WHY TORRES COULD BE BEST RED EVER

[Cunny]

apologies if already posted, good read though

 

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N...080401-1005.htm

Daily Mirror columnist Brian Reade assesses the remarkable impact made by Liverpool's new number nine and reveals why he can already be talked about in the same breath as King Kenny.

 

Before last month's Reading game I bumped into a mate whose Anfield memories go back to afternoons when Jimmy Melia's ample backside stretched the red stripe on his white shorts to the width of a girder.

 

He needed to get something off his chest about Fernando Torres. Although the mere mention of the Spaniard's name made the Fiftysomething's eyes blaze like a child on Christmas morning, he was clearly troubled.

 

And so he launched into a long confessional in which he unburdened his guilty feelings. He spoke of being visited in the middle of the night with the sacrilegious thought that it was no longer Kenny Dalglish or Kevin Keegan who were the best players he'd seen in red, but this kid who'd barely been around for five minutes.

 

I gave him ten Hail Marys and told him to revisit the Anfield scriptures. But one crucifixion of Everton later, I'm beginning to buy into his blasphemy.

 

The superstar has yet to draw breath who could prove in a season that his contribution to the Liverpool cause exceeds Dalglish's. But if Fernanado Torres sees out his six-year contract in the same manner he has seen out his first six months, there is a good chance he will win a place in our collective heart as Liverpool's finest.

 

And resistance from even the most ardent Dalglishophile will be futile because the cold eye of history will be the judge. Put simply, if Torres develops the way his talent and character suggest he will, and if Liverpool improve with him the way they surely must, he will be named World Player of the Year before 2013.

 

Michael Owen is the only Red to be named European Player of the Year while still at Anfield, with Kevin Keegan and Kenny Dalglish earning runners-up spots and Steven Gerrard making off with a bronze. There have been others such as Roger Hunt, Graeme Souness Ian Rush and Alan Hansen who could lay claim to a place in the best world side of their day. But ask a fan of any age from Buenos Aries to the Bosphorous to name a Liverpool player who at some point was the best on earth and they would be stumped.

 

Ask them after the 2010 World Cup, when the then 26-year-old Torres will hopefully still be the Liverpool Number 9, and they may have a name for you.

 

Due to Cristiano Ronaldo's stunning form, Torres' achievements in his debut season have been criminally overlooked. Compare his 21 League goals (with six games left) against four of the most successful foreign attackers to have moved to the Premiership.

 

In Ronaldo's first season at United he scored four League goals. The following season it was five. Didier Drogba's first two League totals at Chelsea were 10 and 12. Denis Bergkamp hit 11 in his first season for Arsenal and 12 in his second. And the great Thierry Henry managed 17 and 17, more than a few of which were penalties. All of those players except Bergkamp were arguably playing in better teams than Torres currently is. As were Keegan (whose first season haul at Anfield was nine), Dalglish (20) and Ian Rush (17).

 

But the statistics don't tell half the story about this phenomenal young player, who possesses every single quality a striker needs: Pace, power, control, movement, guile, coolness, maturity, timing, heading ability, two quick feet, bottle, technique (insert your own attribute of choice.)

 

When he signed for Liverpool a Spanish media pundit said: "The wonderful thing about Fernando is you never see him score the same goal twice." I still haven't. Neither have I seen him score a scruffy one. Even the ones described as gifts (against Derby and Middlesbrough at Anfield) were mainly due to the mental pressure he puts defences under. The same reason Milan's Marco Materazzi was sent off which massively swung the last round of the Champions League in Liverpool's favour.

 

Sitting in a Milan bar after Torres had claimed revenge for Shankly 43 years on, someone asked what his best goal so far had been, and all six of us gave a different answer. Mine was his Ricky Villa slalom in Marseille but virtually every one of his 28 goals this season have been worthy of a frame.

 

Indeed the one we'd just witnessed in the San Siro summed up his towering talent. Fabio Aurelio played in a lovely cross, but it was Torres's ability to bring it under control so quickly, to turn his tight-marking defender so easily, then place it with such power and precision in the corner of the net in one of the great stadiums of world football, which exemplified his class.

 

A sign of any sportsman's true greatness is to make what he is doing look like it is happening in slow-motion. That was how his goal against Everton on Sunday looked from my view-point on the Kop. When he picked up that loose ball in a packed box time stood still. All the other bodies seemed frozen to the spot, incapable of doing anything to stop the back of the net rustling.

 

Yet there is more to his game than scoring. Ask Steven Gerrard why he's blossoming in that second striker role and he'll tell you that the intelligence of Torres' runs and the panic it causes among defenders creates the space for him to exploit.

 

Ask him why he had a frustrating game for England against France in that same position and he'll hopefully tell you that Wayne Rooney isn't a shadow of the player Torres is when it comes to leading the line. And if Stevie won't Fabio Capello will.

 

The most remarkable thing about this young Spaniard is that he has something of every great Liverpool striker I've had the pleasure to have seen: St John's tenacity, Hunt's accuracy, Keegan's engine, Toshack's heading, Dalglish's perception, Rush's movement, Aldridge's opportunism, Fowler's repertoire, Owen's pace. It's all there. And in his first season as a marked man in a foreign land playing in the most physically demanding league in the world, he's proved it.

 

Torres has yet to show himself superior to King Kenny but he has a real chance of becoming the first Liverpool player to be judged by experts as the best in the world, a feat which would mark him down as the greatest Red of all-time. And you'll have had the honour to have witnessed his every glorious shimmy.

 

So go on. Bounce.

