Matt Marchese gives the North American perspective on the Reds, reflecting on Liverpool’s defeat at Manchester City, realising that the Reds, despite defeat are now beginning to turn heads in the Premier League.
No Liverpool fan wants to see the club lose, that much we know; but we can draw lots of positives from a 2-1 loss to Manchester City at the Etihad.
We all know about the sub-par officiating and an offside call on what could have been a real game changing moment, so let’s move past the negatives and look at what could be a real stepping stone this season.
When Steven Gerrard and Daniel Sturridge went down with injuries around the same time, we knew that the club’s depth would be tested, especially with the tougher part of the schedule coming up. The game against Manchester City at the Etihad would clearly be the club’s biggest test. Fast forward to Thursday’s game where a diligent, hard working group of players showed up and put City to the test.
The Etihad has been a fortress this season so far, where in eight games previous they had only allowed five goals in, while scoring 35. Yes, 35.
So what can we take from this loss?
The Reds dominated for long stretches of the match, with tantalising runs from Luis Suarez, Raheem Sterling, Philippe Coutinho and Jordan Henderson. They kept City on their toes, showing they weren’t afraid and were not going to back down.
And back down they didn’t.
One Minor Lapse In Judgement, One Point Gone
All Simon Mignolet has been this year is the opposite of Pepe Reina. And that’s a good thing.
One missed play cost Liverpool a point. But the blame doesn’t lie solely on the Belgian keeper. He still made saves when needed and was calm, cool and collected under pressure as usual. The second City goal by Alvaro Negredo was something of an odd one.
Could you fault Mignolet for misplaying the strike? Possibly. But in the same breath, how many times has he been the reason why this club has won games.
I’ll give him a pass on this one.
Defensively Sound
Liverpool’s bend and not break defence was put to task by a high powered City offence and put up a great fight. Martin Skrtel was given the tough assignment of guarding City captain Vincent Kompany on every corner kick. Yes, one went in, but why don’t you try and cover that guy? Glen Johnson was also as effective as always with long runs on the outside and almost put the Reds level with a second half chance.
They only allowed 2 goals to a team that scores an average of 4.375 per game. That in itself is a victory.
The Offensive Output
We have seen the growth of Sterling, Coutinho & Henderson into solid first team choices and gives fans hope that this could be a very formidable group going forward. This game was no different.
Sterling was buzzing around the pitch all game long, assisting on the Coutinho marker.
Henderson created plenty of opportunities with his well-timed runs and just missed a chance to equalise in the late stages of the game.
Coutinho, despite not having his greatest game, still scored and created chances against arguably the best home side in the Premiership.
This all with leading scorer Suarez being marked ferociously by City defenders and not getting much of a chance to create offensively. We now know that there is life beyond Suarez without Sturridge in the starting eleven.
Now What?
Manchester City is a club that spend and spend and spend; where money is not an option. Liverpool have been smart buyers over the past little while. So Liverpool’s low-risk high reward talent is coming to the forefront and can compete with the higher spending clubs.
Going forward, this could be a real turning point in the season at a time where many pundits thought there would be struggles. Now Liverpool are turning heads and making the rest of the Premier League take notice, they are for real.
Matt Marchese gives the North American perspective on the Reds, reflecting on Liverpool’s defeat at Manchester City, realising that the Reds, despite defeat are now beginning to turn heads in the Premier League.
No Liverpool fan wants to see the club lose, that much we know; but we can draw lots of positives from a 2-1 loss to Manchester City at the Etihad.
We all know about the sub-par officiating and an offside call on what could have been a real game changing moment, so let’s move past the negatives and look at what could be a real stepping stone this season.
When Steven Gerrard and Daniel Sturridge went down with injuries around the same time, we knew that the club’s depth would be tested, especially with the tougher part of the schedule coming up. The game against Manchester City at the Etihad would clearly be the club’s biggest test. Fast forward to Thursday’s game where a diligent, hard working group of players showed up and put City to the test.
