Ferran Torres is gradually becoming a blessing for Manchester City at a time the club needs a center-forward to replace the club’s outgoing striker Sergio Aguero.
Ferran Torres joined Manchester City from a Spanish club, Valencia on August 4, 2020, for a transfer fee worth €23 million. When he signed for the English side, he signed as a winger.
However, earlier in the 2020-2021 season, the club’s coach, Pep Guardiola used him as a striker especially during the period of the season the club’s top strikers, Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus were injured.
Despite not being his natural role, he never fails to give his best, score goals, or assists other strikers to score goals. Due to such outstanding performance, the 21-year-old Spanish winger has made 22 appearances in the Premier League.
In the 22 times that he has played for Manchester City so far this season, Ferran Torres has been able to score 7 goals and provide 2 assists in the Premier League.
His contribution to Manchester City this season has helped the club to remain at the top of the league table until they were confirmed champions of the league less than a week ago.
Besides the Premier League, Ferran Torres has also helped the club to win the Carabao Cup this season. He has helped City to make it to the final of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in the history of the club.
In all competitions this season, the Spanish youngster has scored 13 goals and provided 3 assists in 34 games despite being a natural winger.
Torres became the talk of the town on Friday, May 14 when he played against Newcastle United in a league match and scored 3 goals in City’s 3-4 win over Newcastle.
Ever since he scored his first hat trick in the Premier League, he has been touted as Sergio Aguero’s replacement. This means that the 21-year-old winger might be converted to a top 9 permanently when Aguero leaves the club at the end of this season.
All 7️⃣ goals for your viewing pleasure! ⬇️
— Manchester City (@ManCity) May 14, 2021
🔷 #ManCity | https://t.co/axa0klD5re pic.twitter.com/L8vvI0XLuE
After the 3-4 victory over Newcastle United on Friday, City’s coach Pep Guardiola did not play down on the possibility of Ferran Torres becoming the direct replacement of the outgoing Argentine strike.
Guardiola said: He (Torres) came as a winger, but he has to think about (being) a striker. When Sergio, Gabriel were out, he was there. He scored against Leeds and Crystal Palace. He didn’t have many minutes, but when he played, he had a sense of goal.
“Yeah, he can be [a No 9]. We will use him, we used him and he was brilliant. His rhythm, especially defensively he has improved a lot. The game at Palace, he makes a turn [in his season] – so good. The movement he makes as a striker, for the [third] goal, it hits the bar and where it goes, he knew it.
“The smell, the strikers know, intuitively where it will arrive. He has this talent and the first goal is fantastic. Very pleased.
“Maybe I have to think about how he can play as a striker because every time he plays in that position, he always has a real sense of goal. He is an incredible signing for us as a young player, he can play in three positions up front, but playing more central, he has an incredible sense of goal.”
On whether or not Ferran Torres would be a direct replacement for Aguero, Guardiola added: “I don’t know what’s going to happen. Maybe we buy a striker, maybe not.
“We have a guy, he’s young. A good transfer. I can use him on the left, right, or as a striker. The season is too long, we can’t play just 11 players, the best striker we can buy can’t play all the minutes. You have to have 50, 60, 70 top players you want, then the academy, we have two, three, four or so interesting players I’m pretty sure next season will help us.
“That’s why they hate me the players, when you have these alternatives it’s so difficult to let all the players play.”
Currently, Torres has the best shooting accuracy (60 percent) in the present Manchester City squad. His conversion rate (28 percent) is also the highest at the club so far this season.