 

Brian Reade is a Daily Mirror columnist whose book about his life as a Liverpool fan - 43 Years With The Same Bird - is published in July.

[muleskinner]

Lets hope he's proven right.

[Cunny]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t...ool/7317074.stm

 

 

Why Torres is Anfield's new hero

 

It's easy to forget that when Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez smashed his club's transfer record to bring Fernando Torres to Anfield, there were plenty of doubters - on Merseyside and further afield.

 

Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham had all taken a long look at the 24-year-old, without taking the plunge.

 

Yes, Torres was fast and could score goals, but the biggest question was whether 'El Nino' (The Kid) was physically strong enough to thrive in the Premier League.

 

But the £26.5m that Benitez splashed out on the striker in July 2007 has been made to look like the best bit of business done last summer.

 

With 28 goals to his name so far, Torres has taken the Premier League by storm and kept Liverpool in the hunt for a third Champions League final appearance in four seasons.

 

Former Real Madrid and Barcelona boss Radomir Antic says Torres has still to reach his peak.

 

"He is a different player now to the one he was in Spain. He was so talented anyway but, physically and technically, he has adapted to the English game - and he is still improving," Antic told BBC Sport.

 

Liverpool will need Torres at his best if they are to get past Arsenal in the quarter-finals, starting with the first leg at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday.

 

The Gunners kept him quiet when they fought out a 1-1 draw at Anfield in the Premier League in October, but Torres was not in full flow, limping off injured at half-time, and BBC Sport pundit Alan Hansen says stopping him again will not be so easy.

 

"Just because someone has got the better of Torres once does not mean they will do it again," Hansen said.

 

"He possesses such quality that it is difficult to subdue him every time.

Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres celebrate after Torres scores against Inter Milan

 

Gerrard and Torres have proved a potent combination

 

"If you are going to defend with any degree of success against him, first of all you have got to be good - and it helps if you are quick because Torres is like lightning.

 

"The times when he has been most successful for Liverpool this season has been when defenders are square with him and he hits it past them.

 

There is nowhere for the defenders to go. If you don't get the ball first time he is away and you are either lost or you have to bring him down.

 

"You simply can't turn quick enough because he's got so much pace, which just about leaves you with one option if you don't get that ball, which is to foul him."

 

Few expected so much, so soon, from Torres but Antic, who was in charge at Atletico when Torres came through the ranks at the Vicente Calderón Stadium, always believed he would have an instant impact in England.

 

"I am not surprised," Antic said. "He is a special player and what makes him so special is that he has everything together - his game is very exciting and he is skilful and intelligent.

 

"He is always thinking about the way he can score goals. His character is not to be a loser, he is a man who wants to win.

 

 

TORRES FACTFILE

Full name: Fernando Jose Torres Sanz

Born: 20 March 1984 in Madrid

Liverpool

games: 34+4 goals: 28

Atletico

games: 200+14 goals: 84

Spain

games: 42 goals: 14

 

"It is also evident that he is enjoying himself, which is very important to him. In his last two or three seasons at Atletico he was frustrated - he was captain and the team was not doing well. Now he is happy again."

 

Spanish TV pundit and former Reds midfielder Michael Robinson agrees that Torres already seems at home at Anfield.

 

Robinson met Torres at the beginning of March and says: "The way Fernando speaks, you would think he was born in Toxteth.

 

"What stood out for me is how he is totally enamoured with Liverpool. He knows very clearly what Liverpool are about and what their principles are.

 

"When a team loses, a player might first think of himself. Fernando told me that when Liverpool lose, the first thought of the players is with the fans."

 

Liverpool's style of play under Benitez is another reason why Torres has thrived.

 

"Counter-attacking is very important for Liverpool and Torres is brilliant at this," Robinson explained. "He is supremely fast and a lethal finisher.

 

"Because Liverpool sit quite deep and hit on the counter, Torres has a lot of space in front of him when he gets the ball.

 

"He can utilise his supreme pace and midfielders don't have to be quite as accurate to hit him."

 

Benitez's tactics have helped Torres, who scored the winner in Sunday's Merseyside derby win over Everton, become the first Liverpool player to score 20 goals in a season since Robbie Fowler in 1995.

 

Fernando Torres celebrates Sunday's winner against Everton

Torres has taken the Premier League by storm in his first season

 

His scoring rate is prolific, yet Antic believes there could be more to come.

 

"Liverpool can still get more out of him," Antic added. "He is also a good finisher inside the penalty area too.

 

"If Liverpool were to play a little more football, and get the ball in the box from wide positions, he would probably be even more successful.

 

"He is a player that needs good balls at the right moments but Liverpool do not dominate games. They play a little bit more defensively and do not dictate the pace of games."

 

One question mark over Torres is indeed about where he scores his goals.

 

But it is not about whether they have come from inside or outside the penalty area - more why they have not come more often away from Anfield.

 

Of his 21 so far in the league, 19 have come on home turf with 15 of those coming in front of the Kop.

 

Hansen, however, is confident that things will even themselves out sooner rather than later.

 

"If Torres starts scoring goals against the big teams away from home, then Liverpool will really be flying," Hansen said.

 

"This will surely happen because no-one can dispute his quality. He and Liverpool will feel a good place to start is in a Champions League quarter-final against Arsenal at The Emirates."

[surf]

We've a had a lot of great strikers at this club. Rush, Fowler, Owen and then players like Roger Hunt and Billy Liddell who were before my time.

 

Torres can join that list and certainly will join it if he continues playing the way he is now for another couple of seasons.