For a long time the footballing world have been judging strikers and players in general for what they can bring to a team, but can anyone pinpoint the answer?
Fernando Torres has come under fire under recent seasons since his £50 million pound move from Liverpool. Understandably due to his first season and a half when he managed to only produce 12 goals, receiving abuse and scrutiny from both his own fans and opposition, although most of the opposition fans were a lot happier to see him on the pitch than Chelsea fans.
This season however there have been multiple glimpses of Torres former self, the player that Chelsea were willing to pay the hefty price tag for. Finishing the season with 22 goals in all competitions, though considering this was Chelsea’s longest season spanning over 69 matches where Torres played in 64 of them. But can you call this an unsuccessful season?
Put it into perspective, Manchester City strikers Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero both scored 17 goals throughout the season admittedly from just 39 matches, another striker who failed to match Torres ‘heights’ this season was Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney who only managed 16. Yes it is possible to say that Torres played nearly double of the strikers I have named but isn’t that a hindrance? Surely playing more matches would tire you out more which would make it harder to perform to your highest levels, I know it would hinder my performances.
Other fans and critics have said so what he scored 22 goals, only 8 of these were in the league, which yes it is a pitiful showing, but I still feel that he is constantly improving every season, first season scored 1, next it was 11 and now 22, why not give him the chance to improve on that? Whose to say he won’t get 30 next season? With more in the league rather than in Europe.
With players like Danny Welbeck receiving plaudits come the end of the season when as a striker he only managed 2 goals in 39 matches. How can you applaud a player who only found the net twice yet scrutinise one who found it 22 times? Surely that doesn’t make sense, Torres is judged on his goals yet Welbeck is judged on how he holds up the ball and defends. As a fan I can honestly say that one thing Torres is better at since joining the Blues is defending, I’ve often joked about moving him to midfield because of this, how can you judge one striker by one thing and then another by something completely different? Surely they should all be judged on the same attributes.
Another example is Demba Ba, signed in January by Chelsea from Newcastle. Ba has ended the season with only 6 goals in 22 matches, so Chelsea need a prolific striker, but why is there more talk of getting rid of Torres? I’ve watched Ba multiple times this season and each match he is getting worse, where Torres is improving Ba is getting worse. When you put into perspective that Ba scored three of his 6 goals in one match that means he has scored 3 goals in 21 matches, which is an average of 1 goal every 7 matches, this is not the sort of record a striker playing for a title challenging team should have, Torres manages a goal just under every 3 matches.
One man which Chelsea need to bring back and give a chance is Romelu Lukaku. The young Belgian has had a prolific season whilst on loan at West Brom, managing to bag 17 goals in the league, a staggering 9 more than Chelsea’s number 9 and 15 more than their number 29. Once again it comes down to the fact that Lukaku has received plaudits from everywhere, which he rightly deserves, but Torres scored more in all competitions than Lukaku, so why the boo-boys? Maybe it’s just down to the price tag on his head.
All in all I believe that as a striker, yes they should be judged by their goal scoring ability, as there is no point in having a striker that can’t score is there? But at the same time if you judge one by his ability to score then you should judge them all on that same ability, by all means judge them based on other attributes such as being able to hold up the ball, but then once again you have to judge them all on this not just one or two.