One may wonder what happened to Fernando Torres Liverpool and Spain’s No. 9. It may seem hard to believe that only a little over two years have passed since he was voted the third best player in the world in FIFA’s prestigious World Player Of The Year award having at times almost single-handedly won Spain its second European Championship back in the summer of 2008.
Having become the fastest player in Liverpool’s history to score 50 league goals after scoring the winner against Aston Villa in December of 2009 his career has been skyrocketing at a rapid pace.
His 2009-2010 season was dreadful to say the least. Plagued with injuries and exhibiting poor form he went into the 2010 FIFA World Cup having recently recovered from knee surgery. He endured a tough campaign failing to register a single goal or assist and missing several chances that he would have buried in his prime. His misery was summed up only minutes after coming on as a substitute in the World Cup final when he injured himself and had to be carried off on a stretcher.
Since then he has endured another miserable season. The sacking of Liverpool’s head coach Rafael Benitez on June 32010 was meant to signal a new era for Liverpool Football Club. However this new era turned out to be a torrid one with new manager Roy Hodgson failing to inspire Torres as well as the rest of the team to find their best form.
Having managed Liverpool to their worst Premier League start in 82 years Hodgson was promptly shown the door having set new lows for a team filled with international superstars including Steven Gerrard Dirk Kuyt and Fernando Torres.
Despite not having suffered any major injuries this season Torres has been a shadow of his former self playing so dreadfully that even former Liverpool star Jamie Redknapp came to the media stating that Torres had been “diabolical and appeared disinterested” in a league game against Birmingham City in September 2010.
Whether Torres is still carrying an injury or doesn’t want to play for Liverpool anymore it is clear that something is clearly affecting his performance on the pitch.
The question we need to be asking is what happened to the Torres who destroyed one of the world’s best defenders Nemanja Vidic in Liverpool’s 4-1 win away at Manchester United on March 142009 a day no Liverpool fan will ever forget.
Along with his long hair his ruthless finishing has vanished. In only a couple of weeks new boss Kenny Dalglish appears to have brought out more of the old Torres than did Roy Hodgson but only time will tell if the old Torres is back.
One thing is for sure though and that is that if anyone can inspire Torres to his best Kenny Dalglish (aka King Kenny) arguably Liverpool’s best player of all time is the man who can do it.
