comments from Hansen on MOTD), he's obviously a team player (always looking for space and the potential for 'one-two' passes and 'give and go' moves), he knows how to stick it in the onion bag and he looks like another grafter which fits well into any Rafa side. Also, he appears to be both physically and mentally strong for Premiership - look how he didn't let Terry intimidate him at Anfield. Class.

The stand out moment so far for me wasn't a goal, it was against Sunderland where he just burst through the two centre halves with the ball, leaving them for dead. If he'd have scored that one, we'd still be talking about it now.

[fah-q]

I thought he would take longer to settle, and I know its early days but I love the fact that not only is he quick, direct and skillful but he gives as good as he gets physically and refuses to be intimidated by meathead central defenders like John Tewwy.

[Joe Le Toff]

he gives as good as he gets physically and refuses to be intimidated by meathead central defenders like John Tewwy.

[DeeTheDog]

To be honest, I was hoping to Tevez more (silly me). He seems to have been on the scene for years. If we had signed him two years ago I would have been doing cartwheels; however, his scoring record had not been great over the past two seasons and he had been eclipsed by Villa and Eto'o. I was beginning to think he was another over-hyped youngster. How wrong was I.

I had seen a bit of him on the telly for Spain and Atletico but until he was in the full red strip, I didn't notice how tall he was. I'm sure that everyone was surprised by his acceleration, that perhaps was the biggest surprise. His desire and ability to fight for a ball in the toughest league there is, was also a welcoming sight.

All in all, I thought we had bought a scorer of wonderful goals with potential to be a great goal scorer, I never knew we had bought an almost complete centre forward with the ability to get even better.

[Red_hot]

I'm loving him but he will never replace Luis in my heart!

[SB]

While i tend to agree with you to a point, i think its hard not to when you look at his performances so far. IMO, the true test for Torres will come when he's been "found out" a little further into his career over here, because at the moment hes still an unknown quantity and clearly defenders dont know how to handle him.

I think it was Tony Adams who once said that new strikers get their first season for free in the Prem, its in the second season when players are used to their style that youll see if theyre truly class.

Time will tell but from what ive seen so far Torres is a striker of the highest calibre.

I totally agree with that and I'm reasonably confident that Torrres will do OK in the long term. Torres has the element of surprise at present as most defenders in the prem don't know much about him. His pace is the the thing that has surprised me and he looks a great finisher on what I've seen.

Destined for greatness

[AFII]

Torres has always had the potential to be great player. His last two seasons for Atletico wasn't any good if you consider how good he is. That was down to two things, he played for a midtable club and didn't have anyone helping out with the heavy work upfront. He had to do most of the running and chasing himself. Now he has Kuyt/Voronin/Crouch helping him out and that means that he can concentrate more on the attacking bit.

If you look at the players Rafa has signed then most of them won't need that long to adjust to the PL so it's not that big suprise that he has started to deliver from day one. He is also playing with a team that fits his style almost perfect.

[slimbimjim]

Torres is immense and I think he will help our marketing machine quite a lot.

[Zapater]

I admit I picked this one really wrong. I never rated him before, nor thought that he showed half as much class when he played for Atleti. (And believe me I saw him often there) He's playing great here, and I don't think he's going to fizzle out, I see him just maintaining it.

Keep it up!

[Harv]

Ive been singing his praises for years.



he is a cracking player, who is only going to get better.

Just dont let him take our penos.......its the one part of his game that he is poor at.

[Harv]

I admit I picked this one really wrong. I never rated him before, nor thought that he showed half as much class when he played for Atleti. (And believe me I saw him often there) He's playing great here, and I don't think he's going to fizzle out, I see him just maintaining it.

Keep it up!

He had to play a different way at Atletico though.

He was there only striker for the majority of his time there, and was marked out of games most of the time. Opposition players knew if they stopped Torres, they stopped Atleti.

They cant do that here, so he can actually play his natural game.

[Zapater]

He had to play a different way at Atletico though.

He was there only striker for the majority of his time there, and was marked out of games most of the time. Opposition players knew if they stopped Torres, they stopped Atleti.

They cant do that here, so he can actually play his natural game.

Yep, but even when he played with Kezman/Aguero/Mista most recently eh didn't look too flash. There was one Greek guy (can't remember his name) he made an okay partnership with. And when Ibagaza was behind him he had his moments but I was generally unimpressed.

[tomasjj]

I had never heard about the fella before we signed him.

[AFII]

I had never heard about the fella before we signed him.

Getting old?