Thursday, March 25, 2010

Fernando Torres Is The New Cristiano Ronaldo For All The Wrong Reasons


Fernando Torres is perhaps one of only three players who could fill the void left by Cristiano Ronaldo as the golden boy of the Premier League, the superstar face of the self-styled best league in the world.

Ronaldo was the undisputed poster boy of the Premier League prior to his £80m move from Manchester United to Real Madrid last summer. He was head and shoulders above the rest.

Without him, only Torres, Wayne Rooney and, possibly, Cesc Fabregas could genuinely claim to possess the star quality to grasp Ronaldo’s glittering mantle.

Rooney, having scored 33 goals for United this season, has emphatically beaten Torres and Fabregas to assume Ronaldo’s status as the Premier League’s number one box office star.

But while Fabregas might yet have the last laugh by inspiring Arsenal to a Premier League and Champions League double, what about Torres?

Ironically, despite Liverpool’s miserable season on and off the pitch, the Spaniard is beginning to show more Ronaldo characteristics than either Rooney or Fabregas.

But unfortunately for Liverpool, Torres seems to be adopting the negative aspects of Ronaldo’s game rather than the positive.

By admitting that he has urged Torres to show more ‘focus’ and ‘concentrate on football,’ Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez is adopting a high-risk strategy in his attempts to quell the bad angels in the 26-year-old’s character.

Even when Ronaldo was at his toddler-like worst last season, Sir Alex Ferguson steered clear of publicly admonishing his star player.

Would any other United star have got away with the strop produced by Ronaldo when he flung his tracksuit top to the floor last season after being substituted during the derby victory against Manchester City?

Ronaldo also played the four-year-old when he practically substituted himself in the 1-0 win against Sunderland in Dec 2008 by walking off the pitch with an injury before the Ferguson had even been able to arrange a replacement.

Torres has yet to come close to that level of petulance, but the warning signs were there during Liverpool’s defeat at Old Trafford on Sunday.

After putting Liverpool ahead with a stunning headed goal, Torres then proceeded to ruin his display by choosing to launch into a childish stream of complaints in the direction of referee Howard Webb.

Whenever the TV camera focused on Torres, he was usually in the midst of a sour-faced rant at England’s number one referee.

And then, of course, there was the bizarre incident when Torres kicked the penalty spot, taking a sizeable chunk of turf with him as a result, following Webb’s decision to award the home side a soft spot-kick following Javier Mascherano’s tussle with Antonio Valencia.

Torres escaped a booking, but Webb later confirmed to the FA that he would have issued a yellow card had he seen the incident at the time.

Liverpool believe that Torres was on the receiving end of some physical treatment from the United defenders, but as Benitez acknowledged, such tactics are the price paid by all of the world’s top strikers.

Torres, despite his angelic appearance, can look after himself as well as any centre-forward, but the frustrations are creeping into his game and it should be a worry for Liverpool and Benitez.

He has now collected five bookings in seven games and, by giving an interview in Spain earlier this month when he called for Liverpool to make ‘four or five’ signings this summer, he directly challenged the club to match his ambition.

It is hardly the Liverpool way, but then there is also a school of thought that Torres is at least showing how much he cares by venting his frustration in a manner that Steven Gerrard would never dream of.

But whichever way his temperament is perceived, Torres is not focusing purely on football as Benitez wants him to.

He is wasting too much energy on arguing with officials and telling the owners how to run the club.

Both he and Ronaldo are undoubted world-class players, megastars of the game who will dominate the headlines in South Africa this summer.

But Torres needs to drop the petulance that marred Ronaldo’s final two years at Old Trafford.

He only started smiling again once he left Manchester for Madrid. Liverpool supporters will dearly hope that it does not require a similar change of scenery for Torres to put his demons to bed.

1 comment:

William Neilson Jr. said...

How is Drogba not on the star list?