Posts Tagged ‘Fernando Torres’

Suarez & Kuyt celebrate after scoring against Man Utd.

Many Liverpool supporters will remember the shock when we learned back in 1977 that Kevin Keegan had decided Hamburg would be a better team to play for (rumour has it Tommy Smith gave him a black eye for that decision). The question was how could he be replaced? It was going to be impossible. Then a terrific bit of genius by Bob Paisley brought Kenny Dalglish to Anfield and the rest, as they say, is history.

It’s ironic a similar situation occurred this January with the shock decision by Torres to leave Liverpool. Fortunately, this time around it was Dalglish himself who had already put the wheels in motion to sign Luis Suarez whose  superb displays, especially on Sunday, have made Torres’s departure seem like a genuine piece of good luck that brought with it a boat load of money allowing Liverpool to buy Andy Carroll as well.

Suarez was superb against Man United, setting-up Dirk Kuyt’s hat trick and injecting a confidence and belief throughout the team. Suarez is class, on and off the field (as we saw in his farewell visit to Ajax) and you can only believe his partnership with Carroll will really be something special, way beyond any strike force we have seen at Anfield for a long time.

We finally got to see Torres’s true colours yesterday and it wasn’t red. After supporting him faithfully for years he literally turned his back on all Liverpool supporters. I haven’t read one comment from him thanking Liverpool fans for sticking by him through thick and thin and that’s a bloody disgrace. Don’t get me wrong, he has the right to go but if he doesn’t want to play Liverpool any more we don’t want him. But Torres, more than any other player, had a special place in our hearts and that’s what hurts the most. Even after all his injuries and stropping about the field for the last two seasons or more we stuck by him but that seems to have meant nothing.

Based on all that, I’m glad to see the back of him and look forward to a great partnership between Suarez and Carroll. The new Keegan and Toshack a few are saying. As for Torres, I hope he turns out to be another Shevchenko.

Fernando Torres is one of the worlds finest strikers. He’s at the peak of his playing career at 26 and like everyone else he’s sick of the way Liverpool have been owned, managed and performed.
He wants success and trophies to show for his unbelievable talent so who can blame him for wanting to go to another club where he can play with other top players who can make him even more successful on and off the pitch.
Don’t get me wrong. I want Torres to stay. The new owners have just proved their intent to improve the squad by investing in Suarez and now that Kenny is in charge things are really beginning to turn around. So the timing of Torres’s transfer request is, to say the least, confusing even more so by the fact that it’s come just a few days before the transfer window closes. Why not earlier?
No one wants a player to stay if he isn’t committed to club and at times during the past two seasons Torres’s body language has not been good. He’s been plagued by injuries, which has not helped, so if he truly is unhappy being at Liverpool then we should accept the inevitable.
I will be gutted if Torres leaves but it’s not the end of the world. I remember Keegan leaving Liverpool and was gutted by his decision too. How could we replace him? Impossible. But along came the King. Long live the King.

 

 

 

Steven Gerrard capped an excellent display against Bolton on Saturday with a sublime lofted pass into the box for Torres to finish superbly in front of the Kop and a pin-point cross to the far post which resulted in Joe Cole’s tap-in winner. Gerrard was the difference between winning and loosing against resilient opposition.

Once again, after the first half it didn’t look good as Liverpool trailed 1-0 to a Kevin Davies header from a cross that should never have been allowed to reach him. The lack in confidence in the team was highlighted by probably the miss of the season when Lucas had a tap in opportunity from literally a few feet to make it 1-1 but somehow he managed to scuff his shot wide. But a more cohesive, more aggressive, Liverpool appeared from the tunnel for the second half and in the end they totally deserved the win which came in the 92nd minute. A much-needed 3 points and a much-needed boost to the confidence of Fernando Torres who looked a different player after he had scored.

No one can be more relieved with the result than Roy Hodgson, although he knows more than anyone this doesn’t change the fact that his tenure as Liverpool manager hangs on a knife-edge. A bad result on Wednesday at Blackburn would surely be the end even though players like Joe Cole, in an after-match interview, says the team are fully behind him. However, if you believe a report in The Telegraph today, Hodgson’s end is immanent and that Kenny Dalglish will  likely become the caretaker manager until the summer while NESV search for a long-term replacement. We shall see.
One very troubling statistic from Saturday’s game was the attendance of only 34,500, the lowest in a Premier league game since 2004. That’s almost 11,000 empty seats which is another illustration of how Liverpool’s poor form is translating into lower revenue’s, something I’m sure the new owners will be taking extremely seriously.
Let’s just hope the positives from this game translate into a positive, 3 point result, on Wednesday.

