 |
| Chelsea's £50m signing Fernando Torres has still to score for his new club |
Carlo Ancelotti is considering dropping Fernando Torres for next week's vital Champions League game at Manchester United, claiming yesterday that he does not fear repercussions from owner Roman Abramovich if he does.
The Chelsea manager has bent over backwards to try to shoehorn the £50m striker into his Double-winning team, but the clock shows nine games – or 617 minutes – without a goal since his record move from Liverpool in January.
His former assistant Ray Wilkins urged Ancelotti on Thursday to bite the bullet and drop Torres for next week's Champions League second leg away to Manchester United, who they trail 1-0. Others however believe Ancelotti would not dare to leave out the Spaniard out of fear for his own job prospects.
Asked if he would drop Torres, Ancelotti said: "Why not? I have to choose the best line-up. There's a lot of competition in front and anything can happen.
"Fernando might not start against United. This is my job. I have to choose the players, not comparing the players with the money the club paid for them. I have to choose the line-up looking at the training session, the condition of the players and the spirit. Fernando knows this very well."
The lack of goals from Torres is putting the rest of the Chelsea team under greater pressure, particularly now the formation has been changed to accommodate him. Today's visit of bottom-of-the-table Wigan, who were thrashed 8-0 on their last visit to Stamford Bridge on the day Chelsea clinched the Premier League title last season, presents Ancelotti with a dilemma.
He could pick Torres hoping he could finally end his scoring duck, but risks further damaging his confidence should he fail. Or Ancelotti could rest him with Tuesday's United match in mind, and risk someone else firing in the goals, putting Torres under greater pressure.
Ancelotti believes the key to helping Torres through this troubled period is to support him, not leave him out. The Italian said he had seen similar scoring problems afflict Hernan Crespo, Andrei Shevchenko and Filippo Inzaghi at Milan.
Ancelotti said: "If I have confidence in the player, I have to support him. If I don't have confidence, I have to take him out of the squad and put in another striker. In all the situations, I supported them. I supported Crespo, Inzaghi, Sheva. It's the same with Fernando. I have faith in him.
"It's difficult to understand the reason. It could be a new team, new team-mates, everyone has to get to know each other. Fernando has to know better the skills of the midfielders and the other strikers. The team-mates have to know his movement better.
"I don't know what he really feels inside, but outside he's relaxed, confident in training, he likes to joke and have fun in training. I don't see him afraid or worried," added Ancelotti.
Source : The Independent 9 April 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment