Fernando Torres | 2003-2006 | 2007-2010 | 2011-2012

[Mr. Evans]

Nickname: "El Niño" (The Kid)

Club: Liverpool FC


Growth type: Standard

INFO:
Regarded as one of the best strikers in European football, Torres is still young but already has a big reputation at both club and international level. He has won a whole host of caps and scored 18 goals for Spain, including one in the Euro 2008 final. Arrived from Altletico Madrid and is Liverpool's record signing. Scored 55 goals during 5 seasons for his previous club with only David Villa and Samuel Eto'o scoring more goals during that period. Known for his ability to lose markers with his pace and movement, he is also a composed and clinical finisher in front of goal. For Liverpool he has gone from strength to strength, breaking all sorts of club and league records, including the one for most goals scored in a debut season for a foreign player in the Premier League. The award was previously held by goal-getter Ruud Van Nisterooy. Since joining Liverpool he has reached a Champions League semi-final and won the European Chamionship 2008.

VIDEOS:

[Agüero]

Club: Atlético de Madrid



Growth Type: Standard

* * * * * * * * * *

Club: Chelsea FC



INFO:

An extremely irregular season for Torres, unable to settle as a regular starter for Chelsea. Ironically, his most successful season in terms of trophies, winning the UCL with the Blues and the EuroCup with the spanish NT. He even became topscorer of the Euro despite criticism and not playing in several matches.

[Agüero]

I highly doubt he got worse technically, team work and mentality wise since at Liverpool

Don't know at Liverpool, but in Madrid he was the soul of the team, he just kept running all day, in every offensive attempt he was there. If he didn't play, Atlético would probably lose, and play like crap. I remember a stadistic of about 15 games without Torres, and Atletico only won one.

[clinon]

Thx for this Stats because I often play Pes 4 or 5.

Also I think I will make an classic David Villa from his time at Zaragoza

[lfc 4 eva]

Top Speed wasn't worse back then. If anything I think it was a tad higher so he could have 90. Also like Nrby says I doubt he has regressed in Technique since joining Liverpool. Finally I don't think his heading was quite up to that standard at this stage.

[al_pacino]

im surprised to see his got A for injury tolerance. he become an injury prone player now.

[BigStu]

im surprised to see his got A for injury tolerance. he become an injury prone player now

So what? How is IT now relevent to back then?

[Mr. Evans]

I'm just gonna post the set again and let me again state that this set was merely made as a base..

Attack: 92
Defence: 35
Balance: 82
Stamina: 83
Top Speed: 89
Acceleration: 93
Response: 87
Agility: 86
Dribble Accuracy: 82
Dribble Speed: 84
Short Pass Accuracy: 72/73
Short Pass Speed: 73
Long Pass Accuracy: 72
Long Pass Speed: 72
Shot Accuracy: 90
Shot Power: 82
Shot Technique: 86
Free Kick Accuracy: 68
Curling: 80
Header: 85
Jump: 87
Technique: 83
Aggression: 90
Mentality: 78
Keeper Skills: 50
Teamwork: 78

(New) Discussion points:
- ST possibly on a 87
- SP possibly on a 83
- DA possibly on a 83

[lfc 4 eva]

I prefer the first post to that set tbh

[jurgens]

I prefer the first post to that set tbh

Reasons?

[lfc 4 eva]

I agree to some of the changes but not all, overall I think the first post is a better representation.

From the suggested set I agree with the lower Agility and Response, as well as lowering technique although I would prefer 84/85 tbh.

However I disagree with a lot.

Attack is fine on 90, he wasn't so brilliant positionally to deserve 92.

At his very best he was capable of holding his own against strong defenders like Terry and Vidic so 81 is harsh for balance.

His shooting was clearly ST>SA. He was outstanding in every facet of ST, volleys, first time shots and awkward striking, his placement was also excellent but not quite to the same level, the first post rates him well here in my opinion. Also he had a pretty hard shot, again 84 rates him very well here.

His mentality was fine up until last season, he used to work a lot harder than he does now, 76 is harsh.

Team work is a tough one, his understanding with Gerrard was almost telepathic although its hard to say how much of that was down to Gerrard and how much down to Torres.

[Mr. Evans]

ATT isn't just positioning though. If so, the likes of Messi and Cristiano couldn't sit on a 90+. I could agree with a 91 but I think a 90 would be too low for him.

I still say him being able to hold his own against strong defenders was mainly due to his amazing burst/great pace, agility and good balance rather than real strength. It wasn't a case of him being able to withstand their challenges regularly when moving at (very) low speeds.
But like I already said, I wouldn't argue a 82 but a 83 is too much for me personally.

