Is Torres too English for La Furia Roja?

Despite a year of shonky form in England where he has struggled with fitness and settling into a new team, Fernando Torres, on the basis of the reputation he forged in his electrifying three years at Liverpool is considered one the finest strikers in the world.

However, despite his glowing reputation on these shores his stock has fallen rather in his homeland. It is worth noting that El Nino has not scored a competitive international goal in over a year now and was not even on the bench for last month’s demolition of Liechtenstein (where Villa and his replacement Negredo both bagged a brace).

There is a nagging sense that Torres, despite his talent and application at Athletico and Liverpool hasn’t really fulfilled his promise on the international scene. This might seem a strange argument considering that the last 5 years has seen such dominance from Spain on the world stage and that it was Torres’s goal that won them their first major title in four decades. Torres sits 4^th in Spain’s all time top scorers, however of the top ten, Torres has the worst strike rate with 0.303 goals per game.

To give that some context it compares unfavourably with formerLiverpool misfit Morientes’ rate of 0.574 and his partner Villa’s astonishing 0.620. Compare Torres’s rate further against his domestic performances on Merseyside – his tally of 81 goals in 142 appearances forLiverpool gave him a strike rate of 0.57, and his 27 goals in 89 appearances for La Selection looks a lot more average.

So what’s the cause of this discrepancy and is Torres’s success in the Premiership a factor? Torres performed well in Germany 2006 as Spain were eventually outmuscled and eliminated byFrance in the last eight. Coach Luis Aragones noted at the time his side’s inability to compete physically with the top teams and made a decision to pursue a style of play that focused on domination of possession as an attacking and defensive tactic.

Tiki-Taka, the process of constant passing and movement, was developed and mastered by Spain and Barcelona in the late 00’s resulting in a tactical revolution. The method demands discipline, positional flexibility, an outstanding first touch, vision and passing accuracy from its forwards.

However just as his international cohorts (mainly at Barcelona and Valencia) were getting to grips and mastering this style, Torres made the switch to the Premiership, where his of speed, directness, willingness to shoot on sight, aerial prowess and ability to work as a lone target man were praised and developed as he bagged a record 33 goals in his debut season.

Tiki-Taka at its best creates a constantly revolving forward force where opportunities are frequently created for any one of five players. Torres has always thrived as the focal point of an attack meaning that with regards to Spain in the last 5 years, Torres is a bit of a round peg in a square hole as David Villa has taken centre stage with his skills as a passer, dribbler and finisher coming to the fore.

As his team mates pass and flitter around the box till the cows come home Torres lacks the first touch or passing finesse to really fit in and is cutting an increasingly frustrated figure, either on the pitch or as we saw last month in the stands. Has Torres’s development on these shores made him a more effective yet at the same time a more limited player and if so will the Premier League ever turn to the style of play that Spain and Barcelona are basing footballing dynasties on?

It’s a shame that in England, only Arsene Wenger has entertained the concept with any real devotion, as his personal failings as a manager and a coach (failing to retain his key players, packing the squad with cost effective mediocrity and negelcting in 6 years to create a cohesive defensive unit capable of dealing with high balls) have meant that his Tiki-Taka experiment is doomed to fail when offering such tantalising glimpses of success.

As a result of his footballing further education taking place in the Premier league I feel that it looks unlikely that Torres will ever adapt fully to his national team’s tactical mantra, something that reflects negatively on what it takes to be successful the Premier League. Nevertheless, worryingly for the rest of us it seems that Spain are well placed to stroll to a third consecutive international title regardless of whether a player of El Nino’s calibre is singing from the same hymn sheet.

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