The Etihad has been a fortress this season so far, where in eight games previous they had only allowed five goals in, while scoring 35. Yes, 35.
So what can we take from this loss?
The Reds dominated for long stretches of the match, with tantalising runs from Luis Suarez, Raheem Sterling, Philippe Coutinho and Jordan Henderson. They kept City on their toes, showing they weren’t afraid and were not going to back down.
And back down they didn’t.
One Minor Lapse In Judgement, One Point Gone
All Simon Mignolet has been this year is the opposite of Pepe Reina. And that’s a good thing.
One missed play cost Liverpool a point. But the blame doesn’t lie solely on the Belgian keeper. He still made saves when needed and was calm, cool and collected under pressure as usual. The second City goal by Alvaro Negredo was something of an odd one.
Could you fault Mignolet for misplaying the strike? Possibly. But in the same breath, how many times has he been the reason why this club has won games.
I’ll give him a pass on this one.
Defensively Sound
Liverpool’s bend and not break defence was put to task by a high powered City offence and put up a great fight. Martin Skrtel was given the tough assignment of guarding City captain Vincent Kompany on every corner kick. Yes, one went in, but why don’t you try and cover that guy? Glen Johnson was also as effective as always with long runs on the outside and almost put the Reds level with a second half chance.
They only allowed 2 goals to a team that scores an average of 4.375 per game. That in itself is a victory.
The Offensive Output
We have seen the growth of Sterling, Coutinho & Henderson into solid first team choices and gives fans hope that this could be a very formidable group going forward. This game was no different.
Sterling was buzzing around the pitch all game long, assisting on the Coutinho marker.
Henderson created plenty of opportunities with his well-timed runs and just missed a chance to equalise in the late stages of the game.
Coutinho, despite not having his greatest game, still scored and created chances against arguably the best home side in the Premiership.
This all with leading scorer Suarez being marked ferociously by City defenders and not getting much of a chance to create offensively. We now know that there is life beyond Suarez without Sturridge in the starting eleven.
Now What?
Manchester City is a club that spend and spend and spend; where money is not an option. Liverpool have been smart buyers over the past little while. So Liverpool’s low-risk high reward talent is coming to the forefront and can compete with the higher spending clubs.
Going forward, this could be a real turning point in the season at a time where many pundits thought there would be struggles. Now Liverpool are turning heads and making the rest of the Premier League take notice, they are for real.
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho says Liverpool’s relaxed fixture schedule for the remainder of the Premier League season could help them to win the title.
Liverpool have no European football this season, whilst the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea still have Champions League commitments this campaign.
The Reds slipped to fourth in the table after Boxing Day’s 2-1 defeat at Man City, and travel to Chelsea on Sunday in their final game of 2013. However, the Brendan Rodgers‘ side are still just three points off league leaders Arsenal.
https://twitter.com/thisisanfield/status/416294966269202432/photo/1
“Quality, plus ambition and this advantage – so yes, (they could win).”
Liverpool will also be hoping for a fair FA Cup run to be afforded the luxury of resting some of their first-team players even further.
The Reds face Oldham Athletic in the third round of the Cup next Sunday, 5th January 2014.
“These players are going to play 60 matches. Liverpool will play 40 matches. It’s a big difference,” Mourinho added.
“Liverpool are on holidays (for) one season – one week to prepare a match, play the match, one more week to prepare the next match. This is an advantage, an unbelievable advantage.”
Chelsea vs Liverpool gets underway at 4pm on Sunday, 29th December 2013. It’s live on Sky Sports 1.
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho says Liverpool’s relaxed fixture schedule for the remainder of the Premier League season could help them to win the title.
Liverpool have no European football this season, whilst the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea still have Champions League commitments this campaign.
The Reds slipped to fourth in the table after Boxing Day’s 2-1 defeat at Man City, and travel to Chelsea on Sunday in their final game of 2013. However, the Brendan Rodgers‘ side are still just three points off league leaders Arsenal.
https://twitter.com/thisisanfield/status/416294966269202432/photo/1
“Quality, plus ambition and this advantage – so yes, (they could win).”
