Since his £50m transfer from Liverpool to Chelsea Fernando Torres has struggled to even get any convincing shots on goal let alone actually hit the back of the net. So what has happened with ‘El Niño’?

Out Of Form

For a start, Torres is and has been for some time bang out of form. An awful World Cup followed by a poor first half of the season for Liverpool made his £50m price tag seem very bloated. Chelsea won’t care about that of course provided Torres actually starts managing to find the goal – something which he is yet to manage in a Chelsea shirt.

A Different System

Many pundits and fans are saying that Torres is struggling to fit into Chelsea’s system – that he prefers to play the lone striker role and needs a player that can feed him the kind of passes that Steven Gerrard used to. There may be some truth to this, but ask yourself the question: Would you expect Emile Heskey to score in the 817 minutes for both club and country that Torres hasn’t? Heskey not known for his prolific strike rate would likely have hit the net at least once particularly when you consider the quality of players he would be playing with.

Burn Out

Has Torres simply burnt out? Are his best days behind him? He’s no stranger to injuries – could it be that those injuries have finally taken their toll and that burst of pace we got used to seeing is no longer in his locker?Is Torres the new Shevchenko? Well, no – he shouldn’t be. Shevchenko had been brilliant for AC Milan but his best days were behind him when he arrived and he had to adapt from a notoriously slow league to the frenetic pace of the Premier League – something that he never managed to do. Torres doesn’t have either of these problems.

The Future

Many still expect Torres to find his form, but perhaps not until next season. Wayne Rooney endured a very poor run of form this season but has now found his form again, has Torres simply got to play through it until he comes out the other side? Here at Football-Banter.com we’re backing Torres to score before the season is out and to return to form next season!