Madrid's current run of bad results has come after injuries to key midfielders Casemiro and Luka Modric, with the loss of the Croatian's playmaking ability in particular leaving the team looking rudderless.
"Modric, Kroos and even James are players capable of bringing order to games, to structure a team, and give it a style of play," Torres says.
"But when a crisis comes, and these players cannot resolve it, the coach does not step in. As there is no coach. If Modric is injured, Casemiro out too, the team has problems. Against strong teams, there is a just a vacuum. Zidane does not know what to do. He says they lack intensity or aggression, but does not explain what he means by that. The team lacks order, has no style of play."
Zidane has been trying to introduce more tactical elements to his coaching work, however.
"To understand his footballing philosophy you must start from Zidane being one of the best players of all time," Arancha Rodriguez, who covers Madrid radio show El Partido de las 12, says.
"For him, to play football and win things, is something natural. But he has had to come down a few steps to work as a coach. As someone who knows how big club dressing-rooms work, first he generates the right atmosphere among the players. Second he gets them physically prepared.
"Now, different from his first season, Zidane has put in a third tactical element. He has introduced more group meetings with his players to study tactical movements, new systems and analyse opponents. It is well known that Zidane does not like to talk about tactics. But that is only outside, behind closed doors his work with his fellow coaches and the squad is almost an obsession."
But the requirement to accommodate all of Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema in the XI means it is difficult for any coach to impose their own philosophy or ideas on the team.