Every single Barcelona fan knows the Ferran Torres problem

Barcelona are locked in a brutal battle at the top of the La Liga table with eternal rivals Real Madrid, and they are showing signs of returning to dominance with a win in each of their last four contests in all competitions.

On Saturday night, the Blaugrana made mince meat out of one of the more dangerous teams outside the top level in La Liga, Elche, taking down their opponents 3-1 in a comfortable Hansi Flick led victory.

But the funny thing is that Barcelona should have won by 7-1. They were thoroughly dominant on a night in which Lamine Yamal had a jaw dropping eight key passes to continue to state his Ballon d’Or case while Frenkie de Jong had five key passes of his own in an insanely dominant midfield performance.

And yet despite being fed chance after chance with Barcelona controlling the entire field, No. 9 Ferran Torres could only score once. Sure, he was unlucky to have hit the frame of the goal twice, too, but a return of one goal on eight shots is pretty awful.

It has been the story of the entire season for Torres, who has been given every chance by Barcelona to take over for Robert Lewandowski long term, but all he has done is prove how badly Barca need a real finisher at striker, such as dream targets Erling Haaland and even Atletico Madrid rival Julian Alvarez.

Torres has 12 goals in 20 appearances in La Liga this season, which is actaully pretty poor when you consider just how many chances he gets on a team like Barcelona under Flick’s leadership with Yamal and Raphinha on the wings and De Jong and Pedri in the midfield (not to mention Fermin Lopez and Dani Olmo).

No Barcelona fan is surprised, though. With so many great creators everywhere, Barca need a ruthless, intelligent fox in the box who can finish. They need a young Lewandowski, and Torres, who came up as a winger at Valencia, is not a striker by trade and shows it every week.

Barcelona fans understand that Torres is not the solution at striker, and his wasteful finishing often leaves points on the table, especially against teams better than Elche where the margin for error is much smaller than six potential goals.