Liverpool will also be hoping for a fair FA Cup run to be afforded the luxury of resting some of their first-team players even further.
The Reds face Oldham Athletic in the third round of the Cup next Sunday, 5th January 2014.
“These players are going to play 60 matches. Liverpool will play 40 matches. It’s a big difference,” Mourinho added.
“Liverpool are on holidays (for) one season – one week to prepare a match, play the match, one more week to prepare the next match. This is an advantage, an unbelievable advantage.”
Chelsea vs Liverpool gets underway at 4pm on Sunday, 29th December 2013. It’s live on Sky Sports 1.
Football Association have asked Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers to explain his post-match comments about referee Lee Mason following the game with Manchester City.
The Reds led at the Etihad through a Philippe Coutinho opener but by half-time, Vincent Kompany and Alvaro Negredo had struck to put Manuel Pellegrini's hosts on course for a 2-1 Premier League victory.
Liverpool were aggrieved early on when Raheem Sterling sprang the offside trap with yards to spare only to be flagged, and Rodgers was also irked by Joleon Lescott's late shirt-tug on Luis Suarez going unpunished.
In the wake of a defeat that left Liverpool fourth, Rodgers questioned the wisdom of assigning Bolton official Lee Mason to the fixture and called the officiating performance 'horrendous.'
But, when asked whether a pending FA charge was of concern, Rodgers said: "I was only speaking openly and honestly, after the game. I think the FA and the referees' association know that I'm someone that engages in supporting the referees.
"I'm not one that is berating referees after games, I'm always respectful and I ask my staff to be respectful, on the pitch we're never chasing fourth officials or anything on a match day. I've had a number of referees in here to help and support what they do.
"I think they know that when I come out and make a statement like I did yesterday, it was obviously emotional after the game of course, but it was something that I will speak honestly on. As I said, whatever action they will take, they will decide.
"I have to speak on behalf of the supporters of the club, a club that has an emotional investment for many, many millions of people throughout the world. As the manager I represent them, and I'm sure where they were throughout the world yesterday they would have been asking the questions on the decision-making, which I repeat I didn't think was so good, after the game.
"In terms of geography, it wasn't the case at all, I certainly wasn't questioning the integrity of the referees. As I said before, I fully understand the job, it was more the logic of it, in terms of having a referee from that particular part of the world refereeing a game in Manchester, I wouldn't suspect that Mike Dean from the Wirral has refereed many games for Liverpool over the years."
The FA's rule E3 (1) outlaws "comments about match officials which imply bias, attack the officials' integrity or which are personally offensive in nature."
Football Association have asked Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers to explain his post-match comments about referee Lee Mason following the game with Manchester City.
The Reds led at the Etihad through a Philippe Coutinho opener but by half-time, Vincent Kompany and Alvaro Negredo had struck to put Manuel Pellegrini's hosts on course for a 2-1 Premier League victory.
Liverpool were aggrieved early on when Raheem Sterling sprang the offside trap with yards to spare only to be flagged, and Rodgers was also irked by Joleon Lescott's late shirt-tug on Luis Suarez going unpunished.
In the wake of a defeat that left Liverpool fourth, Rodgers questioned the wisdom of assigning Bolton official Lee Mason to the fixture and called the officiating performance 'horrendous.'
But, when asked whether a pending FA charge was of concern, Rodgers said: "I was only speaking openly and honestly, after the game. I think the FA and the referees' association know that I'm someone that engages in supporting the referees.
"I'm not one that is berating referees after games, I'm always respectful and I ask my staff to be respectful, on the pitch we're never chasing fourth officials or anything on a match day. I've had a number of referees in here to help and support what they do.
"I think they know that when I come out and make a statement like I did yesterday, it was obviously emotional after the game of course, but it was something that I will speak honestly on. As I said, whatever action they will take, they will decide.
