Rafa Benitez: Fernando Torres not to blame for goal drought

Posted Monday, November 26, 2012 by The Sun

RAFA BENITEZ has called on Chelsea’s other stars to put Fernando Torres on the road to recovery.

But just as the Blues’ manager pretended not to have heard the fans’ hostility towards him, he seemed to be in denial about Torres.

The struggling £50million striker, 28, missed the home team’s best chance of the day against Manchester City.

And once more he looked a pitiful shadow of the player who scored for fun under Benitez at Liverpool.

Benitez said: “You could see he was trying very hard. He had a good chance.

“But I think the team has to help Fernando and create more chances, and he will score goals.

“You cannot expect a striker to score on his own, so we have to create more and better chances for him with the players we have.

“I’m not really trying to build a team round him.

“Fernando is the striker at the moment so if we’re creating, we’re creating for him.

“If it’s Sturridge or Moses, we’ll do it for them. We have to create a way to play, a way to attack and defend for the team.

“If you have more quality you can win more games, take the chances, but the style and mentality has to be the same.”

But does Torres believe he can again be a forward who inspires fear rather than pity?

Benitez added: “Yes. You could see all the team, these three days, how they were training — so focused and concentrated.

“They know we can move forward and be good. This was a difficult game against a very good team, but the team were solid and knew what to do.

“If we improve the transition in attack, the game in possession, we will create chances and score more goals.”

Benitez was desperately clinging to the positives after a miserable game played on a miserable afternoon in an extraordinary atmosphere.

And Chelsea’s defence did look more solid with Branislav Ivanovic alongside David Luiz, a change which Benitez might well have made even if Gary Cahill had not suffered from a mild fever.

But owner Roman Abramovich will have noticed that Chelsea were far from thrilling going forward, despite Benitez sticking with the attacking trio of Oscar, Juan Mata and Eden Hazard.

Benitez said: “The team was working very hard. You could see them all together.

“We didn’t make too many mistakes where, sometimes in the past, they’ve made some mistakes. We had some situations in the first half on the counter-attack and had problems in defence.

“We were better in the second half. The defenders were solid, the full-backs attacked, we didn’t link with the players in the second line as much as I was expecting.

“We have to improve that, and we will then score because we have quality.

“The team weren’t performing at their level in the last games and lost a bit of confidence from the Champions League game.

“But this was a clean sheet after 10 games without one. You have some positives.

“I’m not 100 per cent satisfied because I want to win. But there aren’t too many teams better than City in the Premier League.”

City boss Roberto Mancini was disappointed not to have won. He said: “I’m not satisfied with one point.

“To play here at Chelsea is always difficult but to play well as we did here today, we can’t lose two points.

“We were so poor in the last 20 metres.

“When we have a chance, we need to score. I like everything from my team, but not the last 20 metres.

“We had chances to score but we missed the last pass. You have to be strong with that in the box. If you are soft, you won’t score. That’s why I was upset.”

Not as upset as the Chelsea fans railing against Benitez’s appointment, though.

Mancini said: “They are not my supporters, but I can understand it’s not easy for the new manager.

“But this is football. He’s a good manager and he will have time to show this, because he has experience and has won a lot of trophies.

“For me, it’s difficult to say something about this because I don’t know the situation.

“I work with another team. But I can say it’s very difficult for him and for his team to play well.

“Only the results can help. Every manager needs time.

“I don’t think he can change everything in a few days. I don’t think that Rafa is a magician.”

But he may need to be to bring back the old Fernando Torres.