Posts Tagged ‘Fernando Torres’

6 bad and random Premier League signings 2011

Posted: January 1, 2012 by onefootinthegame in Premier League, Transfer
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English: Fernando Torres playing for Chelsea F.C.

Image via Wikipedia

1 – Fernando Torres (to Chelsea)

Oh Fernando, what have you become? Lumbering, awkward, slow and unhappy. 3 goals in 28 games for Chelsea – a goal every 9 games says a lot. With the £50 million price tag saying the rest, that makes it £16.6 million a goal. If there has been a bigger transfer flop per pound I’d like to see him. Will he ever come good? I’m not sure, this summer will be 4 years since he scored in the 2008 European championships, arguably the last year he actually had any form. Long way back Fernando….

2 – Andy Carroll (to Liverpool)

First things first, 4 goals in 23 games for Liverpool – that’s a gaol every 5 and a bit games. Not ‘too’ bad until you realise that’s a £8.7+ million a goal and think wow. In many ways Carroll is unlucky, he never wanted to leave Newcastle by all accounts but at £35 million I’m sure Ashley thought he’d never get this chance again. Liverpool will argue that they have paid for potential and that English players carry a premium (also see Henderson and Downing) but that is a lot of money for potential. He may come good, but unless Liverpool change the way they play I think Andy will be shipped out back to Newcastle.

3 – Pascal Chimbonda (to QPR)

Pascal was in the team of the year at Wigan, which earned him a move to upwardly mobile Spurs the season after. In 2011 he played 3 games for QPR before being shipped out to Doncaster where his agent (Willie McKay) now acts director of football.

4 – Shefki Kuqi (to Newcastle)

Picture the scene, you’ve just lost your top goalscorer for £35 million and you need someone to fill the gap in your first season back in the Premier League. Who do you plump for? Well Kuqi was free so beggers can’t be choosers. Shefki signed after the transfer deadline on a free and played 6 games for Newcaslte with no goals. A year later he’s banging them in for Oldham.

5 – Steven Pienarr (to Spurs)

This might be a little unfair to Pienarr but he still makes the list. His contract was running down at Everton and Harry thought he’d snap himself a bargain, which he did at £3million. Injuries and fierce competition have meant that Pienarr has either been unavailable or on the bench and has only managed 8 games in a Spurs shirt. Rumours today suggest that he’s available for a transfer.

6 – Kieran Dyer (to QPR)

What a player Dyer was at Ipsiwch and Newcastle, I remember him demolishing Spurs twice in the early 00’s with lightening pace and a hell of a left foot. Unfortunately his body has packed in and it was only a matter of time before he got injured. Tough for him and for Warnock but the sad thing is that we all knew it would happen didn’t we?

Honourable mentions for flops of 2011 -

Henderson (to Liverpool) £20million

Poulson (to Liverpool) £4million

David Ngog (to Bolton) £undisclosed

We’ve missed countless others, so who do you think we should of added into the list? Let us know in the comments below and Happy New Year!

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New role for Raul from Liverpool to Chelsea…

Posted: September 4, 2011 by onefootinthegame in Uncategorized
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RaulI suppose Raul Meireles’ last-gasp £12 million move from Liverpool to Chelsea was the stand-out, from a rather underwhelming transfer deadline day.

So, what have Chelsea now got in Raul Meireles? Is he a Modric clone that will link play and pirouette through the midfield? No, Meireles doesn’t have those attributes.He is far more likely to rampage through a midfield than dribble around it.

However at 28 years of age, Chelsea have purchased an experienced International footballer who will give their midfield much needed exuberance and mobility. Meireles is an energetic player who provides versatility, assists and goals.
Some will ask where Raul Meireles will fit in at Chelsea? Cynics suggest he was a panic buy by Villas-Boas, after being thwarted in his efforts to sign Luka Modric. Others think that Meireles and Lampard will struggle to co-exist in an attacking midfield. Both like to readily vacate central positions and get in the box. Both like to hang around the edge of the area and shoot at distance. Surely they’ll make the same runs and get into each others way?
These suggestions couldn’t be further from the truth. What I believe Chelsea have actually done, is finally fill the void left by Michael Ballack last summer. With Lampard and Meireles, Chelsea now have much more of a goal threat from central midfield. There will be less pressure on Didier Drogba to be the clubs principle source of goals. Chelsea do not look the same team when Drogba is unavailable or off-form (as we saw last season). Heck, the additional goal threat might even take the spotlight off the misfiring Fernando Torres.
As a Liverpool fan, I know first-hand how good Meireles can really be. Especially, in a free-flowing team that play with fluidity and pace. He’ll exploit gaps and make a ridiculous amount of runs for the team. One of the reasons he settled so well into life in the Premier League is because he’s an extremely intelligent player. Let’s not forget he won the 2011 PFA Fans’ Player of the Year award in his debut season.
Trust me when I say that the deadline day deal for Raul Meireles, was a clever coup by Andrea Villas-Boas. He now has a player who was one of the few success stories from Liverpool’s dismal 2010/2011 season. Meireles has also played regularly in the Champions League. Something that will come in handy as Abramovich’s Chelsea plot another pursuit of club football’s richest prize.
I would go as far as saying that this transfer may have swung a title challenge back in Chelsea’s favour. With Meireles, Mata and Lukaku added to Chelsea’s already strong but slightly ageing spine, they now have a squad capable of keeping pace with both of Manchester’s early pacesetters. Man City and Man Utd have been playing sparkling football thus far, but weren’t we saying the same thing about Chelsea this time last season? You don’t win anything in September, as the pundits love to say.
It is unfair to make direct comparisons with the man Abramovich eyed (Luka Modric) and the man he ended-up with (Raul Meireles). Modric is a creator who can win you a game single-handedly. Meireles is perpetual motion and makes others around him tick. They are very different players but equally excellent, just in varying ways. This is despite the fact both players created exactly, 66 goal-scoring chances for their respective clubs last season.
This is an interesting tidbit to finish off with. Only two players scored for Liverpool against Chelsea during the whole of last season (Torres and Meireles). Now both ply their trade with the club from Kings Road. The two clubs will clash again this season on November 20th 2011 and 5th May 2012. I wonder what will happen if Steven Gerrard or Luis Suarez score in any of those games? Just a thought.
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Fergie’s double standard?

