Torres is 27 - an age at which footballers traditionally reach the very peak of their powers.

The Spaniard's woeful form since his £50m transfer to Chelsea has led some to speculate that we may have seen the best of the striker, that a series of injuries have shorn Torres of that crucial spark which separates great forwards from the merely very good.

Others argue that Torres is simply suffering a crisis of confidence that will be remedied as soon as he scores his first goal for the Blues, or that Chelsea themselves need to adapt their system to suit their record signing.

Here, with analysis from former England striker Alan Shearer and Pedro Calvo, the Spaniard's ex-coach at the Atletico Madrid academy, we attempt to solve the Fernando Torres conundrum.


IS FITNESS THE ISSUE?

Torres's struggles in a Chelsea shirt have brought into sharp focus a decline which can actually be traced back to April 2010 at Liverpool when the Spaniard was ruled out for the rest of the season to undergo a second knee operation.

Kerry Dixon has faith in Chelsea striker Fernando Torres
Having scored 22 goals in his previous 32 games, he was sidelined for six weeks before being rushed back to play for Spain in the World Cup.

At the tournament, Torres was a shadow of his former self, getting dropped after the quarter-finals and suffering a groin injury after coming on as a substitute in the final, which deprived him of any pre-season training with Liverpool.

Overall, in the 12 months since his surgery, Torres has found the net only 12 times in 47 matches for club and country.

Shearer says: "If you are going to be negative, you could say that he has not really played well for three or four consecutive games for a very long time now. You look at the World Cup, you look at his form for Liverpool with injuries, and his form for Chelsea.

"He could still be feeling his knee injury, but he has just had a £50m move so you would expect him to be free of injuries because of the huge medical he must have passed before his move to Chelsea."

Calvo says: "Fernando's lack of speed could definitely be a legacy from his injury lay-off. He has not had enough recovery time.

"He was raced back by Spain to be fit for the World Cup and he has maybe not had enough time to recover that speed.

"I think if he gets a full pre-season under his belt, he will see next season as a fresh start and he will get back to his best."

HAS HIS MIND GONE?
At his very best, Torres has that rare ability to take the viewer's breath away.

His destruction of Nemanja Vidic at Old Trafford, his Anfield volley against Blackburn and his unstoppable dipping strike against Sunderland were all moments of sublime skill, but they were also examples of a man brimming with self-confidence, at one with himself and his game.

Recently, there appears to be a disconnect between the Spaniard's mind and his body, resulting in him hesitating fatally in possession, taking an unnecessary extra touch or snatching at a chance.

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