How to solve a problem like Fernando Torres?

A £50million price tag on your head is always going to put pressure on any footballer. Their every move on and off the ball will be placed under immense scrutiny from fans, the manager, even the board who agreed to dish out such a large amount of money for them. Fernando Torres is undoubtedly a player with tremendous amount of skill, a player who on his day is worth every single penny. Look at his goal scoring record for Liverpool, 81 goals in 142 games speaks for itself. Torres is undoubtedly a prize asset to any team.

So why hasn’t it all clicked for Chelsea yet? Why hasn’t he scored?

Chelsea supporters and neutrals alike will look straight at Torres’ price tag and brandish him as a potential “flop”, some might even go as far as drawing comparisons to the once great Shevchenko, and how quickly he fell into the abyss after his time at Chelsea. Torres though, should be given the benefit of the doubt. His season up to now with Liverpool was plagued by a reoccurring knee injury that prevented him from reaching that signature form that terrorised defenders in the league since his arrival in 2007.  Starting afresh with Chelsea, on the back of Roy Hodgson’s disastrous stint as Liverpool boss was no easy task, Torres was literally thrown into the deep end, with fans expecting instant results.

 In recent games, most notably Chelsea’s last fixture against F.C Copenhagen, Torres has looked sharp, showing glimpses of his best form. While still not managing to find the back of the net, Torres looks to be developing an acute understanding with his Chelsea teammates, with some neat touches on the ball and some excellent link up play.  Some people will always look straight at the price tag, looking at the stats and note that they do not exactly show money well spent, others however, will see that Torres is slowly coming into his stride. Hopefully the Chelsea faithful, and more importantly Carlo Ancelotti and Roman Abramovich are part of the latter. With the title race far from over, Torres coming into form could have come at a better time for Ancelotti and co. Watch this space.

Dale Benton