No goal difference

"Torres is still a shadow of his former self when he was first at Liverpool." Quotes of the week

The former England and United striker told Goals on Sunday that the Blues could struggle to overturn a 1-0 quarter-final, first leg deficit at Old Trafford simply because the games of Nicolas Anelka, Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres are too similar.

"Would you start all three of them and go for goals? It's tough because you've got an abundance of players at Chelsea at the moment but they are all very similar players," said Sheringham, who scored 31 goals in 104 appearances for Sir Alex Ferguson's side.

"There is no real playmaker in centre midfield who slides a little ball through for the strikers. They've either got main strikers or main midfielders."

Telepathic

Sheringham is particularly concerned about the form of Torres, who has now gone 817 minutes without scoring for club and country.

"When he first came on the scene at Liverpool I loved him - he was a fantastic player who had everything going for him," he said. "He looked like he had a telepathic understanding with Steven Gerrard.

"It doesn't look like he has got an understanding with anyone at Chelsea at the moment.

"He's trying hard but it's just not happening for him. You'd like to think he'd get it back - he is a quality player. I think he is still a shadow of his former self when he was first at Liverpool.

"He was dynamic, he put himself on the line every time, ran across defenders; you'd like to think it would come back but you feel for him.

"I don't think it's the fact that he's been missing goals recently. For the last eight months he's looked a shadow of himself - it looked as though there was something else other than footballing issues that might be his problem.

"The three strikers they've got are all very similar - they are all out-and-out strikers.

"I liked to play with an out-and-out striker because I would play just in behind him; not one of those - Torres, Anelka, Drogba - does that kind of job. None of them can really play wide so they are all vying for that one place.

"They all want to be playing with a player who is a kind of feeder but who also scores his goals as well - a Gianfranco Zola or Dennis Bergkamp - who doesn't get into those sorts of areas that you want to be in because only person can score a goal at one time."

Passionate

Sheringham's former clubs also include Tottenham, who face an even tougher European task than Chelsea after losing 4-0 to Real Madrid in their Champions League quarter-final, first leg.

Spurs were scuppered by the early sending off of Peter Crouch, who did his best to make partial amends by scoring a brace in Tottenham's 3-2 Premier League win over Stoke.

"I'm really pleased for Crouchie," said Sheringham, who scored 125 goals for Spurs in two spells from 1993-1997 and 2001-2003.

"He's obviously taken a bit of stick this week after two silly challenges.

"I said at 2-0 that it's not such a bad result because you can really go for it - you know that you've got to score goals.

"At 3-0, I was like 'you never know - an early goal at White Hart Lane'; but you just think 4-0 is beyond their reach.

"You've got to get an early goal to get the crowd up, get them passionate, to put Real Madrid under a little bit of pressure.

"If they score in the first 15, who knows? Who knows with football? Momentums change around. Hopefully it will be a good night at White Hart Lane still.

"It's half-time; they are still in the tie. It looks bleak - very, very bleak - without a doubt; but you never know in football. If you get an early goal, you get a mistake and the second one goes in and even the best players in the world get jittery.

"Give it a chance; let's go and attack them and see what happens."