"I have to speak on behalf of the supporters of the club, a club that has an emotional investment for many, many millions of people throughout the world. As the manager I represent them, and I'm sure where they were throughout the world yesterday they would have been asking the questions on the decision-making, which I repeat I didn't think was so good, after the game.
"In terms of geography, it wasn't the case at all, I certainly wasn't questioning the integrity of the referees. As I said before, I fully understand the job, it was more the logic of it, in terms of having a referee from that particular part of the world refereeing a game in Manchester, I wouldn't suspect that Mike Dean from the Wirral has refereed many games for Liverpool over the years."
The FA's rule E3 (1) outlaws "comments about match officials which imply bias, attack the officials' integrity or which are personally offensive in nature."
Peter Fraser believes Fernando Torres' fall from grace can be attributed to a knee operation the Chelsea striker underwent in 2010.
It is one of the greatest mysteries of football - whatever happened to Fernando Torres?
The Spaniard, a combination of pace and power, was one of the most feared strikers in the world during his pomp with Liverpool between 2007 and 2010 - custom made for the Premier League.
But now, at Chelsea, he is being deemed as simply "not good enough".
Those were the words of Sky Sports' Gary Neville, directed at all of Chelsea's strikers after last Monday's forgettable 0-0 draw at Arsenal ensured none of them have scored an away goal in the Premier League in 2013.
It is a remarkable statistic but one which epitomises Torres' loss of form over the past three-to-four years. It is a fall from grace which, ahead of Sunday's latest reunion with Liverpool, means he has yet to score against his former club in six previous attempts having not been involved in the 2012 FA Cup final.
Torres took the Premier League by storm when arriving at Liverpool from Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2007 in a £26.5million deal as a 24-year-old. He went on to score 24 goals from 33 top-flight appearances in a spectacular debut 2007-08 campaign.
He had also become the first Liverpool player to score more than 20 league goals in a season since Robbie Fowler in 1995-96, and the season ended with him scoring the winner for Spain in the final of Euro 2008.
He hit 33 goals in all club competitions for the Reds to surpass the record set by Manchester United's Ruud van Nistelrooy and become the most prolific foreign debutant in English football.
It was form which led Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard to say in the December of 2007: "Fernando is getting a lot of praise at the moment and rightly so, because the way he has settled into English football has been amazing and the way he has played is frightening. It can be difficult for players from abroad to settle into English football but, at the moment, Fernando looks like he has been playing here for years."
Tellingly, though, that number of 33 appearances would be the highest total Torres would play in a single Premier League season for Liverpool. He had suffered from a groin problem in the October of 2007-08 and then a hamstring injury in the February but that was just a sign of things to come.
Hamstring injuries plagued Torres in the 2008-09 campaign. He experienced one in each month of August, October and November.
Torres said of those injuries in his 2009 book, 'El Nino, My Story': "It was a real hammer blow. The first time it happens you think it is normal and you keep going. The second time, you stop, you take more care and you start to ask yourself why it happened. The third time, you stop properly, you start to investigate the underlying causes and work as hard as you can to make sure it never happens again.
"That was even more important in my case, because it was my hamstring that was causing me problems - the muscle I live by, the one that gives you acceleration and speed."
Torres has always relied upon his ability to turn on the afterburners - knocking the ball past a defender followed by a burst of speed - above the accuracy of his shooting in order to create his goalscoring opportunities.
This is emphasised by his shooting statistics. The best of his first four seasons in England came in 2009-10 when he got 50.79 per cent of all his efforts on target. but that is still poor in comparison with the current likes of Romelu Lukaku, Sergio Aguero and the new darling of The Kop, Luis Suarez, who all boast shooting accuracy levels of more than 60%.
Torres' developing hamstring injuries were something of a surprise given he had suffered just one muscle injury in his previous six years at Atletico.
