Diary of a Sky Sports Reporter

Millwall’s 3-1 victory at Barnsley on Saturday gave me the opportunity to watch a striker in top form as Darius Henderson moved into second place in the Championship top scorers chart for this season.

The 30-year-old, who bagged a hat-trick in the FA Cup third round replay win against Dagenham & Redbridge on Tuesday, made it six goals in the same week by netting all the Millwall goals at Oakwell. But he’s done that on a regular basis at all his previous clubs, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to see him on the scoresheet again.

The surprise comes when a striker stops finding the net and that couldn’t be more obvious than with Chelsea’s Fernando Torres. A glance at his overall career stats in club football is impressive since he averages a goal ever two games (approximately) and he’s also netted 49 goals at all the age levels for the Spanish national team. But ever since putting in an off-colour performance in Spain’s successful World Cup campaign in 2010, something has gone badly wrong for El Nino.

Including the tournament in South Africa, Torres has played in 79 matches for Liverpool, Chelsea and Spain and scored only 16 goals – and none in the last 16 outings for club and country. Is it a lack of confidence? Has his pace gone? Have defenders worked out how to play him? Or is it just a blip? After all, form is a temporary, class is permanent, right?! Whether Torres can regain his very best form at Stamford Bridge is debatable but, at a cost of £50 million, he needs to do it quickly because Roman Abramovich isn’t known for his patience. Perhaps the Chelsea owner might decide to sign Henderson instead, one thing is for certain he’ll be a lot cheaper!

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