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Torres wants to come back. Do you?


WhiskeyJar
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Torres wants to come back. Do you want him back?  

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  1. 1. Torres wants to come back. Do you want him back?



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That explosive burst of pace he had in his first couple of years with us has gone, and I think because he's relied on it so much during his career, it has psychologically destroyed him. He was slowly starting to find his form again with us just before he left. Moving when he did, to an ageing team with a different team set-up hasn't helped his confidence at all but the £££ must have softened the blow.

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Can't see him coming back, but he regretted moving there from the first day he entered that club. For me, he's never looked happy there. He belonged here and he knows it. C'est la vie though, we all make mistakes, we often think the grass might be greener. He thought it was, he was wrong. Sometimes you get the chance to return to where you feel home is, but I do think he's lost a lot of what made him great with us. Whether that's because he doesn't feel right where he is or it's a case of injuries taking their toll (or a combination of both) I don't know, only he knows. Would I take him back? Possibly, if he could prove his fitness, motivation, took a significant pay cut and we didn't have to pay much for him. Without being able to talk to the player himself it's impossible to make a full judgement on his state of mind, and that for me would be crucial.

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More or less.

The slower build up play I don't think suits him at all.It's a pity it turned out like it did, his performance in the derby at Anfield in 2008 was the best striking performance I'd seen full stop.

Watching one man singlehandedly panic an entire midfield & defence merely by his presence was a joy to behold.

 

If you manage to find out what does suit him, you might wanna let him know.

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Mate I've always liked your footy posts but you let yourself down with the constant Rodgers-bashing (and I'm far from convinced by him), but it's becoming Rashid-esque in its predictability. Even a Torres thread is being used to bash him here. Torres of old could have played in any team, with any style, him and Gerrard carried us most of the time, I'm a Rafa fan but there was nothing in Rafa's genius which brought the best out in him - he was just a better player then, simple as, when you look over his old Liverpool goals there was nothing mystical about the build up play or the way he linked with Gerrard, half the time he just beat two or three men and scored from 40 yeards or slid one in from an impossible angle. You don't even need a team when you're that good. He was the best striker in the world IMO.

 

Eh?

I wasn't having a go, I'm sorry if that's how it came across. The Joe Allen comment in my previous post was a direct criticism of him as a player not the manager.

 

I was just pointing out that our build up play is much slower now than it was under Rafa. Under Rafa it was quite simple, Reina-Alonso-Gerrard-Torres-Goal.

 

Whereas nowadays we seem to probe more for openings than to force them.

 

I suppose it's like picking a lock of a house and quietly taking what you need compared to smashing the door in taking everything and breaking every window on your way out.

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I still feel most of Torres's problems are in his head. It's not even confidence it goes beyond that, it's like at some point he just stopped being happy. His whole demeanour changed. It started at Liverpool but followed him through the World Cup and has never left him. He used to be full of beans, full of smiles, he enjoyed himself on the pitch, didn't bitch and moan despite all the physical shit which came his way, and then at some point I can't remember - his head just dropped and it's never been lifted since.

 

I know he'd been in a long-term relationship with his girlfriend for quite a while and he appeared to be very content with life at Liverpool for the first couple of years, but after that, he stopped 'being happy' as you point out. This is about the time he got married and had his baby daughter soon after. Not long before he left Liverpool, they had a son. Now, he's never come across as somebody who likes to go partying and getting his face in the papers - indeed he gives every impression of being a homebody who prefers the quiet life away from the limelight - but it does look as though married life and all it entails is something that depresses the fuck out of him. That's not to say he doesn't love his wife and kids, but the weight of responsibility might be what he's struggling to deal with.

 

Add in the struggles with both fitness and form in his professional life, and it all points to a man who can't find a release. No amount of money in the world will find a quick fix to these problems.