It created an argument that perhaps the changes in Torres' physique - the slight shifts in the ever-so-finely balanced physiology and metabolism of professional sportsmen combined with playing in the increased physical nature of the Premier League - meant his body was creaking as he grew into his mid-20s because of the very attributes which made him such a dangerous player. It was an eerily familiar story to former Liverpool striker Michael Owen.
Despite Torres' injury problems, Liverpool still enjoyed their best campaign in Premier League history in 2008-09, finishing second and just four points behind champions Manchester United.
But conflicting with many people's memories of that campaign, which included the Gerrard-Torres attacking partnership, this was achieved with their star striker experiencing his worst campaign of the three full seasons he spent at Anfield.
Torres scored a very respectable 14 Premier League goals from 24 appearances but his shooting accuracy was down at 43.06% and his shots-to-goals conversion rate (excluding blocked shots) was less than 20%.
In 2009-10, Torres suffered an abdominal strain which saw him miss more than a month between the November and December but, positively, he had seemingly overcome his hamstring problems.
This, though, seemed to be at a cost. He was to endure a recurring cartilage problem in his right knee which required two operations - firstly in the January and then again in the April.
Did the knee injury come as a result of trying to protect his hamstrings? The April operation ended Torres' season.
However, Torres was statistically still at his most lethal in front of goal for Liverpool in 2009-10. In just 22 Premier League appearances, he scored 18 goals.
He averaged a goal every 95.28 minutes, had a shooting accuracy of more than 50% and recorded his best shots-to-goals conversion rate of 28.57%.
But, and it is a big but, that excellent form came almost completely before the first knee operation in the January. After returning from that surgery, he scored just six Premier League goals in the remainder of 2009-10.
Torres also struggled after the second knee operation in the April. He recovered in time to go to the World Cup that summer but, surrounded by rumours of concern he had rushed back in order to be a part of Spain's squad for a World Cup in which they were strong favourites to win, he failed to score in seven appearances at the tournament.
To make matters worse, he suffered another groin injury in the final victory over Holland which required three weeks of rehabilitation.
Amid Torres' knee operations, Liverpool had also been having a bad time. They finished seventh in the league and made an early exit from the Champions League, resulting in the departure of manager Rafa Benitez at the end of the campaign.
This was all engulfed by the off-field ill-feeling from fans towards the club's American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, and a status in multi-million pounds' worth of debt. It led to snowballing speculation of Torres' discontent.
Having recovered from his World Cup final injury, Torres was fit for the start of the 2010-11 Premier League season, coming on as a 74th-minute substitute in the opener against Arsenal. He would go on to make 23 league appearances for Liverpool, of which 22 were starts.
However, he scored only nine times and looked a different player to before his knee injuries while also appearing too frustrated by Liverpool's on and off-field struggles.
It would prove to be his final campaign at Anfield. Fenway Sports Group completed their takeover of Liverpool in the October of 2010 and, although doomed Roy Hodgson would be replaced by Kenny Dalglish in the January of 2011,Torres still ultimately requested a transfer and made his record-breaking £50million move to Chelsea that same January.
Torres' forcing of the transfer caused outrage among millions of Liverpool fans who were appalled by a player who had always spoken of his commitment to the club and appreciation of their values.
With all that in mind, many of the Reds faithful felt betrayed when Torres left and directed the sort of fury in his direction which would damage the self-belief of any hardened soul, let alone one who was widely assumed to not have the greatest self-confidence.
Could this have also affected his form? Torres was, and is, a player who needs to be at peak mental fitness to be at his best. It is considered he needs to be loved.
Aged 27 when he joined Chelsea, Torres has infamously continued to struggle. He scored just once - against West Ham United in April - in the second half of that 2010-11 season.
Perhaps that level of scrutiny he found himself under as the Premier League's most expensive transfer combined with the fury from Liverpool fans had led to the yips?
Torres ended 2010-11 with his overall statistics, including both his time at Liverpool and Chelsea, at their lowest since he arrived in England. He made more Premier League appearances (37) than in any of the previous three seasons but he scored just 10 times, averaged a goal only every 265.8 minutes and his shots-to-goal conversion rate was at just 13.33%.
