The duo have come in for criticism with Torres having endured a disappointing run since his £50million move from Liverpool in January, while there have been suggestions that Lampard's form no longer merits a place in the England set-up. Torres has scored just two goals since joining the Blues, and was guilty of a glaring miss in Sunday's 3-1 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford. But Rodgers, who worked as youth team and reserve team manager under Jose Mourinho at Stamford Bridge, has no doubts the Spaniard is close to returning to his best, and revealed that he had been sent to watch the player in February 2006 as the Blues eyed a potential move for the then 21-year-old Atletico Madrid striker. Rodgers, whose Swans face Chelsea on Saturday, said: "He is a class player, I remember going to watch him for Atletico Madrid, they were playing Barcelona at the Nou Camp. "He was captain of Atletico Madrid and they won 3-1, he was fantastic and scored two goals. He was such a talent and at that point in time he was a real catalyst for Atletico. "He has had a tough time with injuries, he is adapting to a new team, but there is no hiding the fact that he is a world class striker and he will return to that form." When asked what his recommendation to Mourinho was after seeing Torres in action, almost five years before the Blues finally got their man, Rodgers joked: "It was probably to take him." And Rodgers says there were signs at Old Trafford that Torres is recapturing his form, despite his failure to find an empty net late on. Rodgers said: "The miss is a funny one, he did well and it was a great bit of skill to beat the man and beat the goalkeeper. He will feel he should have scored and he should have scored but you move on. "You have to work things through, confidence is about goals and games, simple as that. "What I enjoyed about Torres last week was that he was aggressive again. That's the mark of him, he has wonderful ability but he was aggressive in his game. "There is no doubt he is one of the world's leading strikers and I'm sure Andre (Villas-Boas) and his staff will want to make sure his confidence is high." Meanwhile midfielder Lampard, who had a spell on loan at Swansea early in his career, has been written off as being past his best at the age of 33. But Rodgers said: "Lampard will be like Javier Zanetti at Inter Milan because he looks after himself and has a hunger. At a certain age people write players like him and John Terry off, but it's wrong to write off players like that. "That's why I know Saturday will be very tough for us as they are players who will never lie down. "Look at what Frank has done regularly over the last seven or eight years. I think he is third or fourth on the all-time scoring charts at Chelsea, as a midfielder. "He has an in-built brain for football, to arrive in the box to score goals. "I know how fit and strong he is and he will want to play as long as he can, which may mean he has to adapt his role but that won't be in the next couple of years." Swansea enter the game boosted by their maiden Premier League win over West Brom, and Rodgers hopes the confidence garnered from that result can help them spring a surprise at his alma mater. He said: "We know the task will be difficult. We know we are up against some world class players, but we have a great belief wherever we play that we can cause a problem. "We have shown we can compete and we will look to bring the same idea to Stamford Bridge."
