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| Torres is given his marching orders (Courtesy ESPN) |
There was only one Fernando Torres in world football. But as of recently, we've all been, no doubt, witness to a strange phenomenon of Torres' doppelgänger disreputably bumbling on every turf he's been on since donning the blue shirt. This is by far my most logical attempt of an explanation for the fluctuating performances of the once lethal El Niño.
Oh, how unfortunate Torres has been. Having endured what can be safely presumed as thee most frustrating World Cup as a player, his disastrous form and bad luck had then trailed him back to the red sector of Merseyside for the first half of the 2010/2011 season.
One Christmas and a collosal £50 Million move to Stamford Bridge later, what was meant to be the revival of the real Torres was all but a false desire shared by us all. Since then, Torres has put a new twist to the meaning of being a blue. Once a triumphant team as solid as their owner's personal private army (yes, Abramovich even has one of those), the introduction of their new number nine has brought nothing to them but instability and mixed fortunes.
Having only scored 3 goals in his first 24 games thus far for Chelsea, the former red-hot Red's hero, who had already hit the back of the net on no fewer than 20 occasions at this point in his budding Liverpool career, has looked more glum and blue than anything else since his mega money transfer to Chelsea.
With fans and pundits alike gifting him a clean slate to rebuild his reputation for the new start of the 2011/2012 season with the blues, we're still seeing the clumsy twin of Torres.
Looking back at the defeat to Manchester United, since then more has been mentioned on El Niño's performance than the result of the battle between the top two Premier League teams. We certainly saw glimpses of the red-hot Torres, only to be instantly cooled by his gawky, careless finishing. It makes it all the more difficult to gauge how well he actually did as an individual; he did display some talented touches on the ball; he did score a delightful chip; and he was getting himself into dangerous positions, making it tough for the opposition to track his movements - that's how he was played in on goal to go on to score. But contrasting this with his scuffed shots, lack of confidence and what I will dub as "the miss of all misses" which left the world scratching their heads and rubbing their eyes in utter disbelief, it leaves us the spectators wondering when he will be back to his best. I'm most confident he will be as lethal as he was, but it's a question of when.
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| Woeful Torres |
Unfolding before us is a script that couldn't have been written better by the most loathing of Fernando Torres hater. Once again, he stole the headlines from his team's overall performance, and once again, his what would have been satisfactory performance was marred by another poor display of judgement, in this case a red card.
It is unfortunate as a general football fan to witness one of the world's most talented strikers be entangled in the thorny vines of tribulation for such a lengthy period. It seems as though every time Torres zigs, lady luck zags, and we all know that every player, team, or coach needs just a bit of luck to reach top form, and that is what is so vehemently eluding the blue Torres. Let's hope the real Torres will show up in the near future.
Charlie Marsh
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