That dip in form has, of course, proven to be far from a blip, as a player who will turn 30 years old at the end of January 2014 has scored just 17 goals in 64 Premier League appearances for Chelsea. Last season, he scored 23 goals for Chelsea, but only eight of those came in the Premier League.
Interestingly, Torres' muscular injuries, although not completely a thing of the past, have become less frequent at Chelsea.
This could be due to a training programme which, to the eye at least, appears to have increased his muscle bulk. But this could also be due to him intentionally becoming less dynamic in his style of play, adopting a more static approach, in order to protect his muscles.
It could also be argued he has simply become less mobile since those knee operations in 2010, which in turn has led to the decrease in his goalscoring threat.
Torres has had his moments at Chelsea. In fact, that is somewhat of an understatement considering he has been a part of squads who have won the Champions League, FA Cup and Europa League.
At the same time, he and his team-mates have also had the challenge of having to adapt to the changing tactics of five different managers, including interim boss Benitez.
In the current season, there have been flashes of Jose Mourinho rediscovering the player of old, against Schalke in the Champions League and Manchester City in the Premier League in October.
And Torres did finish with the Golden Boot as top scorer at Euro 2012, again netting in the final as Spain defended their continental title with a 4-0 hammering of Italy.
But they have been anomalies and he is unquestionably not the same threat as the player who arrived in England in 2007.
All of Torres' injuries, particularly those in his hamstrings, have taken their toll, ebbing away at his natural attributes and self-confidence. But the manner in which he enjoyed his best season, statistically, in 2009-10 having overcome his hamstring-plagued 2008-09 suggests his muscular injuries have not been the main root of his downfall.
The argument that his loss of confidence after leaving Liverpool also has merit but his collapse in the first half of the 2010-11 season, before he left Anfield, would also suggest that is only a minor variable.
The true point at which Torres' goalscoring brilliance was shattered appears to clearly trace back to the double knee operation of 2010.
Knees are the second heart of any footballer - once they are gone, it is the beginning of the end. Torres had scored a phenomenal 50 Premier League goals in 72 games up to the first knee operation in January 2010 but since then, he has scored a pitiful 32 Premier League goals in 125 appearances.
Sadly for Torres, and for all those who watched in wonder at his once world class goalscoring vitality, force of nature and brilliance, the overall statistics tell the entire story.
As he approaches the wrong side of 30, there will be no way back to the golden days of his former self.
Peter Fraser believes Fernando Torres' fall from grace can be attributed to a knee operation the Chelsea striker underwent in 2010.
It is one of the greatest mysteries of football - whatever happened to Fernando Torres?
The Spaniard, a combination of pace and power, was one of the most feared strikers in the world during his pomp with Liverpool between 2007 and 2010 - custom made for the Premier League.
But now, at Chelsea, he is being deemed as simply "not good enough".
Those were the words of Sky Sports' Gary Neville, directed at all of Chelsea's strikers after last Monday's forgettable 0-0 draw at Arsenal ensured none of them have scored an away goal in the Premier League in 2013.
It is a remarkable statistic but one which epitomises Torres' loss of form over the past three-to-four years. It is a fall from grace which, ahead of Sunday's latest reunion with Liverpool, means he has yet to score against his former club in six previous attempts having not been involved in the 2012 FA Cup final.
Torres took the Premier League by storm when arriving at Liverpool from Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2007 in a £26.5million deal as a 24-year-old. He went on to score 24 goals from 33 top-flight appearances in a spectacular debut 2007-08 campaign.
He had also become the first Liverpool player to score more than 20 league goals in a season since Robbie Fowler in 1995-96, and the season ended with him scoring the winner for Spain in the final of Euro 2008.
He hit 33 goals in all club competitions for the Reds to surpass the record set by Manchester United's Ruud van Nistelrooy and become the most prolific foreign debutant in English football.
