From ANDREW DILLON
RAFA BENITEZ revealed his Chelsea stars are using the F-word to devastating effect.
Striker Fernando Torres has scored four goals in two games only because the coach believes the rest of the team is now playing to the £50million striker’s strengths.
Boss Benitez is targeting Torres in every training session — reprogramming the once-feared bottle-blond assassin to terrorise defences by relying on instinct and not thinking too deeply.
There was no let-up last night in a tough practice session at the home of J-League side Yokohama F-Marinos after the deposed European champions touched down on Japanese soil for the Club World Cup.
Benitez said: “The main thing, always, is the players. I can advise and keep working with players on the pitch but the team-mates make the difference.
“Fernando has been in good positions only because the team has created more chances. It is the team that is doing well.
“I can communicate with him a different way sometimes but the main thing, for me, is his team-mates.
“He’s happy, yes. When a striker is scoring, he is happy, happy. I’ve noticed the difference in him too.
“The team is doing really well. I’m not surprised because they are all training very well. You don’t have anyone who is lazy. Everyone is trying to do the right things.
“Everybody has been talking for months about, ‘Fernando has to score more goals’, so to score four in a week he must be pleased.
“I’m not being asked so many questions about him. It means people are getting used to seeing Fernando scoring.”
Ahead of Thursday’s semi-final against Mexicans Monterrey, Benitez’s opposite number labelled Chelsea the ugliest team in this year’s competition.
Victor Vucetich’s side beat South Koreans Ulsan Hyundai 3-1 to earn a shot at Chelsea. And the boss said: “Now it’s our turn to dance with the ugliest, as we say in our country, which is Chelsea.
“But we still believe and hope to make a great game in the next round.”
Benitez believes the Premier League is failing to support one of its blue riband teams in a competition often dismissed by many English fans as a meaningless exhibition.
Chelsea flew straight from the North East after Saturday’s 3-1 win at Sunderland, while the other teams have had more time to acclimatise.
Oriol Romeu damaged knee ligaments in that match — reports in his native Spain say he could be out for the rest of the season.
That has opened a place in the touring party for midfielder George Saville, 19. Yet stand-in captain Petr Cech has told Chelsea’s new young stars they are not exempt from the club’s problems.
The long-serving Czech keeper has been skipper during the Blues’ recent troubles in the absence of crocks John Terry and Frank Lampard.
Eden Hazard, Oscar, Victor Moses, Cesar Azpilicueta and Marko Marin all signed in the summer — but Cech insists there is no honeymoon period at the Bridge.
He said: “As individuals, we live with the pressure and the number of games. I’ve played nearly every game for eight years and I find it easier to play.
“But people should feel the responsibility for the situation and the responsibility to get out of it. It’s easy to say, ‘I’m new and young, I’m looking away from it’.
“Everybody is responsible and has to help the team get out of the situation.
“It’s not about shouting and screaming — it’s the right balance to remind people where they are, what you want to achieve and what we should do to improve.”
