Fernando Torres

[doogle]

To make matters worse I watched a few Alonso vids earlier too. FFS. We were such a ****ing team then.

It boils me that we had so such ****ey owners in charge and that they actually had the chance to

[wiw]

I think he will score tomorrow too

[red evil kenevil]

Watched it quite recently and it made me feel ****ing depressed so I'm not watching it again.

[Chazza]

I caught a couple of mins of Gerrards goals on LFC TV earlier

A few were set up by brilliant Torres passes

They were superb together

[Liverpel]

It is never easy watching a top footballer stray dangerously close to the point when his audience has to accept, however much we might wish to be more generous, there is a real possibility that we might be permanently talking about his gifts in the past tense.

When that player is Fernando Torres and the memories are still so vivid of a man who made a case to be recognised as the outstanding striker on the planet, the question it raises is almost unnerving. When does a chronic loss of form and self-belief, now it has transcended so far beyond an innocent blip, have to be considered as something far more serious, and when do we reach the point when we have to acknowledge there might not be any form of antidote?

The question is not asked lightly when Torres, at 27, is still short of the years when decline ordinarily sets in. It doesn't take too much effort to recall those days when he could torment the most accomplished defences and, on one particularly devastating afternoon at Old Trafford, chase down a long kick and destroy Nemanja Vidic in a way that has never happened before or*since.

Torres is withholding such divine talent that there is still hope that his next goal can have therapeutic qualities, but it is also undeniably the case that the Liverpool striker who dispatched Vidic's candidacy for footballer of the year into the nearest shredding machine is very different compared to the listless figure we see at Chelsea, scratching around for something vaguely resembling his old form and threatening to be remembered as £50m worth of iron pyrite. Watching Torres used to be a joy. Now we are at the stage when his misses feel like the norm, rather than the exception. It is football's equivalent of rubbernecking.

When the question was put to André Villas-Boas week the Chelsea manager went into autopilot and tried to make an argument that the Torres slump was not as alarming as it clearly is, just as he has with almost weekly regularity. "The only thing we can do is try to work on his movement in training," he said. "Will a goal trigger it all? We will have to wait and see."

Sir Alex Ferguson talked of the new regime at Stamford Bridge and the most expensive player in the league didn't even warrant a mention. "You can see the new manager is trying to introduce a different style. Didier Drogba is getting a bit older and they have let Nicolas Anelka go, but players like Ramires and Juan Mata have been brought in and Daniel Sturridge is a real threat." Chelsea versus Manchester United is one of the great Premier League fixtures – and Torres felt like nothing more than an afterthought.

Whether it was deliberate on Ferguson's part, it is difficult to be sure. But this is what happens when you go without a league goal for four and a half months. Torres has not scored since a 5-0 defeat of Genk on 19 October. In his 12 matches since, he has been on the pitch nearly 18 hours. This is his least distinguished scoring sequence in his four and a half years in England, the previous worst also being with Chelsea. Torres scored 81 times in 142 matches for Liverpool. At Chelsea, there have been 44 appearances, five goals, six bookings and one sending-off. Seven other Chelsea players have a better goals-per-game ratio. Their last player to go 1,000 minutes without scoring was Petr Cech, the goalkeeper. Whichever way you cut it, the numbers look terrible.

Every so often there are flashes of the old Torres, even going back to that game at Old Trafford in September when the lasting memory was of the most bewildering miss of his career. It was the kind of chance he would have once scored blindfolded, but Rafael Benítez talked afterwards of it being almost insignificant compared with the moment his former player made a pass and sprinted 30 metres to be in the right position to receive it.

"Sometimes when you are not mentally ready you say, 'Oh, I passed the ball, that's it.' You could see he wanted to be involved and take the responsibility." Benítez, who scrutinises Torres as closely as anyone, was convinced these were the moments that heralded the first signs of recovery.

He was wrong. There have been plenty of these occasions and, every time, it amounts to nothing. Benítez did not want to renew the Torres conversation week, quite possibly because he had run out of positive things to say. Ferguson spoke with a cutting form of indifference and, if Villas-Boas seemed fairly relaxed, the main reason might be that it gave him the chance to move the subject away from John Terry.

The problem for Villas-Boas is he is beginning to sound like a looped tape. Yes, a goal or two against Manchester United could do wonders for the player's state of mind, but how many times have we said that over the past year? Torres has not managed a single winner for Chelsea. His body language seems sapped of confidence and, as times passes, it is no longer good enough just to assume he will snap out of it because of what we remember.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/feb/04/fernando-torres-chelsea

[Gibbo]

This thread has gone and pissed me off.

