Torres - Defending the Indefensible

After his latest entry into a catalogue of embarrassing misses, defending Fernando Torres has become even harder.

In fairness, you would be one mean bastard to begrudge the Spaniard based upon his efforts. His tireless team ethic, epitomised by his tracking back on Saturday against Norwich to win the ball back from the marauding Grant Holt, and his obvious enthusiasm for the game remains, and the occasional glimpse of his undeniable talent is enough for most Chelsea fans to extend their patience just a little bit further.

A moment of brilliance – or, rather a nearly-moment – against Sunderland summed up his time at Stamford Bridge. The ability of the Spaniard has rarely been questioned, and his acrobatics which led to Frank Lampard’s winning goal against the Black Cats led to congratulations from his team-mates and praise from the media, as if it had been he who had opened the scoring and brought his 14-game goal drought to a close.

Again, against Norwich, he so nearly did what the club forked out £50 million for – he so nearly produced a match-winning moment. The surprise element of his cheeky curling effort in the first half nearly caught John Ruddy out, but the goalkeeper sprung to his side brilliantly and managed to claw the ball around the post when it looked as if it would just evade his outstretched arm.

Instead, those moments serve only to underline the luckless nature of Torres’ stay in West London so far. There were doubts over his form and fitness even before his protracted switch from Liverpool, and it took him an incredible 14 games to net his first goal for the Blues - yet the Chelsea faithful showed admirable patience towards el Nino. Four goals in six games in the Autumn suggested that the Spaniard had finally rediscovered his goalscoring touch, but sandwiched in between those glorious moments was an astonishing miss in front of the Stretford End and a straight red card against Swansea for a dangerous lunge. Even so, the optimism remained that Fernando would inspire his side to silverware.

Fourteen games later, and that patience has yet to be repaid. Anonymous appearances papered over by the odd showing of talent has done little to deflect the criticism aimed at the Spaniard from all corners. Even Chelsea supporters are turning against a man they have had a grudging respect for during his tenure at Liverpool, and shown more-than-generous good grace towards since.

That aforesaid patience has seemingly worn out, compounded by a miss that has cost his side two points on a weekend where the Blues could have asserted their credentials for a Champions League berth next term thanks to defeats for Tottenham, Arsenal, Newcastle and Liverpool.

It wasn’t a bad miss. It was a horrendous miss. Eight yards out with a clean sight of goal, Fernando opted to take a touch. Then another. Then, with defenders bearing down on him, he hopelessly poked a foot wide of the target. You can’t help but feel a Torres in red would have hammered the ball home with aplomb without even thinking about it.
His industry is to be commended and as his manager has quite rightly pointed out, Torres had done a good job for the team in recent weeks – but all that counts for nothing when moments like that come along.

It is difficult to cast aside the argument that he is not scoring enough goals when he is missing opportunities like that. Guilt-edged chances have come few and far between for Fernando during his spell at Chelsea, and in fairness, that is largely not down to his own fault. It is well-documented that the Blues lack the necessary attacking spark that Torres thrives upon. At Liverpool, the creativity of the likes of Alonso and Gerrard gave him the necessary supply of ammunition. Torres would duly do the rest with a combination of pace and skill, of elegance and power.

In Liverpool red, Torres can only be seen to be smiling and celebrating. His spell in the blue of his current employees is summed up by a quick Google Images search of the man, which offers countless pictures of him with his head buried in his hands. It would seem even el Nino cannot believe the run he is currently on.

As it has already been addressed, Torres simply does not have the supply. In Juan Mata he has a single source of genius, but besides his diminutive countryman, Fernando has little help from elsewhere. Frank Lampard and forward-cum-winger Daniel Sturridge are naturally quite selfish players, whilst Raul Meireles and Ramires find themselves in shooting space on so few occasions that they can’t be blamed for going alone.

It would take a staunch advocate of the Spaniard to say that Torres does anything to help himself. Instead of fighting for his place, he has allowed the ego of Didier Drogba to brush him aside – he has allowed the Ivorian the psychological advantage. So often he has done nothing but cut a frustrated figure; his lack of effort and determination infuriating even the most ardent of Chelsea fans. Every now and again he does something brilliant, but that is too poor a return for a £50 million investment. Shevchenko and even Kezman showed industry!

What must be considered also is that Andre Villas-Boas has hardly helped Torres. His first six months was always going to be overshadowed by the pressures of moving from a club with a certain style of play to another. The transition from city to city will surely have affected him on a personal level as well. But with a solid pre-season behind him and an encouraging performance against Stoke at the start of the season, as well as an assist here and there, Villas-Boas wrecked his confidence by hauling him off time and time again, just when it looked like he might do something; just when you felt the magic was a moment away.

