Torres To Go With The Flow or will Chelsea alter their formation?

Finally Broke His Curse!

The 50mil Chelsea man finally broke his ‘curse’ by scoring against relegation team West Ham last week. The much awaited goal was a good one too! A sprint between two defenders who were trying to sandwich him forced him twist and turn and finish his first Chelsea goal with swagger. When there is a will, there is a way!

A fine display by the revived Chelsea team, who suffered a slump in mid season, ended the game 3-0 with goals from Lampard, Torres and Malouda. The third goal that Malouda scored was also assisted by El Nino. Carlo Ancelotti expressed relief that Torres had finally managed to lift off the burden he had since moving to Stamford Bridge from Anfield last January.

Now, like Ancelotti assured the fans that the goals will flow after the first one, Torres himself will look forward for more before the end of the season. Now, from my pessimistic prediction, El Nino won’t go full blast immediately like we all predicted it. Yesterday, his performance against Spurs was fantastic but he didn’t score a goal. Although, now he has the confidence and motivation that he will score another one just as easy as a click on the fingers.He made some good movements yesterday but it was still wasn’t his best. Pairing up with Drogba forces Ancelotti to change his formation from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 as Torres is still trying to fit in Chelsea’s style of play. Although it’s a big risk to change their formation, Ancelotti is certain that it will work out sooner rather than later. But yesterday’s performance was pretty ugly considering the fact that Lampard’s goal was allowed where it shouldn’t have been and Kalou’s goal was counted even though he was off-side. Chelsea grab a vital win but they shouldn’t be happy about it.

Therefore, while Torres has successfully broken the challenge of scoring his first goal for the Blues, he now faces the challenge of adapting to Chelsea’ style of play. Well, Ancelotti’s men are known to have a very flexible offensive department but as Torres displayed against Spurs yesterday, his preferred position is down the middle.

Now, Fernando will mostly be employed down that channel in the middle but with the presence of Drogba and other dynamic forwards, El Nino better start to adjust himself before he gets outshined by the others.

But there is another question that pops out now: Can Chelsea go with the flow. That is a very delicate question considering how Chelsea have consistently played well under one formation derived by Ancelotti. But there is one possibility of adjusting to El Nino’s best position which is to employ a 4-2-3-1 tactic with Torres alone upfront.

In that case though, either Drogba or Torres must start because both of them do have what it takes to be the lone striker.

So if we are speaking about getting the partnership of Torres and Drogba to flourish, then 4-4-2 is probably the best choice. Anyhow, the positive aspects of that formation are yet to be seen and only time shall reveal the impact that it can bring to their offensive attempts upfront.