Ace Ventura wrote:I did my sitting on the fence when we signed Torres, as i wasnt sure what to expect i had seen a little bit of him in la liga and in internationals for Spain. I was always impressed with his directness, turn of pace and trickery.
I was worried about his finishing (and it still could be better) and whether he would adapt to the physical side of our game, thats probably just cos of Morientes really.
I have to say though he has been a revelation so far and massivley eclipsed what i expected, to settle so quickly and already have 3 league goals is a great achievement and a real testiment to the lads determination to succeed.
I said previously i knew he had pace but even that has been a major surprise. The way he left Ben Haim for his first goal looked effortless. Then against Sunderland although he should of scored he was brilliant, after missing a few chances you might of thought he would be selfish and snatching at shots but near the end he gets the ball on the edge of the box and plays in Voronin, thinking about the team before himself which pleased me.
Not sure what he cost, everyone seems to quote different figures but i know even if it was 26 million, it was money well spent by Rafa, this lad has given us an extra dimension.
Teams now cant defend as high up the pitch as they would of liked as we have a genuine pacey threat through the middle. But then if teams defend deep to counter that it allows Gerrard and the wide players to pick the ball up in far more advanced and dangerous areas.
It has given the opposition a major headache.
Lets hope he can steer clear of injuries.
Yeah I'd agree with that.
I have to put my hands up aswell and say he's been a million times more impressive than I ever expected. For me, Tevez is the complete player - I thought at the start of the summer that he'd be the perfect signing, a Rafa-style player, geting stuck in at every chance, right foot, left foot, head, pace, poaching. Torres, meanwhile, I knew to be a great player as well but his goalscoring record stood against him, as well as the fact that Tevez was proven in the PREMIERSHIP (ok he had about eight good games but in those games he kept West Ham up all by himself almost). I was excited, of course - we've not been signing players of this calibre for years - but it wasn't the signing that made me shiver with anticipation every time I thought about him, basically because I was expecting it to take him most of the season to adapt and find his best form.
How wrong I was. He's settled FAR quicker than I ever could have imagined; he's got pace, skill and power in abundance. Alan Hansen's analysis the other day was spot on- he also stays int he middle, no mucking about near the corner flag, he's a TARGET man, a true centre forward. For various reasons I had thought that Kuyt would be our top scorer again this year, but I can see Torres being our man for 20ish goals in all competitions.
It's a fair point about what happens if he gets an injury though. I've saaid it before but long term I'd like to see Babel upfront for us as he's a striker really, not a winger. I knew there was a lot of dissent on here, mainly because 'he wasn't Queresma or that Brazilian bloke' but I'd seen a fair bit of him and SHEET! is he good. He's gonna do great things for us.
. Every round of the league (19 games) he used to have 1 game in which he was the total hero of the week (with a hat trick, big photo in Marca and all that).
