Liverpool FC Forum

by **Greavesie** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 2:46 am

Agreed Max, he's a legend in my eyes already. He's a red through and through, reckon he'll be with us a long time yet

by **Spinner** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 4:40 am

Love this bloke!

by **Number 9** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 6:05 am

Been fit all,season... won EPL!.The fact that we will finish second now hurts but its true!
Bring back Leon and Igor.Kill the killers..dead

by **bigmick** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 6:45 am

I thought not only was his performance brilliant, it showed a lot of bravery as well. Only he will know exactly how fit he is, but he's certainly not absolutely 100% that's for sure. There have been many foreign players in the past who you wouldn't get near the pitch if they were in any sort of pain, but not this kid. Not only is he a fantastic footballer, but he's a really good pro as well. Brilliant performance from his last night.

by **Number 9** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 7:34 am

bigmick wrote:I thought not only was his performance brilliant, it showed a lot of bravery as well. Only he will know exactly how fit he is, but he's certainly not absolutely 100% that's for sure. There have been many foreign players in the past who you wouldn't get near the pitch if they were in any sort of pain, but not this kid. Not only is he a fantastic footballer, but he's a really good pro as well. Brilliant performance from his last night.

I love it when you talk sense Vera!Almost brings a tear to my eye!

by **bigmick** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 10:08 am

edit.

by **Owzat** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 10:45 am

Six goals in his last 12 appearances, if only we had back-up for him that could score even four in 12 appearances.

Talking of which, Gerrard now has 18 goals in 37 appearances - fecking awesome goals return. I think his best return is 23 in a season, nine games plus two minimum in the Champions League to try and beat that

by **stmichael** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 11:04 am

Best striker in the world bar none imo. Eto'o and Villa may have a better goal per games ratio but when he plays like he has done the last two games nobody can touch him imo. And this is from a guy who's still not 100% fit remember.

Made arguably the best defender in the league look like a pub player at times on Saturday.

by **Ciggy** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 11:38 am

I just love him to bits nothing more to say, the best striker in the world and Im so happy weve got him.

by **RobinHood6969** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 12:13 pm

El Nino Rocks...The way he toyed with Nemanja Vidic was awesome.

by **Omer Na** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 1:07 pm

he is the best scorer in the world.
he have a fantastic tricks and he is very fast.
The Best !

by **zarababe** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 7:25 pm

he is so great - and he loves liverpool so much too - our shining star !

by **RedBen** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 7:50 pm

He's rubbish with throw-ins though

by **stmichael** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 1:30 pm

Excellent article from James Lawton today:

James Lawton: Stellar show by faithful Torres eclipses Ronaldo's self-service

Tuesday, 17 March 2009

Was it really just that Rafa Benítez picked up Mr. Ferguson, put him in his pocket, and administered the mother of all tactical tours de force? Or could it also have been of some significance that Cristiano Ronaldo, the reigning world player of the year, was at times made to look like an inconsequential bit player beside his potential successor Fernando Torres?

Naturally, given all the previous, the Benítez-Ferguson issue had most play, and certainly it is true that the master of Anfield's deployment of both Torres and Steven Gerrard achieved a remarkable coup in the disintegration, for a day at least, of Nemanja Vidic.

But then we can go only so far with Benítez versus Ferguson, partly because the Liverpool manager, except for urging potential allies to attack the centre of United's defence with as much resource as they can muster for the rest of the season, largely resisted the urge to give back some of the recent ridicule aimed at him by the Old Trafford commander.

Their rival achievements and strengths are well enough established to override any sweeping conclusions based on a single match between the teams, including the theory that Vidic has necessarily been diminished to the point that he is no longer one of his team's greatest strengths but suddenly a most glaring weakness.

Less speculative is the fact that Benítez has in Torres a brilliant centrepiece to all his hopes while Ferguson in Ronaldo does not. Certainly not for so much of a season which some expected to be nothing so much as an extended coronation; nor, on current evidence, in the foreseeable future.

No doubt there will be cries that this is harsh, especially when it is remembered that Ronaldo headed United beautifully into a secure position against Internazionale and then nosed United into the lead against Liverpool.

Yes, there is some danger of over-simplification, not least in the fact that if Torres received magnificent support from such as Gerrard and Javier Mascherano, Ronaldo was not exactly surrounded by optimum performance from his team-mates, either against Internazionale or Liverpool. Indeed, if you wanted to define United despair at the end of a week of considerable dishevelment it was probably the sight of Michael Carrick, arguably their most influential player this season, being withdrawn from the challenge of breaking down a Liverpool defence which had allegedly become slow enough to be charged with loitering.

However, there can be no dispute about the fact that against Real Madrid and United, Torres was nothing less than luminous as he made Fabio Cannavaro, Italy's captain and the man of the 2006 World Cup, look old and distraught, and then proceeded to undermine so severely the Player of the Year candidacy of Vidic. This was not so much a surge of form as confirmation of both superb talent and a burning competitive spirit.

Among his other woes, Ferguson could only have yearned for even hints of such commitment from his own superstar.

In a few weeks of fragile fitness Torres has become a fierce disciple of Benítez's cause. He wears a Liverpool heart on his sleeve, while, it it is difficult not to conclude, Ronaldo mostly sports one kind of advertisement or another for himself. Ferguson will no doubt bridle at this suggestion as much as the one that Benítez took him to the strategic and tactical cleaners, but the belief here is that it will be with less justification.

Whatever the undoubted cleverness of Benítez's work in Europe, where he twice left the messiah Jose Mourinho resorting to nothing more resourceful than long balls, he has never before been close to Ferguson's supreme quality of investing unbridled faith in his players.

This was most startling about Liverpool's eruption against both Real and United. Neither triumph was, whatever Benítez's most fervent admirers say, primarily about tactical pragmatism. They were the fruit of players operating at the peak of their powers. Torres and to an almost equal extent, Gerrard, played with a wonderful freedom and while Benítez can fairly claim that he has not often enough had both men available at the same time, there is also no great case for him, as there is for Ferguson, as a coach with an instinct for taking away the leash – at least until now.

For Ferguson the agony last week was the underperformance of players he has nurtured so relentlessly. While Torres flew, Ronaldo mostly fluttered. Yes, there are some considerable points to be made in defence of Ronaldo. In every game he attracts small battalions of markers. His physical resilience is remarkable, and, a glance at their records tells you, far more so than the injury-prone Spaniard. He remains, with the possible exception of Wayne Rooney, the United player most likely to produce a sublime intervention, as we saw last week when the two of them combined to snuff out the rising hopes of Mourinho.

So where is the most pressing point of comparison? It is in the sense of Torres' commitment, of a determination to inflict all that he has for the benefit of the team.

Torres and Gerrard are at present emitting it from their very pores. Lionel Messi, along with blinding virtuosity, is doing the same on behalf of Barcelona. But Ronaldo is not and this, surely, gives Ferguson quite as much concern as the fact that Vidic went missing for a day.

Ronaldo's absence, after all, has been rather more protracted – a fact illuminated by nothing so much as the passion of Fernando Torres.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport....14.html

by **Lando_Griffin** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 1:42 pm

The bloke is just class. Total, utter class. :nod

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