Here are a couple of Friday afternoon questions for you:
- Should Fernando Torres be an automatic choice?
- Which means more to Liverpool — the Premier League or the Champions League?
Rafa Benitez made it pretty clear where he stands on the first of them after Torres scored a hat-trick in Tuesday’s 4-2 win over Reading, earning comparisons with Ian Rush from Steven Gerrard and with Thierry Henry from Caught Offside.
“If you say to me that Dirk Kuyt is a worse striker or Peter Crouch is a worse striker or Andriy Voronin is a worse striker then I would play Torres every game,” Benitez said. ”But because we have very good strikers, I like to choose the strikers for every game and if it is necessary to change I will change.”
Even given the nature of Tuesday’s opposition, would Kuyt, Crouch or Voronin have scored such a sublime hat-trick? Many fans might doubt it.
The first goal featured a blend of strength and skill as he held off a defender and then stroked the ball into the far corner of the net. Many strikers with less poise would have blasted high and wide.
As for question number two, for all Liverpool’s European pedigree, given the choice, many fans might prefer the league title, a first since 1990, rather than the Champions League. Torres could well be the man to fulfil those ambitions — if Benitez plays him.
Liverpool stand fourth in the league, four points off leaders Arsenal and really need victory from Saturday’s trip to Wigan.
Torres has to start, doesn’t he?
Dave Thompson
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6 comments so far
Do you mean me? I’m not dropping him. Seriously, though, he has to start every game. I have the feeling we’ve binned four points in the last two games. Just chucked em away.
- Posted by Rafa“If you say to me that Dirk Kuyt is a worse striker or Peter Crouch is a worse striker or Andriy Voronin is a worse striker then I would play Torres every game,” Benitez said. ”But because we have very good strikers, I like to choose the strikers for every game and if it is necessary to change I will change.”
not my business or interest… but ya… Torres is definitely better than the rest of the strikers at Liverpool. A simple test, ask the rival fans including me, which striker they would prefer to see on the bench when playing against their team. I am sure most would say Torres.
- Posted by goonerboThe league is the priority so he should be played in every game when he is fit and rested for the cup competitions. The European Cup is important but its leagues stages are so forgiving that Liverpool can afford to lose a couple of games and still go through. dropping Torres so he could play against Porto indicates that Rafa, sadly, has his priorities wrong.
The only reservation I have concerns his age. You need to look at Robbie Fowler and Micheal Owen who’s careers both faltered because of injury when the players were in their mid twenties. We’ll never know but perhaps this was because they were over played in their early years.
Good to see Robbie notching a few goals in the past week
- Posted by JimRobbie’s coming back to Anfield! Only for an hour and a half, though, as Liverpool are at home to Cardiff City in the next round of the Carling Cup.
- Posted by Kevin Fylanhttp://www.carlingcup.premiumtv.co.uk/pa ge/News/0,,11995~1123244,00.html
[…] was hoping to shut the mouth of all the critics for not putting Torres on the field as frequent as the fans wanted. It was not Torres that was on the spotlight when Israeli midfielder […]
- Posted by EPL Round up: Arsenal streak continues, Manchester United keep pressure, Portsmouth hammers 7, Manchester City on a high, Chelsea booed off, Liverpool lucky at Square Tan dot ComNever mind about Liverpool, how can we pick our fantasy teams when Rafa only announces the team a couple of hours before the kickoff?
- Posted by mike in sz