Not sure how he’s fare without a chunk of Spanish mountain beside him
Pau Torres
- Thread starter Bebestation
- Start date
Fantastic on the ball tonight. All their best attempts at breaking out involved him.
And all the best defending involved his CB partner.
my fear about Torres is like Lindelof you need someone to cover their defensive deficiencies
Back 3 with Lindelof RCB and Torres LCB, Varane CB.
Yeah we need someone fast and aggressive at CB - not just another wet lettuce.
Please god no
I think deficiencies is harsh. He did lots of good things. Albiol won a lot of headers but that was moreso because Liverpool mostly crossed from the right side to the back post. And we do have Varane (and Maguire) who seems well suited to being his partner and being the purer defender on the right next to someone who dictates play more, like he did at Real. Obviously I'd like to sign a 25 year old Sergio Ramos, but I don't see one around.
We’ll see. I prefer him to Lindelof, but that’s not really saying much.
And because Torres is not good in the air
He's good on the ball, but defensively he's not what we need I don't think. Wouldn't trust him next to any of our centre backs, so unless we're getting two in, it seems like an odd choice.
Good in a low sitting defence where he has excellent skills at getting the ball out with control, to play through press with both long and short balls. In a high a high line he would not be the best. Would probably be ok but not good enough to justify the expensive transfer.
But he usually play in a high line in La Liga.
Pau Torres and Lindelöf would make one fine looking central defender pair. Sign him up.
What I have seen, they played more with a central block or what to call it and I wouldn’t say Torres had the role of an aggressive pressing CB high up. However I have only seen the few matches I found interesting, not against Getafe etc, so I could be wrong
I didn't see a lot of him beating Torres for headers. You can't just take your CB partners header's since you're not in the same spot. I think crosses just came to Albiol in open play, though he obviously is stronger in the air as he attacked most of the set pieces.
Though again, we have dodgy football players who can do the big man CB stuff in Varane (and Maguire), so Torres-Varane makes good sense to me.
I’m not sure what this means? Should it show that Bilbao and Villareal play high pressing football and teams like Real Madrid back home and sit tight? Does not correspond with what I’ve seen but what I understand this is data collected from 4-5 matches last year. What does def. line height (m) mean? Is it the average position of the defenders? And how does that translate to Torres abilities in a high line?Yep.
A high line entirely depends on one partner being quick. This guy would be ace alongside Varane. Problem is our back up pair would be 2 out of 3 slow guys. For me you only get him if you are booting Lindeloff who is salable
Big test for him, let's see what he's made of.
He looks like the type of CB we would sign, and thats not a good thing
Nice long pass off his left to Capoue in the build up to their second goal.
His passing is good. When pressed i have not seen him bottle and pass back to the keeper ala lindeloff.
Would be an upgrade to our team
Would be an upgrade to our team
He's good, without a doubt.
Just not sure if he's what we need.
Just not sure if he's what we need.
Alright... he isn't the one.
Been fine over both legs. Be glad it's not the keeper we're linked with. 
Hope it is not just the left foot that we are interested in. Varane's left foot seems to be okay.
Nice tackle on Mane. His first gift to United.
Prefer his CB partner to be honest. Not that I would sign him. We have too many passive defenders already
I don't get all the hype
He's left footed, young, tall and fast. Can pass a football when he isn't being pressed.
I'm not a fan, but I'm guessing this is what the hype is based on. He checks boxes.
The advantage of being tall is being good in the air though, which Torres isnt. So his height becomes much less relevant.
He's also 98th percentile for passes under pressure and 99th percentile for dribbles and players dribbled past. Being pressed isn't an issue, he's generally excellent on the ball.
Hows his defending?
Then that's another box he ticks.
Personally, I can see he has ability on the ball, but he makes questionable decisions (not the ones I like to see) when he is being pressed.
He can be a bit erratic even if he doesn't just hoof it/lose the ball (which is what the stats represent).
I agree, but some people will think: he has the height, he could improve in that area. That's what I mean by checks boxes -> hype.
Let's just say in spain they call him "Maguiro"
Good but with the proviso that his defensive game is very much about intelligence, anticipation, positional sense, staying on his feet, etc. Which is all great but would ideally be paired with a more combative partner, as he has at Villareal.
And that would be my main concern with him for us. Torres himself is fine but I'm not sure how he'd work in a pairing with the other CBs we already have at the club.
Granted none of a side like City's CBs are Nemanja Vidic reborn either but still, there's merit in the argument that a Torres/Varane pairing would be too passive even if he'd make us a lot stronger in possession.
Joško Gvardiol is the one. Combines Torres' ability on the ball with a penchant for agressive, proactive defending. Surely an ideal candidate for Ten Hag and a good fit with our existing CB options.
Chelsea are reportedly interested this summer, but they might instead have their attention focussed on their continued existence as a viable economic entity...
From what I've heard he'd be the most interesting option but I haven't seen enough of him to have an opinion really. Not sure I've even seen him be linked with us.
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Of pretty much all of the players we've been linked with over the past few weeks, Pau Torres is the only one I feel qualified to give an opinion on.
I personally don't think he's very good.
I personally don't think he's very good.