The transfer priority this summer at Stamford Bridge has rather understandably been on a creative midfielder to add a degree of guile to their attacking play. They cannot rely on Lampard forever, and his freak goals to game ratio is most certainly the exception as opposed to the rule with concerns to his position. Luka Modric remains the top target and their continued pursuit looks to hold the key to getting the best out of Torres this term.
Torres operates best with a system based around him and a creative player just in behind him. Chelsea have for so long operated as a side that builds play from up top and out wide, they haven’t played as a side that puts the ball in behind the back four for quite some years and as such they simply aren’t used to it. To see Torres back at his imperious best, they’ll have to adapt to him as much as he has will to them.
There will be reservations about whether we’re ever likely to see Torres return to his blistering best. He looked to have lost that crucial yard of pace last season and as is so often the story, with striker’s in particular, once they have had a season or more of niggling injuries, they rarely return to their best.
The club have been priced out of a move for long-term target Neymar and they wisely buckled at the £40m Javier Pastore moved to the newly-rich PSG for. I find it somewhat strange though, that there hasn’t been more of an attempt to pursue Wesley Sneijder, particularly in the face of Spurs’ stance on Modric.
Sneijder is agitating for a move and would surely fancy a switch to Stamford Bridge if given the chance. He is one of the best in the business at slotting the ball in behind a static defence as evidenced by his almost telepathic understanding with both Samuel Eto’o and Diego Milito on their run to a historic treble in 2010.
He would cost a similar fee to that of Modric and is just 15 months older and approaching his peak. In terms of value for money, Sneijder represents a better deal. Modric has the potential to be a world-class player but is still relatively untested at the highest level; Sneijder is already in the bracket marked ’world-class’ and has had a hugely successful career at the highest level to date so far.
Getting the best out Fernando Torres, in the immediate future at least, remains Villas Boas’s main obstacle to success and it will remain the proverbial elephant in the room at every press conference until he is a success.
The Drogba/Torres partnership, in theory, can work, but only with that crucial link-man that Chelsea have identified as a priority target. So far Chelsea’s business this summer could best be put marked away under the tag ‘quietly efficient’. I wouldn’t bet against Modric rocking up in West London by September 1st, but to get the best out of the aforementioned duo, it’s clear that changes are needed behind them, for without a new creative midfielder, Fernando Torres will continue to struggle.
Written by James McManus for FootballFancast.com. You can follow me on Twitter at – http://twitter.com/#!/JamesMcManus1
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