 

He had a personal affinity with Luis Aragones that extended beyond the professional coach-player relationship, but he's not had that with any of the other coaches he's worked with since coming to England. Rafa, Hodgson, Ancelotti, Villas-Boas and Di Matteo are pretty much exclusively about a professional working relationship with their players, as is Del Bosque with Spain, to an extent. While I've already said earlier that I wouldn't want Torres to return because it would have an adverse effect on our other attacking options, the weird thing is that in Brendan Rodgers, he would have just the sort of manager with whom he can be close with on both a personal and professional level. I don't mean that touchy-feely stuff that Rodgers does, but simply that Rodgers doesn't only focus on the professional side when dealing with his players.

 

He went to Chelsea to win trophies at club level, yet he was a peripheral figure in them doing so last season. While he's on a fantastically lucrative contract, I think he sees the mentality which is 'you are getting paid shitloads, so get on with it'. Everything at that club is about the result and while the owner is fixated on the team getting results and playing like Barcelona - and throwing money at the problem like confetti at a wedding - nobody will seriously look at the players' off-field situation to see how it can effect their on-field performance. He also sees this mentality in the club's fans, whereas at Liverpool the fans crave success but love players who give it their all and identify with the club too.

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The daft cunt should have waited until the summer of 2011 to see how the land lies. Playing alongside Suarez might have re-energised both his performances and his commitment to the club. We probably wouldn't have got £50m for selling him that summer if he still felt the urge to leave, but we wouldn't have rashly spunked £35m on an inexperienced misfit either because the over-inflated opinion of Carroll's qualities and potential would have subsided by then and his transfer value would have subsided accordingly, perhaps to the extent we'd decide to look elsewhere. Torres might want to come back, but he isn't needed here, and his presence would only stifle the progress of our other attacking options. He's had his chance.

 

He's not doing anything to show he has the footballing qualities to earn a return and he's done too much to show what kind of a person he is.

 

Fuck him.

 

(Having said that, if anyone's got a time machine and they can fetch the 2007-09 version back, then I'd agree to that. That was a player!)

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People have got very short memories.

 

Torres is at least partly/mostly(delete as appropriate) responsible for us being in the shit we currently are in.

 

He completely fucked us and Kenny over by doing what he did on the 31st January. What we did with the money was our fault but he forced us into that situation. There is no way we would have bought Andy Carroll, had we a summer to find his replacement.

 

He wouldn't even be welcomed back by me as a 50 year old spectator, let alone as a player. He relinquished everything with his behaviour back then.

 

Fuck him.

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On loan with Chelsea funding majority of his wages and I think its a risk worth taking. No chance that will happen so i wouldnt want him bck.

 

Are you fucking blind?

 

You've negged me with "Buying Carroll wasn't his fault"

 

I clearly stated buying Carroll was OUR fault but he forced us into the situation.

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Are you fucking blind?

 

You've negged me with "Buying Carroll wasn't his fault"

 

I clearly stated buying Carroll was OUR fault but he forced us into the situation.

 

What did he actually force us into?

 

He was cunt, don't get me wrong, but why did we have to blitz £35m on anyone in January?

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Are you fucking blind?

 

You've negged me with "Buying Carroll wasn't his fault"

 

I clearly stated buying Carroll was OUR fault but he forced us into the situation.

 

 

You cant have it both ways either he forced us into that situation or he didnt.

 

We could have waited until Summer rather than buying an injured player.

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No thanks, Sturridge never got much of a chance at Chelsea because of him and I would like to see how he performs getting regular games for us rather than block him with a sulky has-been who fucked us off in the first place, fuck em in the ear, fuck em in the other ear.

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What did he actually force us into?

 

He was cunt, don't get me wrong, but why did we have to blitz £35m on anyone in January?

 

Only having 2 strikers is suicide isn't it? At the time we had Bellamy, and Suarez had only just signed. No-one really knew what Suarez was going to be like, so obviously we needed a replacement there and then, to finish the season strongly and try and get the Champions League place.

 

The transfer request on deadline day forced us to seek his successor there and then.

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No, the same answer when a similar thread popped up a few months ago.

 

He's fucked, a shadow of the player he was for us. I've been at a few Chelsea games this season (through work) and from what I've seen off camera he offers nothing and looks physically and mentally gone.

 

That spark he had has disappeared and I'd rather the negative stigma that's now following him around doesn't come back to our dressing room, his whole character seemed to change in the last year and bit of his time with us and that's never changed since.

