Lee Dixon: Torres in but who misses out?

Opinion

Chelsea's capture of Fernando Torres is a major statement of intent and, after his poor form at Liverpool for the past few months, it will be fascinating to see how he does at Stamford Bridge.

The first puzzle is how he will fit into the team, because there is no simple solution for coach Carlo Ancelotti. Whatever decision he makes will have knock-on effects for the rest of the side.

I rate Torres highly. He will certainly bring a greater goal threat for Chelsea but Ancelotti needs to integrate him into the side without causing too much disruption. His arrival surely signifies a change of role for Didier Drogba. For the past seven seasons he has been the main striker, the man around whom the others had to play. His 37 goals last season were a major reason Chelsea were able to win both the Premier League and the FA Cup.

But the club's owner, Roman Abramovich, has not spent £50 million to see Torres sitting on the bench. So either Drogba has to accept that his role is going to fundamentally change, or he will be dropped. The ideal scenario for Ancelotti is probably finding a way to play both Torres and Drogba together, because they are potentially a devastating partnership.

The clearest indication of his thinking came in midweek, when he tinkered with his formation, even though Torres was not part of the team that won 4-2 at Sunderland.

Some thought Nicolas Anelka would be dropped to make way for Torres but, at the Stadium of Light, the Frenchman played a deeper role behind a front two of Drogba and Salomon Kalou. If you take out Kalou and put in Torres, then you have a possible formation to face Liverpool tomorrow morning (NZT).

That works for me. Anelka certainly has the ability to play that role. It probably suits him a bit better now than it might have done earlier in his career. He is a talented player and can see a pass. By all accounts he seems to have thrived in the role at Sunderland.

The big advantage of that system is it allows you to play both Drogba and Torres. Other than going with a midfield diamond, a system which was used last season but discarded, I can't see another way of fitting both of them in.

The drawback is that it leaves you lacking natural width. I can't see Frank Lampard and Michael Essien bombing down the flanks to provide ammunition, so you are relying on your full-backs to get forward.

The good thing for Chelsea is they have been asking their full-backs to do that for some time now.

The alternative is to play with pretty much the same 4-3-3 system that was used when they won the double last season. It would mean less tactical disruption to the rest of the team, but it would mean leaving Drogba out.

That is the problem for Drogba, who has been such a focal point of Chelsea's attack for seven seasons. He cannot play out wide or a different kind of role. If it doesn't work with Torres, then he will be the one to miss out.

Anelka, in contrast, is more adaptable and can play a variety of roles in the Chelsea attack. He has played as a target man, or out wide, or in the deeper role he adopted in midweek. I am not sure Drogba is quite so flexible.

I will be fascinated to see Torres. He clearly had his head turned by Chelsea and this season he has appeared to be sulking and not produced many performances for Liverpool that he can be proud of. I think Torres has let Liverpool down this season - but now he has got the move he wants we should see a motivated player who is keen to prove a point.

Accommodating him in the Chelsea team may not be all that easy, however, and Ancelotti does not have much time to change things around too much. That's one of the reasons Arsene Wenger doesn't like buying in the January window, because you don't have time for the new players to bed in.

The best tactic tomorrow is for Ancelotti to play as he did at Sunderland, with Anelka behind Torres and Drogba. If it comes off, it could be spectacular. It is a bit hard on whoever has to make way, but that player has to make sure that when he gets his chance he plays so well it is not him who gets left out next time.

Meanwhile, Torres himself dismissed accusations of disloyalty over his controversial move by declaring that "romance is dead" in football when it comes to players sticking with their clubs and said he did not have the time to wait for Liverpool to rebuild.

Torres said that he simply ran out of patience with Liverpool and feared that he would miss out on collecting the domestic trophies that so many of his Spain World Cup-winning team-mates have.

He denied the allegations of hypocrisy over his previous protestations of loyalty to Liverpool by claiming that the only club he really loved was his childhood side, Atletico Madrid.

Asked whether he had overstated his affection for Liverpool with the club's support, Torres said he had never kissed the badge of his Liverpool shirt and would not be doing it with his Chelsea jersey either. He said: "I was not a Liverpool fan or a Chelsea fan in Madrid. I was an Atletico fan. I still am. Maybe they're the only badge I will kiss."

With the likelihood that he will start, Torres said that he would not celebrate if he scored against his former side but that was his only concession to sentimentality. He disagreed with accusations that he was a traitor, saying that he had given Liverpool three-and-a-half good seasons as well as generating the club a major profit.

Torres said: "I see some players doing that [kissing the badge] when they join a club, but the romance in football has gone. It's a different thing now. People [players] are coming and leaving. When you are joining a club you want to do the best for yourself and that club, and that's all. Some people like to kiss the badge. They can do it. I only want to score goals and do my job, and achieve all the targets the team has.

"I took the decision to leave Liverpool because I heard about Chelsea's interest. They were pushing hard, which means they really wanted me. I really wanted to leave Liverpool, so I told them straight. Everything was clear. At the end of the day, it's about being fair and honest with everyone.

"When I'm 40 or 45, I'd like to look back and see pictures of me as a champion. I was lucky to be involved in the Spanish team winning the Euros and the World Cup, but I want to see that I've done that at a club."

He said that he had thought for the last two years that his future might lie away from Anfield. "Especially [the situation] with the [former] owners," Torres said.

"I think when the new owner, John Henry, came and brought his team with him, the club was moving in the right direction. They have ambition and they know how to do things and go back to the way they were.

"It is my opinion, though, that they need time for that. Maybe they need the time now - but I'm at my best age to play football. I explained my situation, my feelings, and was honest with everyone.

"I told everyone, face to face, my feelings and that I wanted to leave for Chelsea. They didn't hear that in the press. They heard it from me. That was maybe 10 or 12 days before the window closed."

The dawning realisation this season that it could be a relegation battle rather than a title race for Liverpool was, said Torres, the clinching argument. He came back from the World Cup finals with a champion's medal - albeit not happy with his own performance - and realised soon after that Liverpool were also heading in the wrong direction.

There was further evidence from Torres that Abramovich will spend again in the summer to add to the signings of the striker and David Luiz, the Brazilian defender from Benfica. Ancelotti said he was not yet sure whether the £21.5m signing would be available tomorrow.

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