Jaded Torres Must Be Dropped By Del Bosque

As David Villa fired Spain into the Quarter Finals of the World Cup to move to within two goals of becoming Spain's joint all-time leading goalscorer alongside Raúl - a Spain legend in his own right, his supposed partner in crime suffered another poor performance.

Fernando Torres cut a dejected figure as he was substituted for the third time in three starts for Spain at the 2010 World Cup. It is clear that he has not yet fully recovered from an injury sustained for Liverpool earlier on in the year. For me, Torres looks off-colour and off-form.

The Torres we have seen in Spain red at this World Cup is a pale shadow of the Torres you see in Liverpool red. At the moment, Torres lacks match sharpness as proven by only having five shots on target without scoring whilst strike-partner Villa is on four goals.

A striker who is not scoring goals cannot be a happy striker and this shows in Torres' performances so far. If he were to get a goal, perhaps he would be rejuvenated and we would see the Torres of old but, until then, he will continue a poor run of form.

At the moment it seems like Spain manager Vicente Del Bosque is persisting with Torres in the vain hope the 26 year-old will suddenly spark into life but, as of yet, there are no signs to suggest this will happen any time soon.

It was interesting to note that Spain scored a mere five minutes after Torres was substituted. Coincidence? Perhaps. But the man who replaced Torres, Fernando Llorente, played an important part in the goal and was a menace after the goal. The Athletic Bilbao forward put himself about and held the ball up well, allowing players like Villa to make intelligent runs off the ball and create space in which Spain could play.

Although he had a good shot on target inside the first minute that was well saved by Portugal goalkeeper Eduardo, Torres didn't do much else, such is his poor form at the moment. The impact he had upon the game was minimal and as Spain progress into the latter stages of the tournament, they cannot afford any passengers, especially against the likes of Argentina, Brazil and Germany amongst others.

It would be beneficial for both Spain and Torres if he were to miss the Quarter Final clash with Paraguay on Friday night in favour of Pedro Rodriguez or Fernando Llorente - two players who are fit and on better form than Torres having scored almost 50 goals between themselves last season.

Spain are waiting patiently for Torres to start performing as, on his day, he is up there amongst the best in world football but, unfortunately for Spain at the moment, it does not look like his day is arriving in a month of Sundays.