Posted: October 2, 2010 by onefootinthegame in Champions Leuage, England, Premier League
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So Fergie’s got the raging hump again with the media. It seems he didn’t like the press reporting that he called Fernando Torres a cheat, after he called him a, er, cheat.

To punish them he’s not going to speak to the media for a month. Ferguson clearly thinks this is a stand of principle. Yet it’s just another example of the grotesque cant and hypocrisy we have become regularly subjected to by the cantankerous Scot.

If Fergie now regrets this slip of the tongue, rather than chucking his toys out the pram, he should reflect on the fact that those who wage war by the sword also fall victim to it as well. Because, bar Jose Mourinho, is there anyone else in recent times who’s used the media so ruthlessly to push his own agenda?

How many times has Fergie come out with a line for the press about a referee, a player, or a team’s tactics, ahead of a big game. One designed purely to make sure decisions in the upcoming fixture go his way.

Unfortunately it seems the old curmudgeon is too used to getting his own way. Too used to slipping stories out via his favoured contacts that he’s forgotten the media aren’t simply extensions of MUTV.

The latest boycott is simply another symptom of a man who believes the football universe revolves around him. I don’t think there’s any changing the Scot at this late stage in his career. I only hope that someone prints something which so enrages the Govan gobshite that he decides to extend his self imposed ban on the BBC to the entire media and we never have to hear from him again.

The Stephane Guivarc’h award for most disappointing number 9 goes to….

Posted: July 7, 2010 by onefootinthegame in Awards, World Cup 2010
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Poor man's Stephane Guivarc’h?

Van Persie and Torres: Poor man's Stephane Guivarc’h?

And so it comes down to this. A man to man battle to between two Premier League stars to find out who wins the coveted Stephane Guivarc’h award for most disappointing World Cup winning forward 2010.

Oddly, both Spain and Holland have got to the final carrying their two star number 9’s. Both have been playing with 10 1/2 men.

So much was made of both these players. Pundits wax lyrical on their technique, pace, strength and clinical finishing. In reality, Torres and Van Persie have both looked slow, clumsy, weak and wayward. Torres, plagued by injury all season, has never really looked like the player who scored for fun in Euro 2008 or the Premier League (though admittedly not last season). Surgery and a lack of match practice in a team devoid of confidence has made him a appear like a shadow of his former self.

Van Persie, on the other hand, has always been plagued by injury. One of the most technically gifted players in Europe, he has looked well off the pace in South Africa. The touch and vision is still there, but the legs aren’t working how they should be. So who has been most disappointing? It’s obvious really. But here is a stat attack from FIFA:

Robin Van Persie

Attempted 152 passes, 90 of which have been successful (59% completion rate).
15 shots in total
Offside 9 times
1 goal
2 assists

Torres stats make for painful reading. But here they are:

Fernando Torres

Attempted 64 passes, 31 of those were completed, (48% pass completion rate).
13 shots in total
Offside once
No goals
No assists

The offiside statistic for Torres is remarkable. He usually plays on the shoulder of the last defender, and his goal against Germany in 2008 was a great finish from that position. During the World Cup he has just not been at the races, a pale imitation of his former self.

But how about some context – here are David Villa’s stats:

David Villa

Attempted passes 219, 148 completed (68%)
He has had 26 shots (Twice as many as Torres)
Offside on two occasions (he plays wider so not surprising)
5 goals
1 assist

So we all know that Torres is having a poor World Cup. But “he has been injured” you say, “he shouldn’t have chopped off his blonde hair, therein lies the power” you cry, Liverpool had a poor year, it’s not down to poor baby faced Fernando.

But what is odd is that this isn’t the first time a team, or in this case two, have reached the World Cup finals with their star striker out of form. Four years ago, Italy couldn’t choose between Gilardino or Toni. France 1998 had the cult figure of Stephane Guivarc’h plowing what must have been the most lonely of lone furrows.

So do you really need a real forward to win a World Cup? I’d have to say probably not, (although David Villa is the hole in my argument, as well as the context). As an old coach always said to me: “If you can shut up shop, the team will always get a chance to nick a goal. You got two results to keep you going, the draw and the win. You got to play percentages in this game, defend well and you’ll always get a chance”.

So who wins the Stephane Guivarc’h award? Afraid it has to go to Fernando Torres. I am sure he will be back though, perhaps not next year just like Rooney, Messi, Ronaldo and Kaka.

But worrying for all those players who failed to impress in South Africa is the fact that a World Cup only comes round every four years, and there are going to be a lot of players needing to prove a point in Brazil – but only one can really write themselves into history.

Having said all that,  Liverpool fans needn’t worry too much, as I’m sure Fernando will pick up next season – at Stamford Bridge.