Fernando Torres was never that great of a striker, he was a one season wonder

2007 - 08 his only true great season

His goal scoring elsewhere has never been prolific, not at Atletico, Chelsea or Milan and even for Spain

He was lucky to play in a GOAT Spanish side where he got lucky Villa was injured for the final so he got the chance against an average German team to score the winner

Villa usually dominated the goal scoring in that Spanish era

He can't even tear it up in the Japanese league and age shouldn't be a factor because whenever a top play moves to one of these retirement leagues in their mid 30s, they still score a lot.

Torres is a one season wonder with some ok bits here and there. He's on the same level as Adebayor

I've always said this, the dude is overrated but I get killed for it by everyone because he was amazing during the period everyone was growing up and loving football around my age.

I blame injuries and his Chelsea stint. He also never had the support of Gerrard, Alonso and a Masch midfield. I wouldn't say go to the extreme and call him adebayor level but yes David Villa was always much better.

Don't agree at all, for three of his Liverpool seasons he was a world class striker which is how he earned a 50m transfer (back then a Premier League record) to a then better team.

14 goals and 5 assists in 24 PL games (2008/09) is a great rate for a striker who didn't take penalties and was at times surrounded by the likes of Robbie Keane, Jermaine Pennant, Albert Riera, Andriy Voronin and Ryan Babel.

In 2009/10, Liverpool were absolute rubbish as a team, they ended up finishing 7th in the league despite Torres' 18 league goals and 3 assists in 22(!) games, which is an insane rate.

Injuries killed him though and there were signs even in his final half year in Liverpool.

David Villa was better sure, but I don't see it as a bad sign to be worse than one of the greatest strikers if not the greatest of his time.

He scored 20 goals in 1 la liga season at the age of 19. He was Atletico's top scorer 5 seasons in a row before moving to Liverpool.
I agree with Urban though, he was unreal for 3 seasons at Liverpool, made his goals look so easy. Just watch his duels against the greatest CB in the history of PL, Vidic, he ruined him every time they played against eachother. In the long run though, injuries totally destroyed Torres.

For a young CF, he was scoring a goal every 2 games at Atletico, which was very good. Maybe, compared to now it doesn't look that special but I mean if you go back a decade, a star CF who could score at least a goal every 2 games was usually what you needed to win leagues.

So that earns him a move to Liverpool and he had a great first season. He struggled with injuries in subsequent seasons, but he had a good goalscoring ratio considering the context.

Torres was a pretty complete CF. However, he relied a lot on his athleticism so when that declined due to injuries so did his confidence. He was never really able to reinvent himself after that. I thought he was pretty awful ever since he left Liverpool (hell his last season there too), but don't let that discredit those previous years at Liverpool, where he was very good.

This revisionism is worse than "RVP only had one good season at Arsenal" Injuries ruined him but from Atletico to Liverpool, he absolutely was world class. Decisive in big game and an absolute terror to even world class centre backs like Vidic. To say he's on the same level as Adebayor is one of the most ridiculous things I've read on this forum.

This is the problem, everyone's opinion of him is formed, based and solidified from his Liverpool days where he turned 24, it's been 10 years, TEN, since he replicated even half of that. He doesn't deserve as much praise he gets.

I don't deny he was World class for 1 year but that's where I stop. I can do that for so many players if two seasons is enough to be labeled at such heights.

Does he get any praise? I only ever see Torres referee to as a joke. He became hilariously bad.

He had a lot of promise and played very well as a kid then a great season where he was WC then became a total joke.

Well, I won't deny most conversation start with 'He was amazing during his LFC days'. At Liverpool, he was a complete striker but it starts and stops there so on the whole, I will probably say sorry.

He left Liverpool for Chelsea when he was 26 and already had an amazing career before he even joined Liverpool so yeah he was pretty amazing for most of his career.

And no, he wasn't world class for one year, scoring 18 goals in 22 games is pretty effin world class imo, he did that one season before he left for Chelsea while playing for the 7th best team in the league and without taking any penalties (because Gerrard always did).