It was form which led Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard to say in the December of 2007: "Fernando is getting a lot of praise at the moment and rightly so, because the way he has settled into English football has been amazing and the way he has played is frightening. It can be difficult for players from abroad to settle into English football but, at the moment, Fernando looks like he has been playing here for years."
Tellingly, though, that number of 33 appearances would be the highest total Torres would play in a single Premier League season for Liverpool. He had suffered from a groin problem in the October of 2007-08 and then a hamstring injury in the February but that was just a sign of things to come.
Hamstring injuries plagued Torres in the 2008-09 campaign. He experienced one in each month of August, October and November.
Torres said of those injuries in his 2009 book, 'El Nino, My Story': "It was a real hammer blow. The first time it happens you think it is normal and you keep going. The second time, you stop, you take more care and you start to ask yourself why it happened. The third time, you stop properly, you start to investigate the underlying causes and work as hard as you can to make sure it never happens again.
"That was even more important in my case, because it was my hamstring that was causing me problems - the muscle I live by, the one that gives you acceleration and speed."
Torres has always relied upon his ability to turn on the afterburners - knocking the ball past a defender followed by a burst of speed - above the accuracy of his shooting in order to create his goalscoring opportunities.
This is emphasised by his shooting statistics. The best of his first four seasons in England came in 2009-10 when he got 50.79 per cent of all his efforts on target. but that is still poor in comparison with the current likes of Romelu Lukaku, Sergio Aguero and the new darling of The Kop, Luis Suarez, who all boast shooting accuracy levels of more than 60%.
Torres' developing hamstring injuries were something of a surprise given he had suffered just one muscle injury in his previous six years at Atletico.
It created an argument that perhaps the changes in Torres' physique - the slight shifts in the ever-so-finely balanced physiology and metabolism of professional sportsmen combined with playing in the increased physical nature of the Premier League - meant his body was creaking as he grew into his mid-20s because of the very attributes which made him such a dangerous player. It was an eerily familiar story to former Liverpool striker Michael Owen.
Despite Torres' injury problems, Liverpool still enjoyed their best campaign in Premier League history in 2008-09, finishing second and just four points behind champions Manchester United.
But conflicting with many people's memories of that campaign, which included the Gerrard-Torres attacking partnership, this was achieved with their star striker experiencing his worst campaign of the three full seasons he spent at Anfield.
Torres scored a very respectable 14 Premier League goals from 24 appearances but his shooting accuracy was down at 43.06% and his shots-to-goals conversion rate (excluding blocked shots) was less than 20%.
In 2009-10, Torres suffered an abdominal strain which saw him miss more than a month between the November and December but, positively, he had seemingly overcome his hamstring problems.
This, though, seemed to be at a cost. He was to endure a recurring cartilage problem in his right knee which required two operations - firstly in the January and then again in the April.
Did the knee injury come as a result of trying to protect his hamstrings? The April operation ended Torres' season.
However, Torres was statistically still at his most lethal in front of goal for Liverpool in 2009-10. In just 22 Premier League appearances, he scored 18 goals.
He averaged a goal every 95.28 minutes, had a shooting accuracy of more than 50% and recorded his best shots-to-goals conversion rate of 28.57%.
But, and it is a big but, that excellent form came almost completely before the first knee operation in the January. After returning from that surgery, he scored just six Premier League goals in the remainder of 2009-10.
Torres also struggled after the second knee operation in the April. He recovered in time to go to the World Cup that summer but, surrounded by rumours of concern he had rushed back in order to be a part of Spain's squad for a World Cup in which they were strong favourites to win, he failed to score in seven appearances at the tournament.
To make matters worse, he suffered another groin injury in the final victory over Holland which required three weeks of rehabilitation.
Amid Torres' knee operations, Liverpool had also been having a bad time. They finished seventh in the league and made an early exit from the Champions League, resulting in the departure of manager Rafa Benitez at the end of the campaign.
