• Premier League

Torres: I can prove Mourinho wrong

Fernando Torres is determined to prove to Jose Mourinho he should be the Chelsea manager's first-choice striker.

Torres, 30, has struggled for regular first-team football this season, starting just 15 of Chelsea's 32 Premier League matches.

The Spain international was overlooked in Mourinho's starting XI for their Champions League trip to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, raising further question marks about his future at Stamford Bridge.

But Torres, scorer of 19 league goals in 105 appearances since joining the Blues from Liverpool for £50 million in 2011, has not given up hope of winning over Mourinho, who was critical of his forwards this week.

Mourinho: We can sign £40m star

Diego Costa has a £32 million release clause © Getty Images

• Following his scathing criticism of his strikers following the defeat in Paris, Jose Mourinho performed an astonishing U-turn on Friday by claiming Fernando Torres "has a future" at Chelsea.
• But, with Atletico Madrid's Diego Costa a summer target, he also said the club could afford to spend up to £40 million on one player when the transfer window reopens despite new financial constraints at Stamford Bridge.
• Click here to continue reading

"[Mourinho] has to choose the one [striker] he thinks is better and try to manage the situation with the players," Torres told The Independent. "He didn't do anything special with me. Just treats me like one more.

"He puts me on the pitch when he thinks I am the best option and on the bench when he thinks I am not the best option.

"My aim is to try to make him feel I am always the best option for him. You have to have ways to adapt to this situation. Blame the manager? Blame your team-mates? Blame everyone? Or ask from yourself a bit more.

"I think I can do better. I can make Jose think I am the best option. That is what I have to do every day in training, all the matches. I just ask of myself the responsibility.

"The things you cannot change you can't waste your time on. I cannot [automatically] change the way the manager thinks so I have to ask myself and be critical with myself to try to understand what he wants.

"I have to put more and more effort into these things. It is what I have been doing all my life... I cannot change the others so I have to be critical of myself.

"You have to prove yourself every day. You have to live for today. Three years ago? Five years ago? It's today. If the manager thinks there is another player better than you he is going to play and this is the way.

"You have to try to improve and keep fighting and try to change the manager's mind. Hopefully one day Jose can say 'This [Torres] is my striker, he is going to be my striker' like he does with some of the players who have won the appreciation from him."

Torres's determination to establish himself under Mourinho could be a double-edged sword for the manager if the attempt fails.

Mourinho has been critical of the £50 million striker and admitted he is looking to add "real strikers" to his squad this summer.

Torres' original transfer fee from Liverpool and his reported £175,000-a-week wages may already be a significant hurdle if Chelsea try to move him on in the summer.

But if the Spaniard, who has two years left on his lucrative contract, continues to insist that he wants to stay at Stamford Bridge they could reach an impasse.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd