Torres Shows Industry And Desire As He Looks To Prove His Worth To Mourinho

Despite Samuel Eto’o scoring against Cardiff City on Saturday Fernando Torres was called upon to lead the line for Chelsea away to Schalke in Chelsea’s crucial Champions League tie last night. Torres netted twice as Chelsea picked up a big three points to move top of their Champions League group, so how can we assess his performance?

Firstly it is worth noting that Torres was very good in front of goal last night. The former Liverpool striker scored twice as well as being denied a hat-trick by the wood-work:

Torres looked a lot sharper in front of goal, scoring a good header to open things up for Chelsea and then relatively coolly slotting away their crucial second goal that effectively killed off the tie.

In terms of linking the play though Torres could have been better, with him only completing 56% of his passes. The ball didn’t really stick to him up front as we can see below:

Fernando Torres Passes v Schalke (56%)

A large number of these were backwards, with few penetrative passes. Torres was however a bit isolated on his own at times, trying to harry defenders and lead the line. It wasn’t really the sort of tie where he could effectively link things up and bring others into play, although he could have still been a bit stronger in this regard.

Torres off the ball

Other than scoring two goals, Torres’ off the ball performance was very good. Torres made two clearances (out of an attempted two) in and around his own box. Furthermore, Torres won all three of his tackles. Interestingly all three tackles were in his own half, which demonstrates how hard Torres was working off the ball for his side in tracking back and chipping in with the defensive responsibilities, something that surely would have impressed his manager. For the third goal his run off the ball also opened up the space for Eden Hazard to fire home and secure the points.

Fernando Torres Tackles Won v Schalke

Conclusion

This was a very good all-round performance from Fernando Torres as he looks to stake a claim for a starting berth against Manchester City this weekend. Torres was working hard off of the ball across the 90 minutes as well as scoring two crucial goals. For Chelsea though, their fans shouldn’t get too carried away as Torres has only scored one league goal for Chelsea in 2013. If Chelsea are to really believe Torres is ‘back’ he’ll need to start scoring consistently domestically, something he hasn’t done since joining the club from Liverpool.