Can't agree with his ST being over his SA. His placement was great, just fantastic and while he was impressive ST-wise as well, he wasn't one of the best I've seen in the past years. A 90 puts him just two points below (prime) Forlan, an absolutely excellent striker of the ball. Hitting balls extremely clean constantly and excellent at shooting under pressure and from akward angles. Torres wasn't of such an high level imo.
And you say he had a pretty hard shot, don't tell me you call a 81 (very) a low value.. A 84 isn't a pretty hard shot, you can hit balls with a lot of power with a 84. No way he was on par with the likes of Villa and Sturridge. But maybe a 81 is too low for PSD's standards so I won't argue a 82 but anything above that is way too high for what he displayed regularly imo.

MENT could sit higher I guess. Though his work-rate wasn't good enough to sit on a yellow value imo, Torres was never the hardest of workers. I'll raise it to a 78.

You can't base TW on the understanding between just him and Gerrard. If so, Messi, Iniesta and Xavi should all sit on a red value. Torres' link-up play was nothing to write home about imo. Not good enough to warrant a yellow value and comparable to Higuain. A 77/78 is a very good value for him imo.

[jurgens]

I really can't see his ST being anything over an 86. Hes for sure an easy 90 SA though. I'd keep him at 89 TS too. Probably lower his header further... need to watch some more youtube to refresh my memory.

[Mr. Evans]

I lowered his Header to a 84 but Phil believes (strongly I think) he's worthy of that 85. I took his word for it as I'm not absolutely sure myself.

Anyway, made some changes. What are your thoughts on SP and BAL jurgens?

[lfc 4 eva]

Look, the first post is taken from his stats at the time and while we may have gone slightly too far with a couple of values (RES, AGI, MEN) I believe it is a better representation than a set made in hindsight.

[tasmin]

actually imo his ST and SA were very close that moment.prolific shooting. and his ST was better than 86 in my opinion.

[Mr. Evans]

Yeah but times have changed lfc4eva. Standards have changed, views on certain stats and the way we rate stats have changed and we tend to look at the whole more than rating every stat individually. All for the better imo. Two, three years ago Messi's ATT value would have never been over 86 or so because he's not a striker. While Robben would have been lucky to get a 81 in SA because he's a winger.. Xavi's RES would have been on a 88 or so for some unknown reason while Iniesta's TS was rated a 86 (!!) etc. So many players have gone through many (major) changes.

I still say that set is more accurate as a whole. That combination of BAL, DA and DS in combination with his great pace and his high Tech in the first post.. he wasn't that good. But we can of course disagree on certain stats, which is normal.

[Phil]

I think the set is a step in the right direction really, things like DS, AGI, TECH are uneccessarily high. Although the things I would change in the set would be:

BB: 82
DA: 83
SP: 83
ST: 87

He has always been able to hold his own against bigger defenders and can seem surprisingly strong at times, not to mention his terrific balance as well. Also I see him being only slightly lower than Eto'o in BB and a 3 point difference between the two is too much imo. For SP, he has always been capable of hitting them hard and whilst you could say he scores a lot of his goals in the box, he was not adverse to striking a shot from the edge of the box. Much more than players like Bent for instance. I've always seen him as a SA>ST player but I think the difference was no more than 3 points, like lfc 4 eva said he was capable in all aspects of ST. But imo, he wasn't in the same league as players like Van Persie or Berbatov (though, both could possibly be higher) so I think it is right to lower this a bit. Plus I don't see Aguero as being better than Torres was in any aspect of ST either. DA could probably be a point higher, I'm not sure if Higuain was above Torres here, he could seem quite tricky at times tbh. I think he was quite similar to Eto'o in DA, I'd have Torres on 83 & Eto'o on 84.

[Mr. Evans]

Hmm I have to disagree with you on the Eto'o comparison. There's a good difference between the two in terms strength and balance. I've seen players (much) stronger than him having a really hard time trying to knock him down when moving at low speed. The man has great balance. Not to mention the 5 cm difference between the two.
Though like I said before, I won't argue a 82. And you know what, I'll change it right now.
The same with DA. I honestly think the difference between him and Eto'o is bigger than just a point. Eto'o used to be a bit inconsistent with his control but I've seen him do some impressive stuff with the ball pretty regularly at Inter. His dribbling style is a bit weird though. I also find Anelka more composed on the ball and keeps the ball closer to his feet when dribbling past opponents.

I still don't see how he's just one point under the likes of Villa, Sturridge and Gyan, to name a few names, when looking at the power they put in their shots regularly. But if that's how the majority feels on it, I'll have no problem in changing it.
And ST, I still don't think he was above the likes of Messi and Rooney (who could/should go up a point). But again, if the majority feels he should sit on a 87, I'll change it.

[jurgens]

I lowered his Header to a 84 but Phil believes (strongly I think) he's worthy of that 85. I took his word for it as I'm not absolutely sure myself.

Anyway, made some changes. What are your thoughts on SP and BAL jurgens?

I was going with 82 balance myself till phil made the eto'o comparison. Theres a huge gap between the two in strenght and considering the height differnce 81 is enough for torres. I'd go with 82 sp. Thinking further on attack... can't have him on 92 as Milito is on 92 (though i rate milito higher).