The last year under Rafa where he was injured a lot.
PL 22 Apps 18 goals
Good goals to games but, 3 against Hull, Stoke, 2 Villa, Bolton, 2 West Ham, Fulham, Wigan, Blackburn, 2 Sunderland, 2 Man Utd, 2 Portsmouth. Thats 14 against Bottom half teams, Villa and Utd being his only top half team goals.
By no means bad, but a clear flat track bully. He was really poor in the international games between seasons, and in 09/10 for liverpool he was once again a flat track bully, though funnily enough his only big game goals were against Chelsea. Of 9 goals we had 2 vs Chelsea, Wigan, Bolton, Blackpool, Wolves, Blackburn, West Brom. Then his only goal for Chelsea was against West Ham, another season where the majority of his goals came against the worst teams/worst defences.
His first year Torres scored quite a few goals against big teams in Europe but in the league, some but significantly less top teams.
But even in 07/08, looking at the league you've got, Chelsea, 3 Derby, 4 Reading, 2 Spurs, Fulham, Bolton, 2 Portsmouth, Wigan, 4 Boro, 3 West Ham, Newcastle, Everton, Blackburn, City. Still only 6/24 against 9th and above.
His second season was less prolific but did significantly better against top teams, I think its 10 or so of the 14 goals against top half, and a significant portion of those against Chelsea, Arsenal, Utd, Everton. For me that was his best and most important season, and not coincidentally, the only time they've challenged for the league, when Torres scored and helped the team win against the top 5 teams in the league. Because of his scoring and who against in 08/09 Liverpool didn't lose a game against the top 7, won all 4 against 1st/3rd.
In that first year, Liverpool came 4th, and didn't win a single game against the three teams above them, with Torres barely scoring against the top 6. Scoring isn't obviously completely down to Torres, but out of all his years in the EPL< he's had a single season where he's done particularly well against the better teams in the league.
I never rated him as the best, I said that years ago, before he joined Chelsea, and since, he's playing a completely different role at Chelsea. At Liverpool he was the guy on the end of the chances, that was it, his entire role, now he's being asked to be a part of the build up. I rated him as a finisher, but nothing else, I don't rate and never have rated his all around game. If a defence is playing well, he doesn't, and never has had the tricks to beat people, if he's not in a position to score a goal when he receives the ball he'll rarely do anything of note, while a Drogba, RVP, Suarez, can all beat a man, make a pass, or hold it up, do something with it.
In the right team he can score goals again, he might have actually worked very well with Liverpool again, though Sturridge is much the same, I don't really rate his build up game, but if a team creates chances in the box, he's good at getting on the end of them.
ALl strikers SHOULD score more against the bottom half of the table, that is fairly natural, Messi/Ronaldo are no different, but when a striker is struggling to score against the top half at all... its a bigger sign they aren't as good as you think. Torres had a stand out season in that only once in 5 seasons has he done well against the top half.
RVP has scored against Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton, Arsenal, City and Spurs this season, first season with a new club, scored against every team they compete against. Henry, never had a problem scoring against the top teams, Drogba, same, Torres... a single season where he's been prolific against the top half and the main contenders.
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