Fernando Torres and Andy Carroll have both struggled to make an impact at their new clubs since their big money moves in January 2011. With a combined transfer fee of £85 million a lot was expected of this striking duo but both players have just not come up with the goods. (Editors Note: This article was written before the fixtures on the weekend of 31st March/1st April therefore missing Torres’ latest goal.)

With just 8 Premier League goals between them and a regular place on the bench, we look at the differences between the two players statistics for their new clubs and try to work out just what has gone wrong for the once deadly duo.

Torres Stats Comparison

We begin the comparison with Fernando Torres and the differences between his performances for Liverpool in the 2010/2011 season and his performances for Chelsea since he has arrived there.

The main finding of this comparison is that Torres attacking statistics for Chelsea are way below his attacking statistics for when he played for Liverpool, which is what was expected.For Liverpool in the 2010/211 season Torres averaged a goal every 211 minutes, but since his move to Stamford Bridge he has only managed to score every 691 minutes. This is a staggering difference of 480 minutes per goal and goes to show that since he has joined Chelsea his goal scoring form has dropped significantly as it is taking him extra 5.3 games to score a goal.

Torres has taken an extra 14 minutes to take a shot for Chelsea and taken a whopping 61 minutes longer to have a shot on target for his new club. His shooting accuracy is down 14.22% while his chance conversion has dropped to 6.67%, which is 8.33% below what he was achieving at Liverpool.

All these statistics point to the conclusion that Fernando Torres’s poor start at Chelsea has destroyed his confidence as he has completely forgotten how to be a striker.

Another reason for these poor attacking statistics may lie within Torres’s passing statistics as Torres has made an extra 133 passes since his move from Liverpool. He has also made 160 more accurate passes and completed 75.12 % of his passes, which is 12.67% better than his time at Liverpool.

These passing statistics combined with the fact that it is taking Torres longer to shoot shows that Torres is choosing to pass a lot more often than he decides to shoot. With this being the case it goes some way to showing why Torres goal scoring form for Chelsea is way below of what was expected of him when they signed him.

Although, the statistics also show that Torres is going some way to putting this right and prove he is worth the staggering £50 million that his new club splashed out for him in January 2011. He has made 19 more tackles (18 being more successful) for Chelsea than he did for Liverpool and has improved his tackle success rate by 9.31% to an impressive 81.87%. He has also won 35.65% of his ground 50-50 challenges which is 2.65% better off than when he was at Liverpool.

This shows that although Torres attacking play is lacking he is trying to make up for it by winning the ball back for his team and putting the effort in to try to put things right.

Next Page: Carroll Stats from Newcastle compared to stats at Liverpool

Andy Carroll Stats

Andy Carroll has also had many of the same problems that Torres has had since his £35 million move from Newcastle to Liverpool, so we will compare his statistics from his time at Newcastle during the 2010/2011 season and since he joined Liverpool.

The findings of Andy Carroll’s statistics are surprising as his attacking statistics do not differ greatly from the 2010/2011 season at Newcastle to his time at Liverpool.

Although Carroll has scored 6 less Premier league goals for Liverpool than he did for Newcastle and taken 249 minutes longer to score each goal his other attacking statistics do not differ that much for the two sides.

Carroll’s shooting accuracy is only down 1.06% since he joined Liverpool and has only taken an extra 4 minutes per shot and an extra 13 minutes per shot on target. Although these statistics are lower for Liverpool there is not really a significant difference that supports the fact that he is struggling at Liverpool.

His chance conversion rate is significantly lower though as he has only converted 8.06% of his chances at Liverpool compared to taking 18% of his chances at Newcastle, which is a significant difference of 9.94%.

Carroll’s passing statistics also don’t alter much between his two clubs as he has only made 41 more passes and 55 more accurate passes for Liverpool than he did for Newcastle. This is not a significant difference seeing though he has played 332 more minutes for Liverpool in this comparison.

His pass completion has also improved 4.49% while he makes an accurate pass every 4 minutes for both of his clubs.

There is also not much difference in the defensive side of the game, although his statistics have dropped a little since his move. He has won 5% less of his aerial 50-50’s which is a slightly worrying statistic since he is known for his power in the air and won 0.73% less of his ground 50-50’s which is not a significant figure at all.

The only part of his defensive game that has improved is his tackle success rate as he has an 81.25% success rate which is a whopping 19.71% better than when he was at Newcastle which is a very significant difference.

The results of Carroll’s comparison does show one main thing, that not much can be said to why Carroll has struggled for goals since his move apart from he is just not converting his chances and it may just be down to luck. Although, he is just not winning as many headers for Liverpool as he did for Newcastle which might one reason Carroll may be seen as struggling as this was such an important part of his game at St. James Park.

The results of these two comparisons show two very different things for Torres and Carroll. Torres all round attacking game is a lot weaker since his move to Chelsea apart from the defensive side of the game which he has improved. He is also passing a lot more often than he is shooting maybe because his shooting accuracy and chance conversion percentages are so low.

This is completely different to Carroll’s game as it has not changed that much apart from the fact that he is just not taking his chances or winning as many headers.

Torres is trying to do something about this though as he has worked very hard on the defensive side of the game as he is winning more ground 50-50’s and has improved his tackle success rate. This is slightly different to Carroll though as some of his defensive statistics have dropped, especially his aerial 50-50 win % as he has won 5% less while he has been at Liverpool, which is a worrying stat considering this is one of the main parts of his game.

Therefore, if both players want to get back to their best there are several things that they will need to improve to do so.

Conclusions

Fernando Torres needs to shoot more often and stop trying to lay the ball off when he would be better off shooting because although he is creating more chances for his teammates he was bought in to score goals. He also needs to work on all aspects of his attacking game on the training pitch especially getting the ball on target as his shooting accuracy is down to 37.78% which is incredibly poor for a striker.

Andy Carroll however needs to focus on improving what made him such a fan favourite at Newcastle. To do this Carroll needs to get back to winning more aerial challenges as he is winning 5% less at Liverpool than he was at Newcastle and as this is one of the most important parts of his game it is crucial that he gets this right (Editors Note: 5% difference is marginal and we don’t think it will make too much of a difference).

Apart from winning fewer headers not much else can be said for Carroll’s statistics as they are very similar for both clubs. The only main differences are how long it takes Carroll to score a goal and his chance conversion rates. There is not much he can do about this apart from work as hard as he can on the training ground to get it right as his shooting accuracy is only down 1.06%.

To conclude, if Torres can focus on shooting more often and getting his shots on target and Andy Carroll can go back to being the physical presence in the air that he was at Newcastle and win a higher percentage of aerial challenges then this may go some way to help them regain the form that they showed at their previous clubs.

We’ll leave you with a comparison between the two players for you to ponder/comment on.