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West Ham and Newcastle get boost from Liverpool.
Written by Patrick | 25th February 2008 | 0 Comment(s)
Rafa Benitez admitted that he is still prepared to rest Fernando Torres despite seeing the Spanish striker come to Liverpool's aid once again with a hat-trick in Saturday's 3-2 win over Middlesbrough, and that looks like being good news for either West Ham United or Newcastle; or both.
Liverpool travels to Bolton next week and it would appear that Torres will manage to keep his place for that one, but with West Ham and Newcastle to play, both at Anfield, as they build up to their second match with Inter Milan it seems that Torres will either miss one game completely or be used sparingly at best.
Torres' latest repayment following his 26.5million pounds signing from Atletico Madrid last summer took his tally for the season to 21 goals, and more importantly Liverpool moved back into their revised target of fourth place in the Premier League; well temporarily at least as Everton kept up the pressure with their latest win at Manchester City on Monday.
Benitez's rotation policy is becoming the stuff of legend, and he continued not to be swayed by Torres' latest scoring feats as he said: "Will he play every week? Well, with one game a week it would be easier for me, but I have explained 100 times that I need everybody fit."
"If you are playing three or four games every ten days, and we have West Ham, Newcastle and Inter Milan all coming soon, you need to see how players are and make sure that they are fit."
"It is not easy for foreign players in their first season, but Fernando is a player with power and pace and I felt that, in England, those qualities are suited to the league."
"We had two or three targets when we were looking for a striker last summer, some good options, but we decided on Torres because he is young, hungry and his ambition was to play in the Premier League. We also knew that he could be good for us."
"It is really difficult for players to score 20 goals in any season, never mind their first season in the Premiership, but Fernando has done that. His work-rate is good as well, so everything is positive for us."
"There has never been a target for him, other than for him to score goals. I want my strikers to score goals, but they also have to make space for the other strikers and play well."
Liverpool, who beat Inter Milan 2-0 in the Champions League last Tuesday, have struggled to repeat their European heroics in the Premier League once again this term, so Benitez admitted that the victory over Boro was crucial.
He said: "After a Champions League game, the most important thing is always to win."
"After we scored the third goal on the counter-attack, we could have scored more, but the key was to win and we did that."
Benitez may feel that the Newcastle game may be favoured to rest Torres as the ‘Keegan effect' seems only to have opened the floodgates and most of their opponents are happy to oblige in a round of shooting practice.
West Ham on the other hand boasts a pretty good defensive record away from home, and of course they kept a clean sheet against the Reds in their victorious home fixture a few weeks ago, so it may make sense to start Torres in that one?
Nevertheless, Benitez is usually happy to confound most with his team selections and if Liverpool do finish fourth and are on their way to Moscow in May then he will probably be pretty satisfied in the face of the stiff criticism he has endured.
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