Watched the ******* video didn't I.

Hope he does score tomorrow.

1 for the sake of my bet (Torres to score first and Chelsea to win 3-1, Risky I know)

And 2 because it makes De Gea look even worse

[Craig_H]

It's to the benefit of LFC if Chelsea lose tomorrow. So no, i dont want him to score. I dont want any Chelsea player to score. I want us to be 1 point off 4th place come 10pm on Monday.

[Tee]

It's to the benefit of LFC if Chelsea lose tomorrow. So no, i dont want him to score. I dont want any Chelsea player to score. I want us to be 1 point off 4th place come 10pm on Monday.

[cannotmakeit]

Ladbrokes online has a promotion.
"If Torres scores we will refund losing first goalscorer bets"

[Mostar]

It's to the benefit of LFC if Chelsea lose tomorrow. So no, i dont want him to score. I dont want any Chelsea player to score. I want us to be 1 point off 4th place come 10pm on Monday.

I don't want him to score now nor ever.

He is nothing to me any more and he can **** right off as other Chavs cunts and they have plenty of those.

[The_weatherman]

According to that article, he has more bookings than goals Poor bugger

[Buzzo]

Maybe Torres needs to reinvent himself as a pacey, 'tough' no-nonsense centre back. Career wise a reverse Sutton/Warhurst if you will?

[Lee]

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Fernando-Torres-says-fans-support-stopped-him-quitting-Chelsea-article861198.html

Fernando Torres has admitted he might have given up all hope of succeeding at Chelsea but for the support of the club's fans.

And the World Cup-winning striker has revealed that one of the greatest memories of his career was off the field when a substitute at Wolverhampton while the supporters chanted his name.

Torres marked a year at Stamford Bridge this week but it was hardly an anniversary to celebrate for the 27-year-old, who remains on course to be remembered as one of the most expensive flops in the history of football.

The £50million man has scored just five times in 44 Chelsea appearances since last January's move from Liverpool and is currently on his longest goal drought yet.

Three and half months, 17 games, or 1,000-plus minutes - whichever way you look at it, the statistics make grim reading for the Spain striker.

But at least he is being given the chance to end his long wait, having started every game in 2012 while Didier Drogba is on African Nations Cup duty.

The same could not be said back in November, when he lost his place to Drogba, with the only thing keeping him going was the comfort of knowing the fans still backed him.

"I would like things to be much better but the support they give me every day is amazing," Torres told Chelsea TV.

"I remember a game against Wolverhampton and I was on the bench, and they were still singing my name.

"I've been very lucky to live very good moments but that game, when I was in the middle of nothing and not playing, was maybe the best memory I have in all my career.

"At the beginning of the season, I went through a hard moment, I was not playing, things were wrong and I was eight games without playing - I had never been in this situation before.

"The only thing that gave me hope was the support of the people.

"That game against Wolverhampton showed me there are important things to fight for, the love of the fans, the support of the club.

"My team-mates as well but the fans are the ones who have always been there from the first day until now."

If the support of the fans in November's Wolves game provided Torres with arguably his best memory, there can be little doubt about his worst.

Although he scored for the first time this season in September's game at Manchester United, the striker also produced one of the worst open-goal misses in Barclays Premier League history.

"Hopefully, this kind of thing happens once in a life, because it is so hard," said Torres, as he prepared to face Sir Alex Ferguson's men once more tomorrow.

"I've had good games against Man U, I scored last time and hopefully we can beat them and get three more points."

Torres acknowledged that would be difficult without the injured John Terry and Ramires and the suspended Ashley Cole, while he hoped Frank Lampard would be passed fit after the calf injury that has kept the midfielder out of the last two matches.

[Phoenix07]

There must be something wrong with him mentally, either extreme self denial or regret.

He keeps talking about these things as though he's trying to reinforce it until he convinces himself.

I find it astonishing that a one of Liverpool's great strikers who played during some fantastic games, endured the passion of the fans during the reign of Gillett and Hicks can come out with statements like that about Chelsea fans.

If I ever bump into him in my lifetime, I shall point out these things and see whether he spits his plastic Chelsea dummy served up every home game out of the pram.

About as delusional as Roy Hodgson.

[Norbs]

@ being sung about while warming the bench