Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Fernando Torres
taken off liverpoolfc.tv"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.)
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.
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."
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