What ails 'Miss'ter Fernando Torres??

By Raghavan,

Once the hottest striker to graze the BPL fields. His arrival from Athletico at Liverpool in 2007 lit up TVs across the world, as he shared equal space with scintillating stars across the BPL. He was no less feared than Cristiano Ronaldo or the erstwhile Didier Drogba, and was perhaps as complete a striker as Thierry Henry was in his days at Arsenal. Certainly, with Wayne Rooney playing in Ronaldo's background in those years, Torres was the striker of the BPL. Infact, he became an instant fan favorite in a club that newcomers always found it hard to find following with huge chunks of the spotlight always focussed on Steven Gerrard. Torres was the Liverpool fan's saviour to take them heights enough to pull down historical rivals Manchester United. And he did almost do that in 2008 when Liverpool finished second in the table.

One just has to ask the big boys, Chelsea and Manchester United, to digest the extent of threat he possessed. In 7 games against Chelsea, before joining Chelsea, he had scored 7 times and had scored a breathtaking blaze in his last game vs Chelsea before making a move. Nemanja Vidic of Man Utd dreads facing Torres, invariably getting sent off most of the games he had to face him. Torres possessed speed, strength to hold off  against the centerbacks, good control and a terrifying right foot that can impart such artistic swerves on the ball and also the ability to find cheeky finishes at keeper's near posts. All these are not quality's that can just die one fine morning. Not when he's 27. 

Much of Torres's success came when he had the reliability of a fit Steven Gerrard to find him. Torres was able to create his own space and find himself or someone else on goal as long as the likes of Gerrard were on the same frequency. The likes of Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano were of great help to Torres, as they adeptly stopped dead the opposition and won the ball, Torres than quite often found himself with lesser distance to cover and lesser defenders to beat or go around.  Even when he found himself crowded out, Gerrard and Yossi Benayoun/Dirk Kuyt made sure they offered themselves to combine in the play and work a way through for one of them. And this combination wasn't one that materialises during the course of a match, but in the training grounds and practice sessions- a combination of the most definite of mutual understandings. Torres enjoyed the whole unit and derived the confidence that endeared him to fans of the Premier League.

Torres was injury hit during parts of the 2009-10 season and made largely substitute appearances in the 2010 World Cup he won with his country Spain. He started the 2010-11 season not fully recovered from injury and without the services of Gerrard who started his long spell of injury around then. He seemed to have hit back form against Chelsea. Gerrard started that game and Torres suddenly looked like the Torres of the past. Before once again hitting a lean patch. The exit of Roy Hodgson (the sacking of long time manager Rafael Benitez, with whom Torres seemed to enjoy his stay, is pointed to by some as the reason for his fall) and the installation of Liverpool Legend 'King' Kenny Dalglish found Torres gradually finding his feet with 4 goals in 4 starts after Dalglish shifted positions of key players like pushing Raul Mereiles (who incidentally later joined Torres at Chelsea) to play right behind Torres.Then came the shock move to Chelsea, a move that was seen as treachery and disloyalty by the Liverpool fans, a feeling they were right in having. 

Things went downhill for Torres ever since. It begged the question why he did ever leave Liverpool when he was just managing to find back his form. He said the wanted to win trophies, but quite frankly he himself would have known Chelsea were in contention for nothing in 2010-11. Torres hit a run of 9 appearances without finding the net in the process jeopardizing Chelsea's PL and UEFA Champions League campaigns, as Carlo Ancelotti was forced to start the misfiring striker in key games just in order to do justice to his price tag. Ending his draught, albeit temporarily, after being literally spoon fed by the whole Chelsea mid field against West Ham did not spark him to  fire as hoped.

Spark him to fire was what getting him the support of country mate Juan Manuel Mata would do, though new Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas thought. It really didn't. He still went 3 games without scoring before scoring a good goal against Man Utd, a joy short-lived as 30 minutes later he cemented the miss of the season to his name, a miss I'm sure you're all familiar with now. But the way he lashed onto that ball, and the way he played in general in that match led to talks that he finally might be in touch again. It was strengthened by his goal against Swansea the next week where he controlled an overhead pass before swiveling to find the far corner. Getting sent off for a two-footed challenge in the same match set the clock back, and was found kneeing an open goal skywards upon his return against Blackburn. 

That Chelsea fell in danger of finishing outside the top 4 made matters worse for him. AvB not ready to risk losing further points by playing him, went back to starting with Drogba, who at 34 was set to be permanently replaced by Torres. Drogba has started in Chelsea's last 3 games in the BPL and Torres has not even been brought off the bench in the last two. His fate seems to be snowballing downwards. Rumours that AvB is ready to offload Torres for just 20m (30m less then  what he was bought for) next August if not the coming January is not doing his confidence any good.

Torres will feel sick to his stomach when he sees the new arrivals at Liverpool. Mata alone has not been able to do much for Torres. The likes of Lampard, Mikel/Romeu and Mereiles (from where Chelsea play him) are clearly too sedentary for Torres. But Liverpool right now have the proper ingredients for Torres, with Charlie Adam doing a decent duty of minimising the 'Gerrard is missing' feeling. Stewart Downing is a down and out wing player who can help Torres stick to playing down the center, and Dirk Kuyt is Torres's usual trusted mate. It is thus clear that Torres acted in haste, leaving a club that he was so familiar with, without waiting to see how the club shaped up in August. There is nothing he can do about it now. Other than fight it out as AvB wants him to, or find a fresh lease of life somewhere else in rumours are indeed true. But it remains the wish of every football fan that he returns to his best. Because at his best, he is an absolute treat to the eyes.