The Torres Solution

    Seven months in and twenty two games played , Fernando Torres has three goals and forty five shots for Chelsea this season. For a man worth 50 million pounds this makes dismal reading , forget the price tag for any striker worth his salt or trade it's a humiliating and humbling stat. There is the idea that his goal drought is mental, an idea that i subscribe to, several games this season his movement and assists have been phenomenal, however when he does get into scoring positions he seems to hesitate for that fraction of a second, a trait that he never had early in his Liverpool days or when he burst into the scene for Atletico Madrid.

     So here is my remedy to unleash the Torres of 2007/2008. Firstly the current midfield set up at Chelsea lacks dynamism, there is seldom movement and quickness. Only Mata provides that quickness of thought and movement and he is often played out of position out wide when his best position is in the hole behind the striker. To get the best out of Torres the midfield must be quick, fluid in terms of possession so that the chance creation is always constant. At the moment the midfield is lethargic and the duo of Lampard (age) Essien(injuries) is not the same anymore.Oriol Romeu as a deep lying playmaker like Xabi Alonso or Busquets is needed to keep posession. A formation of 4-1-3-2 will in my opinion ensure constant movement of the ball. 

       What Villas-Boas wanted was a high pressing, high defensive line to make the midfield smaller and to decrease the distance from the center circle to the opposing goal. That would mean a team that creates lots of chances for its strikers a set up that i believe would have benefited Torres, the only  problem is that the personnel was missing. For that strategy to work you need ball playing defenders, like Pique for example (a reason that Cahill was signed) and they must be quick so that they can recover balls played behind them (something that John Terry is not). 

       The common saying that form is temporary and class is permanent is being tested strenuously by Torres' lack of goals but the supporting cast has to change to fulfil that often used term.