UPDATE JULY 27, 2010 : TORRES IS STAYING AT LIVERPOOL!!

Roy Hodgson “He has told us that he is looking forward to Monday, looking forward to getting back to work and looking forward to playing for Liverpool next season. That is what I know so other reports, I would suggest, are erroneous.”

Fernando Torres Liverpool FC striker

Fernando Torres - will he stay or go?

Over the past few days newspaper speculation has been rife as to whether Fernando Torres will stay at Liverpool or decide to leave.

Kenny Dalglish feels he will stay, Hodgson says he’s done all he can to keep him and Torres himself has remained silent. It’s simply a case of no one knows but Torres himself, but even that may not be true. At the heart of Torres’s concern, it seems, is the American ownership and the future of the club and no one can fault him for that.

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Fernando Torres Liverpool FC striker

Fernando Torres holds the World Cup trophy wearing a Liverpool FC scarf.

Enough said.

torres to play a lethal role in Sunday's World Cup final

As a Liverpool supporter once England were knocked out of the World Cup my allegiance immediately switched to Spain as our beloved Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina are in the squad.

Although a fantastic goalkeeper, and one could argue the best in the Premiership, Reina was unlikely to feature in the competition due to the brilliance of Iker Casillas, but I’m sure Reina knew this going in.

Torres was also up against it due to his fight for fitness after knee surgery and it was great to see him recover in time to play. However, the effects of the surgery has seen Torres struggle to get fully fit and as a result it has impacted his sharpness, which will be a great cause of frustration to him.

Torres, however, should have been on the scoreboard today against Germany if it wasn’t for the idiotic thinking of Pedro. Breaking into the German box all Pedro had to do was simply passed the ball to Torres, who was standing completely unmarked on the penalty spot,  and it would have been 2-0, game over. Instead he let the thought of glory go to his head, tried to beat the German defender and lost the ball. Torres was disgusted at Pedro’s lack of vision, as was the Spanish manager and team, and he was promptly substituted.

But even though Torres has not been at his brilliant best so far in the World Cup I have a feeling he will play an instrumental, and lethal, role in deciding the outcome of Sunday’s final. With one flash of genius Torres can turn a game and I for one will be hoping Vicente del Bosque, Spain’s coach, allows Torres the opportunity to do just that.

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Kenny Dalglish the right successor to Rafa Benitez

With all the newspaper talk surrounding Rafa Benitez and his possible, if not imminent, move to Juventus the question becomes who should succeed him if he does decide to leave?

Rafa appears to be in the drivers seat in his negotiations with the club, according to some newspaper reports, as his departure might also mean the loss of Fernando Torres and Mascherano, but what truth there is to this god only knows. Hopefully none. It also seems that keeping Rafa as manager would make it easier for Martin Broughton to attract new investors to Liverpool, but again how true this is remains unclear. (more…)

Torres's plea to Liverpool: We need more quality players

I think I’m on safe ground in stating that Fernando Torres is one of the finest strikers in the world and as such has every right to want and expect to play in a team with players of the same calibre. On his website Torres says “The most important thing is for the club is to try and sign quality players, footballers who improve the quality of current squad… next season we want to be challenging for the Premier League title, and the Champions League or Europa League, but for that to happen we need some new signings”.

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Torres score his 50th brilliant goal

A spirited Liverpool FC display at Villa Park on Tuesday night, including a 93rd minute Fernando Torres winner, his 50th for Liverpool and the fastest ever scored by any Liverpool player, provided the perfect, confidence building, tonic the Red Men needed to give their ailing season some sort of momentum and a platform to build upon. In short, it will have given them belief.

Ironically, it was the match-winner Torres who looked the most out-of-sorts player on the field until he scored that beauty of a goal. The final ball was missing and the ones he did receive he was unable to capitalize on. His body language didn’t look good. But like the world-class striker he is, he only needed one clear-cut chance and he took it brilliantly. (more…)