Ferran Torres is enduring a goalscoring drought at Paris Saint-Germain. He has failed to find the net in his last 8 matches, a barren run stretching back to his goal against Marseille on 20 September. It is a startling slump given his explosive start, 7 goals in 6 matches, a spell that earned him the Ligue 1 Player of the Month award for September.
The decline has arrived just as PSG needed Torres to shoulder more of the attacking load, with Ousmane Dembélé and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia both sidelined. Instead, it has been Gonçalo Ramos, Mayulu and Kang-in Lee who have carried the goalscoring burden. Ferran, meanwhile, has found himself on the bench for the big occasions, among them last Wednesday's Champions League clash with Villarreal.
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His cinematic start did not last long. The early euphoria has given way to a far less rosy reality, according to Catalan newspaper "Sport".
Ferran started Saturday evening's narrow 1-0 win over Troyes and created 3 chances, with another effort flashing wide. Yet again the Spain international could not end his drought, something attributed in France to a crisis of confidence.
The slump may look surprising in Paris, but it is nothing new to anyone who watched Ferran at Barcelona, the newspaper notes. His flying start inflated expectations. He was never, though, a striker who scored in almost every match, for all his clear knack of shaking the net.
Goalscoring record
Ferran notched 13 goals in 36 matches with Manchester City during the 2020-2021 season, then scored 7 goals in his first full campaign at Barcelona and 11 the following year.
His best returns came in 2024-2025 and 2025-2026. He scored 19 goals in 45 matches, then 21 in 49, a rate of roughly a goal every 2.4 games in the first season and every 2.3 in the second.
Long droughts have punctuated his Barcelona career too. In 2024 he went 16 consecutive official matches without scoring, between 21 January and 1 September, a run broken by an injury that kept him out for nearly two months.
Last season he drew a blank in 14 straight matches before snapping a two-and-a-half-month barren spell with two goals against Espanyol on 11 April. His worst run at Barcelona stretched to 20 matches without a goal during the 2022-2023 season.
Droughts and all, Ferran gives the team far more than goals. His constant movement, his ability to stretch the pitch and attack the spaces behind the defence, plus his intensity in the press, all add value.
Enrique is not worried
Luis Enrique, for his part, does not appear concerned about his striker's slump. "Everyone was worried about Mika Mayulu, and now about Ferran," the coach said at yesterday's press conference. "Strikers are the ones who miss chances and score goals."
He added: "For me, what matters is that the strikers keep getting big chances."