It is no secret that Fernando Torres was not a happy man at Chelsea in the first 18 months of his tenure with the Blues, and the Spanish striker admitted there was a time when he was so detached that he did not even care whether his team won a game or not.

Torres has now found favor with manager Roberto Di Matteo and admitted he is a much happier man at Stamford Bridge, but things were not so rosy a few months ago.

"Halfway through last season, I distanced myself from the values I had grown up with," he told the Spanish newspaper El Pais. "I had teammates who didn't care if the team won or lost because they were not playing.

"I never wanted to be like that - (but) one day I discovered that I was like them, that it didn't matter if we won or lost if I was not playing.

"I wasn't part of the group. I discovered that I was not happy because I had stopped being what I had always wanted to be. In the dressing room, you can never lose that group concept.

"But I learned to look at myself and to realise that the only person that can change is you. The only person who can say -- 'You're making mistakes, you've got to do something' -- is you.

It was obvious that many players were unhappy with Andre Villas-Boas during his stint with Chelsea, and Torres revealed he was one among them, further adding the change of guard to Di Matteo helped him find his love for the game again.

"When we changed coach it was a bit more similar (to former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez's style)," he said. "That had a good side to it, which was that I learned -- I became a better player.

"I can now do things that I was not able to before. You can be the player that your coach wants, but you're not the player that people expect you to be. I spoke to Steve Holland, the assistant (coach), a lot and we worked hard on it.

"I became more mature, I came to know myself better and became conscious of the fact that it depends on me. I learnt to be more self-critical, to understand everyone better and to accept the situation.

"I learnt that if we won it didn't matter that I hadn't played. I had to keep working.

"When I retire the only thing that concerns me is that no one can say that I was a bad teammate or disrespectful or self-important."

Despite leaving Liverpool in January 2011, Torres still has a soft spot for the Anfield club. "I owe Liverpool a huge amount," he added. "To the people, to the men in charge, to Benitez and his staff, to the city.

"Liverpool is a fundamental part of my life. They don't remember me that way, but time will change that. I could not have chosen a better place to go when I left Atletico.

"My son is a Liverpool fan and he was already kicking a ball before he was one. He was born in the football city; he had no choice.

"I decided to leave because I had to take a step forwards. It wasn't the best way to have gone, but nor were things exactly as they were sold (to the people).

"One day the truth will come out. In a sporting sense, nothing was happening; a new project was needed. We talked about that -- about growth."