It's been a rough year and a half for Fernando Torres in a Chelsea shirt. His Chelsea career thus far has been defined by an improbable number of close misses on brilliant strikes, as well as missed sitters. He hasn't proven that he can perform consistently as a striker at the level that he did while he was in a Liverpool shirt, and because of that Didier Drogba will start up top for Chelsea in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich.
Bayern Munich Vs. Chelsea, 2012 UEFA Champions League Final: Fernando Torres To Play Right Wing?
However, that does not mean that there's no chance of Torres having a starting role in the team. Chelsea are in desperate need of a right winger with Ramires suspended, and Torres' form isn't any worse than that of Solomon Kalou or Daniel Sturridge. In fact, he's probably in better form than Sturridge. He's been effective drifting out wide and swinging in crosses in recent games, and he could cause serious problems for Bayern's backup left back Diego Contento.
Chelsea FC blog We Ain’t Got No History thinks Torres is the team’s best option on the right wing.
Torres is on form, and Sturridge isn’t. That’s partially to do with where they’ve played and how often they’ve played, but while Sturridge has been looking increasingly lost under Roberto di Matteo, Torres has been slowly but surely finding his feet. The striker has seven goals in the past three months - not a phenomenal tally but already far more than he did in his first eleven combined - and since there’s no real tactical difference between the two options you might as well reward the player who hasn’t been terrible over the past couple of months.
Given the choice, I’d play Torres in the starting lineup on Saturday. No, it’s not ideal, but he’s probably the best option that we have.
There’s no great option for Chelsea on the right at the moment, but Torres might be the best one.
We’ll have updates throughout the week in our 2012 UEFA Champions League Final StoryStream. For more on Bayern, head over to Bayern Munich blog Bavarian Football Works. For more on the Blues, check out Chelsea FC blog We Ain’t Got No History. For more on the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.
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