Barcelona forward Ferran Torres has said seeing a psychologist helped him recover his form after he hit rock bottom following his €55 million move from Manchester City last January.
Torres, 22, returns to England on Thursday to face Manchester United in the Europa League on the back of his best display of the season in Sunday’s 2-0 win over Cadiz.
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That performance was the culmination of a lot of hard work off the pitch, with the Spain international revealing he struggled to deal with the expectation generated by his price tag, the Europa League loss to Eintracht Frankfurt last season and an injury in preseason.
“I found myself in a bottomless pit and I could not see a way out,” he told reporters this week. “It had never happened to me before. That was the moment when I decided to work with a psychologist.
“I lost my confidence. Everything was affecting me. Seeing [a psychologist] will become increasingly normalised in football. There are weeks when I don’t go and others when I go three times. We don’t always talk about football, we also talk about my private life.
“It’s been painful, but at the same time it has been one of the best experiences because now I feel stronger.”
Torres did not score in the win over Cadiz but impressed with his wing play. He beat three defenders to set up the opening goal and became the first player in LaLiga this season to complete 10 dribbles in a game.
It was a return to the Torres who first caught the eye on the right flank at Valencia and he said it came as a result of freeing himself from an infatuation with goals.
“I became more obsessed with scoring goals than playing well,” he added. “I wanted to be a player that I am not. I didn’t care if I had bad games, I just wanted to score.
“I have always been a player that runs at the opposition and creates. I am usually good in front of goal, too, but I went through a bad spell and I did not know how to manage it. Now I have learned to go out and enjoy myself.”
Torres, who has scored five goals in 28 appearances this season, has played himself into contention to start Thursday’s second leg at Old Trafford.
With Ousmane Dembele and Pedri injured and Gavi suspended, there are spaces up for grabs in Xavi’s side following a 2-2 draw at Camp Nou in the first leg last week.
“We have to run like there is no tomorrow,” Torres said of the game. “We have to try and have the ball and, above all, know how to suffer.
“The United fans are on top of you, so it will be a game to be patient and calm. They are in great form, especially [Marcus] Rashford, but so are we. We are Barca and we’re going there with a lot of hope.”
