Fernando Torres: I'll hit the goal trail soon

Posted Wednesday, July 27, 2011 by The Sun

Fernando Torres: I'll hit the goal trail soon
TORR OF BEAUTY ... Fernando Torres fires home against West Ham

FERNANDO TORRES insists he has not forgotten how to score goals.

And Chelsea's £50million striker is growing tired of the criticism of his performances for the club so far.

Torres was far from happy when questioned about his form during a club promotional visit in Hong Kong yesterday.
He said: "I am 27, I don't forget to score goals, I will score.

"Like my team-mates, my form is OK and now is the time to get ready.

"We are all trying to be in the best form for the new season. There are big expectations at Chelsea and after six months here I can see the winning mentality they have.

"It's going to be a long season and we have to prepare well. I'm enjoying myself and hopefully we can get a trophy this time."
Asked if he was bothered by recent bad press, he simply replied: "You are doing your job. Only that."

Remarkably, those were Torres' first public words since his January Press conference to publicise his record-breaking move from Liverpool.

The £180,000-a-week Spanish star has gone into his shell on and off the pitch at Chelsea.

He scored just one goal in 18 games last season - when the ball stuck in a puddle against bottom-of-the-table West Ham.

And his wretched run has continued in their two pre-season friendlies against a Malaysia XI and the Thailand All-Stars.

He did score in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Wycombe two weeks ago.

But Torres is likely to be on the bench for tonight's opening game of the Barclays Asia Trophy against South China champions FC Kitchee.

New boss Andre Villas-Boas is already fed-up talking about Torres and moaned: "You're focusing a lot on one player but that is not part of our philosophy. We are trying to create a relationship between the players to feel better as a group. We won't focus on individual objectives over team objectives.

"I'm pretty happy with what the forwards are doing and we have been changing our front line a couple of times.

"Fernando and Didier Drogba haven't played together yet but that doesn't mean it won't happen. It could even happen this week if you want."

Blues skipper John Terry was just as defensive when one local reporter compared Torres to former Chelsea flop Andriy Shevchenko.

Terry said: "That's unfair to Nando. He's been open about the injury he had at the World Cup last year and we all knew about that when he joined us.

"Ideally, he would have scored more goals for us than he did but he will keep working and hopefully he'll be ready to hit the ground running when the new season starts.

"He's happy and he's settled and while it's natural that there's a bit of pressure on him, he can deal with it.

"After all, he's one of the best strikers in the world and he's hungry to win the Premiership.

"That's what he spoke about first when he joined us because it was something he couldn't do with Liverpool and he's as determined as me to win that trophy.

"It really hurts me to see another team winning the Premier League - and if that pain is in everyone else's hearts, then we'll be OK."