 

He's a bad egg and is now stinking another club out. We'd have to be nuts to go back in for him and I can't see us being that daft.

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Only having 2 strikers is suicide isn't it? At the time we had Bellamy, and Suarez had only just signed. No-one really knew what Suarez was going to be like, so obviously we needed a replacement there and then, to finish the season strongly and try and get the Champions League place.

 

The transfer request on deadline day forced us to seek his successor there and then.

 

Well, I don't agree. Torres was a massive twat for what he did, but we really should have waited until the summer or got a loan signing in. Panic spending £35m was utterly ridiculous. Anyway, its in the past.

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Only having 2 strikers is suicide isn't it? At the time we had Bellamy, and Suarez had only just signed. No-one really knew what Suarez was going to be like, so obviously we needed a replacement there and then, to finish the season strongly and try and get the Champions League place.

 

The transfer request on deadline day forced us to seek his successor there and then.

 

Considering that his successor was injured and wouldnt be ready to play for a while anyway i dont think that was the case. My personal opinion is that Commoli and Co wanted to make a statement with a big signing i.e that the club is happy to invest big (with money burning in their pocket).

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Well, I don't agree. Torres was a massive twat for what he did, but we really should have waited until the summer or got a loan signing in. Panic spending £35m was utterly ridiculous. Anyway, its in the past.

 

These are not my views. I'm talking from what the club said. I completely agree we should have waited.

 

Considering that his successor was injured and wouldnt be ready to play for a while anyway i dont think that was the case. My personal opinion is that Commoli and Co wanted to make a statement with a big signing i.e that the club is happy to invest big (with money burning in their pocket).

 

Again. I was against signing Carroll from the very start, only a few could see it being anything but a disaster, but Torres leaving the way he did, when he did, created a problem for the club - and they felt they had to act.

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Only having 2 strikers is suicide isn't it? At the time we had Bellamy, and Suarez had only just signed. No-one really knew what Suarez was going to be like, so obviously we needed a replacement there and then, to finish the season strongly and try and get the Champions League place.

 

The transfer request on deadline day forced us to seek his successor there and then.

 

He broke my heart leaving because I thought he would be a true legend for us but I think he wanted to leave from the summer previous didn't he but I'm assuming he was blagged about our intentions, when FSG were offering £12 million for Suarez and being told to fuck off by Ajax I think he'd made his mind up, he wanted to challenge for top honors and with the turmoil we were going backwards.

 

It seemed he was agitating for a move all window and we looked like we made him force it through rather then him suddenly deciding last day to ask for a move.

 

I'd have him back if it was for buttons but I'd never really respect him again as much as I did.

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Mate I've always liked your footy posts but you let yourself down with the constant Rodgers-bashing (and I'm far from convinced by him), but it's becoming Rashid-esque in its predictability. Even a Torres thread is being used to bash him here. Torres of old could have played in any team, with any style, him and Gerrard carried us most of the time, I'm a Rafa fan but there was nothing in Rafa's genius which brought the best out in him - he was just a better player then, simple as, when you look over his old Liverpool goals there was nothing mystical about the build up play or the way he linked with Gerrard, half the time he just beat two or three men and scored from 40 yeards or slid one in from an impossible angle. You don't even need a team when you're that good. He was the best striker in the world IMO.

 

Although you are correct in what you say in the bolded part, I think it's also fair to say that Rafa was the only manager to build a team around him rather than using him in a style which suited the team more than him. The way we played, and the players supporting him, allowed him to be the best striker in the world. When Hodgson arrived and set the team up in a deep 4-4-2 he was never going to hit those heights in that setup, even if the quality of players in the squad had not been deteriorating, and when he went to Chelsea he was just stuck into a team built to play with Drogba and expected to get on with it. Now that they have players suited to getting the best out of him and he has a manager who will build the play around him he's improved this season, but he has also suffered from the loss of morale and loss of a few yards mentioned above in the thread. Combine it all together and you see the whole picture. I don't think he will ever find that perfect storm again that he had here for a few brief years.

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