Ferran Torres has gone eight matches without a goal for Paris Saint-Germain, a drought stretching back to 20 September — but Luis Enrique has told supporters there is no reason to worry about the forward he signed from Barcelona in August for a reported £42.5 million.
The contrast with Torres' start in Paris could hardly be sharper. The 26-year-old Spain international scored seven goals in his first six games for PSG, a burst that earned him the Ligue 1 Player of the Month award for September and made him look like the perfect fit for Enrique's fluid front line. His last goal came in the win at Marseille in Le Classique on 20 September. He has not scored since.
The drought deepened on Saturday, when Torres started the 1-0 win over Troyes at the Parc des Princes and wasted the big chances that came his way. He had four shots, was substituted after 70 minutes, and was only spared a worse evening by goalkeeper Hillel Konate's excellence at the other end of the argument — and by Ilya Zabarnyi's winner, which sent PSG into the international break top of Ligue 1 on the back of 11 straight wins in all competitions. Counting his outing for Spain, the run without a goal now stands at nine games, as Yardbarker noted in its assessment of his form.
Enrique refuses to panic
Asked about his compatriot's dip, Enrique was defiant. "At the start of the season, everyone was worried about Mika Godts, not Ferran, and now it is the opposite," he told reporters, as reported by Sports Mole. "Do not worry about any PSG player. It is normal for strikers to miss chances. What is fundamental for me is that they keep creating clear chances."
Enrique also pointed to perspective: PSG created seven or eight clear chances against Troyes, and he recalled games last season in which his side had 20 shots and still lost. Efficiency, in his reading, comes and goes — chance creation is the constant a coach should judge. Torres' overall numbers remain respectable, too: seven goals and one assist in 14 appearances this season, with his pressing, movement and ability to play anywhere across the front line still valued by his manager, who personally requested the signing in the summer.
Benched for the big one
The harder evidence sits in Enrique's team selections. With Ousmane Dembele and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia both injured, this should have been the stretch in which Torres became indispensable. Instead, he returned to the bench for the biggest game of the period — Tuesday's 6-0 Champions League rout of Villarreal — where Senny Mayulu and Maghnes Akliouche started in the absentees' places.
None of this is new territory for Torres. His Barcelona career was punctuated by long barren runs, including a worst stretch of 20 matches without a goal in 2022-23, and the criticism in Paris echoes the inconsistency debate that followed him in Catalonia. The flying start inflated expectations; his career record — roughly a goal every two and a half games at his best — never promised a scorer in almost every match.
So what happens next for Torres and PSG?
The international break arrives at a useful moment. Torres heads away with Spain hoping a change of scene restores the confidence that has visibly drained in front of goal, and he returns to a PSG side sitting top of both Ligue 1 and their Champions League group, with Nice in the league and Roma in Europe next on the schedule after the break. Dembele and Kvaratskhelia will eventually return, and when they do, the minutes Torres has had lately will shrink — which makes the first games back his window to end the drought before the selection squeeze really bites.
Beyond the Final Whistle: Enrique is right about the chances and wrong to be quite this relaxed. Strikers who keep getting chances usually score again, and Torres will — but at PSG, a £42.5 million forward does not get to choose when the patience runs out. The bench at Villarreal was the warning. One goal soon after the break, and this is a footnote; another month of this, and it becomes the story of his season.
Are PSG fans right to worry about Ferran Torres, or will the goals simply come back as Luis Enrique insists? Let us know in the comments.