When he finally found his shooting boots, one poor performance was enough to see him benched and ultimately replaced by Drogba. His already fragile self-belief had been destroyed, and playing as a striker – a position that demands the currency of confidence – Torres became the proverbial rabbit in headlights. A string of games would surely have seen a gradual improvement; instead he was left to mope on the bench instead.

Villas-Boas’ poor management of Torres has done little to detract criticism from the Spaniard, but one can argue that Torres is simply a square peg for a round hole. He doesn’t fit the Chelsea way; not with this team. He was a last-minute panic-buy and was signed with little tactical consideration. There is no genuine supply from out wide, as Sturridge and Mata like to tuck inside. Neither is there support from the midfield, with moments of inspiration from the likes of Meireles and Lampard as common as a quiet, insignificant day in the life of Mario Balotelli.

It has now reached the stage where an either-or conclusion has been reached. Villas-Boas must now either cut his losses and look for a striker to fit the Chelsea system, or he must re-mould his team around the World Cup winner. At Liverpool, Torres was the star man. Stalwarts Carragher and Gerrard were fans’ favourites, but there could be no denying that el Nino was the true game-changer. With all respect to the Merseysiders, at Chelsea Torres is simply another superstar of the game, constantly living under the shadow of the indomitable Didier Drogba.

Catering the team to suit Torres would be a pricy endeavour for Villas-Boas. But you do not spend £50 million on a player and leave him on the bench. Torres needs support, either in the form of a second striker, or simply having more creativity around him. Some genuine width would do well to supply that, as at Liverpool, Torres was always able to exploit the space created by the selfless Dirk Kuyt, or he would latch on to an Alonso through-ball.

At Chelsea, he has none of this. Genuine widemen are needed, and this is something Chelsea totally lack. Juan Mata is no winger, he is simply a central playmaker who can do an adequate job out on the flank. Similarly, Florent Malouda and Daniel Sturridge are too selfish for a berth out wide. The pace of Salomon Kalou would perhaps be the best option, but his inconsistency means he can at best be a short-term option.

January is the time for plugging the leaks, not buying a new boat, and Villas-Boas knows he will be able to bring in one more acquisition at the most. It is highly unlikely that one player would be able to improve the supply to Fernando – it is even less likely that Chelsea fans will be backing the Spaniard by the time the summer window opens, anyhow…

That means more time must be expended watching Torres toil away in such a matter one can only feel sympathy for him. The man has simply had no luck during his 12 months in London, but luck is only what you make of it, and Torres is doing very little to make anything happen whatsoever.

Do not be fooled by his number of assists and his workrate for the team - Torres is a striker. Not a centre-forward like Drogba. As a striker, his role is to score goals. A striker does not fit into the Chelsea system, whereas a centre-forward does, acting as the pivot-point that places more emphasis on functionality than creativity. Nevertheless, by nature, Torres is a goalscorer, and that is what he is paid to do. A lack of a goalscoring return therefore can only be met with frustration and disillusionment by the Chelsea fans who have so patiently and openly backed a player that hardly ever embodies passion and commitment. Maybe that is why Drogba and Lampard can be forgiven for their spells without goals, and Torres cannot?

By the time the season concludes and the transfer market re-opens, Villas-Boas will have a simple choice – spend, and spend massively, to create a new team based around the spine of Cech-Luiz-Mata-Torres; one that will sufficiently cater for the Spaniard’s needs.

Alternatively he can cut his losses and go and buy the type of industrious striker that Didier Drogba is; one that relies on strength and physicality and can hold the ball up, thus opening up a more direct style of play which could add to the side’s collective threat. To some extent, Andre has already tried adapting his system into one that plays a more incisive style of football and therefore benefit el Nino, rather than the long-ball tactic that suits Drogba. The difficult thing for Torres is that Drogba is just as productive with the ball into feet as he is in the air…

Chelsea are no longer a super-club; players will go for where the money is, or where there are great footballing ‘projects’. Real Madrid and Manchester City fall into both those categories, whilst the remainder of the European football elite – Milan, Inter, Bayern, Manchester United and company – remain attractive destinations because of their winning past. Similarly, clubs like Tottenham and Napoli are building sides for the future, and these clubs also pose attractive alternatives. Then there is the ultimate ambition of playing for Barcelona.

Chelsea still have financial pulling-power, but that is limited both in comparison to the likes of City, and by the financial fair-play rules. With Champions League football and domestic success no longer a guarantee for the West London outfit, luring big-name players will be difficult for the club without massively over-spending.

That leaves the other option of Villas-Boas trying to recover as much of the fortune forked out by Abramovich almost a year ago.

In the end, therefore, it is a simple scenario for the Portuguese manager as he looks to solve the Torres conundrum. Look to restructure, or look for resale value. The complicated bit is this: at this current moment in time, neither of those outcomes looks a possibility...