Football: Torres bemoans overreaction to Chelsea bad times

LONDON (REUTERS) - Fernando Torres knows he needs to do more to justify his British record transfer fee although he feels there has been an exaggerated reaction to the bad moments he has endured since joining Chelsea in January 2011.

The Spain striker has scored 37 goals in 139 appearances for the west London club since leaving Liverpool for 50 million pounds (S$100.1 million) but believes he is unfairly treated when things go wrong.

"There has been an overreaction about everything," Torres told Chelsea Television. "Overreact when I did a miss or if I have a red card or I hit the crossbar instead of scoring a goal.

"It was a good season (last year), a good number of goals (23) that gave us a chance to fight for trophies but if you ask the people, they will say he can do better, should do better.

"It's like I said, with me good things are looking so-so and bad things are looking really bad. For me, it (the fee) has never been a problem," said Torres.

"When I joined Liverpool from Atletico Madrid they paid 36 million euros (S$72.1 million) and it was the same situation and never affected me. Everyone is talking about that but it's not true." Torres, however, admits he needs to replicate the consistency that helped him notch 81 goals in 142 appearances at Liverpool.

"The people are looking at me thinking I should do much better and it's true," he said. "The reason you pay that money for someone is that he has shown in the past he is worth that.

"Now what you have to show is you can have the same value or even more value for things you have done at Chelsea.

"I know I have many things to do at this club to give the confidence back to the owner. The amount of goals I scored last season should be the minimum," said the 29-year-old who is currently sidelined with a knee injury.

"I want to ask that of myself but I have enough time. I signed a five-and-a-half year contract and I'm sure the future can only be better."

Torres, who is expected to be fit again in two weeks, has won the Champions League, Europa League and FA Cup in his time at Stamford Bridge and has no regrets about leaving Liverpool.

"I'm so happy to have made that hard decision in my career to come to Chelsea," he said. "Over time you can see all the success that we've had as a team so everything was worth it."

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