Season-Club-Games-Goals
2002-03: Atletico: 29-13
2003-04: Atletico: 35-20
2004-05: Atletico: 45-20
2005-06: Atletico: 38-13
2006-07: Atletico: 36-14
2007-08: Liverpool: 46-33
2008-09: Liverpool: 38-17
2009-10: Liverpool: 32-22
2010-11: LFC/CFC: 44-10
2011-12: Chelsea: 49-11

Yes, there's just one stand-out season spanned over a decade. But I would rather say he was an unfulfilled potential rather than a one-season wonder.

He was more of a natural second striker than a pure/lone striker... I liked him a lot in his prime. Second strikers often get overlooked unfortunately. Anyone remember Bebeto? Fantastic player whose stats didn't do justice to his contributions.

Liverpool fans still bitter about him

We've had far more important players jump ship in far worse ways each year after that, how can we be bitter lmao

very good in his prime, unplayable at his best but injuries definitely stunted him from being as good as he could have been..like Cas said, never able to reinvent himself once he lost his athleticism. David Villa was incredible, so him not being that lvl isn't a knock on him. Even during his prime he wasn't Villa lvl.

He's definitely above an Adebayor, but below a Berbatov. I think he's pretty well rated though tbh, most view him as someone who was elite for a brief period of time and then became utterly shit after injuries.

Firenze wrote:Even during his prime he wasn't Villa lvl.

He's definitely above an Adebayor, but below a Berbatov. I think he's pretty well rated though tbh, most view him as someone who was elite for a brief period of time and then became utterly shit after injuries.

I disagree. During his prime, Fernando Torres was widely considered to be the most elite striker in the world, and he was discussed quite a lot on here. His peak may have been short-lived, but I don't recall anyone disagreeing that he was the top performer in his position at the time. That said, his injury woes clearly impacted his usefulness and reliability throughout an entire season. In hindsight, it's conveniently easy to say that "he wasn't all that".

He's right. Berbatov was a beast.

Hes no where near WC apart from that one season I also always thought. His problem is hes very limited technically, hes basically for speed and finishing for that period when he was on top... as well as his physique. His job for Spain was basically a bulldozer more or less, and left Villa with the openings to finish really. Too often especially in his later career his weaknesses showed, his touches was often poor.

Well here goes: I think Torres, Alonso, Carragher and Rafa are all a bit overrated.

Art Morte wrote:Well here goes: I think Torres, Alonso, Carragher and Rafa are all a bit overrated.

Why don't you go ahead and post this at all the other oh-so-great Liverpool forums you're frequenting when you're bored with us? The young, lively ones with the better intercoursetraffic ?
See what they say?

But no, if you want to be yourself, you come crawling back, because you know damn well we're the only  ones that love you as you are

Hapless_Hans wrote:Why don't you go ahead and post this at all the other oh-so-great Liverpool forums you're frequenting when you're bored with us? The young, lively ones with the better intercoursetraffic ?
See what they say?

But no, if you want to be yourself, you come crawling back, because you know damn well we're the only  ones that love you as you are

It’s funny because that’s what happened to me when I tried to get into Arsenal-Mania, one “controversial” post (Ramsey is an average and Wenger sucks) and I got BANNED from the place. I couldn’t believe it.

Came crawling back here where I can post dumb stuff and still be loved <3

sportsczy wrote:He was more of a natural second striker than a pure/lone striker... I liked him a lot in his prime. Second strikers often get overlooked unfortunately. Anyone remember Bebeto? Fantastic player whose stats didn't do justice to his contributions.

I had myself a Bebeto and Romario poster back in my younger days. Can't remember any of his La Liga games at all but I remember him in WC '94. I was 7 so don't expect to read any tactical observations, just thought he was good at the ball. To which, he really really was.

its a tough one because you don't see pundits going around calling torres the goat or top 5 ever, so hard to say overrated. and when he was at his lowest he wasn't getting the "underrated" or "you need to be technically astute about football to understand his game" type love that footballers who are experiencing terrible seasons get. when he was terrible he got crucified for it and rightly so. btw, for all the skill berbatov had, a very similar ilk to ibra; unlike ibra, i don't think berba fulfilled his potential