Helps his boyhood club to win promotion and established themselves in the first division

Joins a team that had recently won the CL and lit the Premier League a light with his pace and power

Scores the winning goal in Euros Final, giving his country their first international trophy ever.

Goes on to win the World Cup and another Euros with Spain.

Moves to Chelsea and wins the Europa League, Champions League, FA Cup.

And while at it, he got Third place in the Ballon Dor and FIFA World Player of the year.

He isn't like he used to be but I'd be damned. That's one hell of a career.

Fernando, where art thou.

Simply sucks. Only rival fans appreciate him (just like how we appreciate Moyes ).

At some point he was one of the best strikers in the world, maybe the best in 2008. Just shows what an injury and losing that extra yard of pace can do to a player, just like it happened to Kaka.

yeah... no even in his prime he wasn't top 5 strikers in epl history let alone in the game.

sadly 20 years from now though kids would probably argue and say he was really world class looking at his trophies and "contribution" :p

I don't think he has lost that much pace. Temporarily for sure but a few injuries don't turn you into a turtle for good. Iniesta and Messi were much more injury prone in the past. Iniesta played a CL final with a damaged harmstring which pretty much knocked him out for the entire season following. Yet both still have their insane burst of acceleration. Villa has broken his leg (for the second time) and is 32 now and he's still not this bad.

I don't know what happened to Torres but the pace excuse is a bit too simple for my liking. It's probably a culmination of many things. Starting with the fact that he never was a consistently prolific striker to begin with. In his last 3 seasons at Atleti his record reads 48 goals in 129 games which is about 0.37 goals per game. Nothing special for a pure striker who doesn't add much else. His record for Spain is even worse. From 2007 - 2011 which is regarded as his peak years, he scored 12 goals in 43 games (0.28 goals per game).

His current form is certainly not what he used to be but I think when he joined Liverpool he hit a purple patch and 07 - 10 wasn't his real level either. Premier League defenses weren't used to him and his pace, he got hyped up by the SKY propaganda machinery, his confidence went sky high etc. Then the injuries came, he was barely used in the World Cup whereas in 2008 he was a starter, he left for Chelsea and received lots of abuse, he got mainly coached by AVB and Di Matteo who both have no clue, tried to survive alongside another alpha striker in Drogba, Premier League defenses started to figure him out. All in all he never got out of that downward spiral and for a sulky and bitchy person like him it's surely not easy mentally coupled with a bit of natural decline. And here we are today.

TL;DR: *bleep* you if you did not read.

Donuts wrote:yeah... no even in his prime he wasn't top 5 strikers in epl history let alone in the game.

sadly 20 years from now though kids would probably argue and say he was really world class looking at his trophies and "contribution" :p

just shows how long you've been watching football. The guy was undisputedly world class and arguably the best ST in the world at one point in his first 3 years at Liverpool.

lol?
best ST my ass

Prime Henry / R9 / Ibrahimovic all over him, and this is just the last decade.

Donuts wrote:lol?
best ST my ass

Prime Henry / R9 / Ibrahimovic all over him, and this is just the last decade.

He's not saying that Torres is better than those guys in their prime. But at his peak Torres was one of the if not the best striker in the world. That's not even up for debate, he was incredible.

Donuts wrote:lol?
best ST my ass

Prime Henry / R9 / Ibrahimovic all over him, and this is just the last decade.

Do you know how to read?

When Torres was in his prime, Henry was past it, R9 was past it.

Ibra was there but back at Inter he would go hiding big time in huge CL matches. And when Liverpool and Inter met in the CL, Torres outplayed Ibra in both legs.

Actually Liverpool outplayed Inter.... there's a difference.

Not sure what Ibra was supposed to do when back then his teams would give him zero support and expect him to Maradona it every time.

Its no coincidence at all that in recent year he's improved his big game performances as teams have stopped doing this.

Anyway overrated player is overrated.

The point is not to bash to Ibra, the point is saying that Torres at one point (2007-08 season specifically) was arguably the best ST in the world.

You can't be so hateful to disagree with that.

And here's some simple logic for you Moal:

-No matter how shit the service to Ibra was, he was still god awful in the two legs against us.
-Torres on the other hand was really really good even scoring the winner at the San Siro.
-Ibra was bad
-Torres was way better than him

= Torres outplayed Ibra over the two legs.

Arguably never better than prime Villa, as evident when they played together for Spain.  

But yeah, he was top for 3 seasons.

Fußball wrote:Arguably never better than prime Villa, as evident when they played together for Spain.  

