Revealed: Chelsea's Torres afraid of spot kicks

Chelsea's most expensive player Fernando Torres has not only forgotten how to score goals but his confidence is at the lowest ebb following his refusal to even take penalties, it has been revealed.

The £50 million striker was offered the spot-kick by his Spanish compatriot Juan Mata with Chelsea 2-0 up in the FA Cup fifth-round replay at Birmingham on Tuesday.
 
But Torres who has now gone the equivalent of an entire day - 24 hours and 30 minutes - without scoring for club and country declined the golden opportunity to end his goal drought.
 
Mata revealed: "I asked Fernando if he wanted to take it because he had won the penalty.
 
"But he said 'I'm not first on the list to shoot' and so he did not take it.
 
"Fernando is my friend and I try to help him. I don't know why he didn't take it."
 
Torres has not been on the Blues' scoresheet since his two strikes against Champions League minnows Genk on October 19.
 
Tuesday night was his 50th game for Chelsea since his British record move from Liverpool in January 2011 and he has scored just five times for the Blues.
 
Mata saw his spot-kick saved by Colin Doyle but Chelsea still won their first match since the sacking of boss Andre Villas-Boas.
 
Mata, who remains fully supportive of his countryman, does not think Torres bottled the spot-kick.

He said: “I don’t know. Robbie (Di Matteo) put a paper with who shoots penalties and that was it.”

The incident comes two weeks after all-time Premier League scorer and Match Of The Day pundit Alan Shearer accused Torres of hiding during Chelsea’s 4-0 win over Bolton.

Shearer said at the time: “(Torres is) frightened of getting a chance because he is frightened of missing a chance - frightened of the reaction he will get if that ball goes wide.

“He no longer wants to be in a position to score, because then he can’t be criticised if he misses.

"He had the perfect opportunity when he came on with around 15 minutes left to get a goal against an already beaten Bolton.

“But when Juan Mata got the ball wide and looked for a fox in the box, Torres was stood outside of it. He didn’t want to know.

“I really don’t know if he is ever going to get back from the place he is in now. Certainly not at Chelsea.”

Torres hit the winning goal as Spain lifted the Euro 2008 title. But four years on, he is not even guaranteed to make the cut for this summer’s Euros.

He was dropped by his country for the first time in five years last month, amid coach Vicente Del Bosque's concerns over his complete lack of form.