But yeah, he was top for 3 seasons.

In their primes, I can agree with this.

But his main competition during those years (specifically 07-08 because that's the season I'm arguing here) were Ibrahimovic(22), David Villa(22), Forlan (23), Eto'o (17), Luis Fabiano (34), Aguero (27), Benzema (31), Adebayor (30), Drogba (15), Rooney (18), Tevez (19), Milito (17), Kanoute (28).

*goals in parenthesis that season in all comps. Torres had 33 goals.

That was the year where Henry, Raul, Shevchenko, Ruud, R9 were all past it and guys like Falcao, Cavani, Higuain hadn't broken out yet.


That 2007-08 season he was the best ST in the world without question.

I can't understand that a striker supposedly world class can be at that level just for a few seasons while most other seasons remaining just average. Form is temporary, class is permanent.

Biggest flash in the pan in football history. Even Ronaldinho had more peak longevity than him

Lex wrote:Even Ronaldinho had more peak longevity than him

Dafeq?! U mad because Ronaldinho denied you a CL trophy (he actually flopped in that game but let's ignore such meaningless detail for a second ).

It's true, when Torres was at his peak he was among the best Strikers in the game. He was just slightly overshadowed by Villa at the NT.

maybe i am unable to read or you guys say it wrong.
best strikers in the game.. during that (and very short) time period.. okay I can agree but he is easily overshadowed by many others.
one injury and his career went to crap.. or maybe he needs a prime Gerrard to carry him who knows.

..hate when fans start calling someone world class as if there is no definition to that meaning.

There isn't. The phrase, in and of itself, lost all meaning a long time ago

Torres was definitely the best striker in the world during the 07-08 season, after that one of the best. If Chelsea do buy a top striker this summer, it would be best if he left. Maybe playing for a smaller club might mean his old form returns due to less pressure.

The only thing that ruined Torres' time at Liverpool was injuries. He was easily world class in his prime.

No doubt you'll get people claiming Daniel Sturridge the better player now, but that wouldn't be right; Torres was something special. That's not to say Daniel isn't, but Nando was out of this world.  

Torres played in a disciplined system and thus lacked the support needed in the final third. Yes, he had the likes of Alonso and Gerrard in the team, but the support was lacked in the final third. The only person on the same level as Torres was Gerrard. As much as I like Kuyt, he wasn't good enough to be a consistent starter although you could always rely on him to do his role defensively and marauding the opposition in the final third. Yossi was the same where he was never going to be a consistent footballer for us. Babel was young and seemed to prefer his Dutch rap over football, and Riera was just a squad player.

If Torres was in his prime, and played in a much more attacking orientated team, similar to how we're playing now, he would of broken records. I don't think we did him enough justice by just playing on the counter-attack. He was the deadliest striker/poacher I've ever seen in a Liverpool shirt after Fowler. More so than Suarez/Sturridge.

Keep in mind Torres had a better goal to game ratio than Henry and RvN in the PL before that stupid Owl took over.

Torres was one of the best players in the planet in the 2007/08 and 08/09 seasons when with Liverpool.Anyone denying that is having short memories.For me only Eto'o was as good as Torres during that Period.Zlatan wasnt even remotely close then when you consider the performances in CL then

Scored in Every Knock out match for Liverpool;Against teams like Madrid Inter Chelsea(twice) Arsenal .Scored the winner in Euro 08.

David Villa ,Etoo , Drogba and Ibra all were better than him during that time. Just because he had some Gomez 11/12 season doesnt mean he was the best.. most overrated player whose most of the footballing aspects are average as shown by his last 4 years.

At no point was Torres better than Villa lmao.

Having said that Torres was unplayable on his day and managed to stay consistent in 2008.

So where could this chump go? what team would take him?

EarlyPrototype wrote:So where could this chump go? what team would take him?

I think he's still got two years left on his contract and no one is going to take him on his Chelsea wages after his Chelsea performances, so if he leaves, Chelsea are probably going to have to pay him a chunk of money to take a wage cut at his new club. He's 30 now, too.

But if there's going to be a transfer, it has either Atletico Madrid or Italy written all over it. If Atletico sell Costa - and especially if Chelsea are interested in the player - Torres going back there would be a no-brainer. Or if the finances can be sorted out, I could easily see Torres in Serie A, with Benitez's Napoli the obvious destination, but perhaps one of the other bigger clubs, too.

But what ever the deal is going to be - if there is one coming - I think there's going to be a player moving to Chelsea as part of it.