This was all engulfed by the off-field ill-feeling from fans towards the club's American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, and a status in multi-million pounds' worth of debt. It led to snowballing speculation of Torres' discontent.
Having recovered from his World Cup final injury, Torres was fit for the start of the 2010-11 Premier League season, coming on as a 74th-minute substitute in the opener against Arsenal. He would go on to make 23 league appearances for Liverpool, of which 22 were starts.
However, he scored only nine times and looked a different player to before his knee injuries while also appearing too frustrated by Liverpool's on and off-field struggles.
It would prove to be his final campaign at Anfield. Fenway Sports Group completed their takeover of Liverpool in the October of 2010 and, although doomed Roy Hodgson would be replaced by Kenny Dalglish in the January of 2011,Torres still ultimately requested a transfer and made his record-breaking £50million move to Chelsea that same January.
Torres' forcing of the transfer caused outrage among millions of Liverpool fans who were appalled by a player who had always spoken of his commitment to the club and appreciation of their values.
With all that in mind, many of the Reds faithful felt betrayed when Torres left and directed the sort of fury in his direction which would damage the self-belief of any hardened soul, let alone one who was widely assumed to not have the greatest self-confidence.
Could this have also affected his form? Torres was, and is, a player who needs to be at peak mental fitness to be at his best. It is considered he needs to be loved.
Aged 27 when he joined Chelsea, Torres has infamously continued to struggle. He scored just once - against West Ham United in April - in the second half of that 2010-11 season.
Perhaps that level of scrutiny he found himself under as the Premier League's most expensive transfer combined with the fury from Liverpool fans had led to the yips?
Torres ended 2010-11 with his overall statistics, including both his time at Liverpool and Chelsea, at their lowest since he arrived in England. He made more Premier League appearances (37) than in any of the previous three seasons but he scored just 10 times, averaged a goal only every 265.8 minutes and his shots-to-goal conversion rate was at just 13.33%.
That dip in form has, of course, proven to be far from a blip, as a player who will turn 30 years old at the end of January 2014 has scored just 17 goals in 64 Premier League appearances for Chelsea. Last season, he scored 23 goals for Chelsea, but only eight of those came in the Premier League.
Interestingly, Torres' muscular injuries, although not completely a thing of the past, have become less frequent at Chelsea.
This could be due to a training programme which, to the eye at least, appears to have increased his muscle bulk. But this could also be due to him intentionally becoming less dynamic in his style of play, adopting a more static approach, in order to protect his muscles.
It could also be argued he has simply become less mobile since those knee operations in 2010, which in turn has led to the decrease in his goalscoring threat.
Torres has had his moments at Chelsea. In fact, that is somewhat of an understatement considering he has been a part of squads who have won the Champions League, FA Cup and Europa League.
At the same time, he and his team-mates have also had the challenge of having to adapt to the changing tactics of five different managers, including interim boss Benitez.
In the current season, there have been flashes of Jose Mourinho rediscovering the player of old, against Schalke in the Champions League and Manchester City in the Premier League in October.
And Torres did finish with the Golden Boot as top scorer at Euro 2012, again netting in the final as Spain defended their continental title with a 4-0 hammering of Italy.
But they have been anomalies and he is unquestionably not the same threat as the player who arrived in England in 2007.
All of Torres' injuries, particularly those in his hamstrings, have taken their toll, ebbing away at his natural attributes and self-confidence. But the manner in which he enjoyed his best season, statistically, in 2009-10 having overcome his hamstring-plagued 2008-09 suggests his muscular injuries have not been the main root of his downfall.
The argument that his loss of confidence after leaving Liverpool also has merit but his collapse in the first half of the 2010-11 season, before he left Anfield, would also suggest that is only a minor variable.
The true point at which Torres' goalscoring brilliance was shattered appears to clearly trace back to the double knee operation of 2010.
Knees are the second heart of any footballer - once they are gone, it is the beginning of the end. Torres had scored a phenomenal 50 Premier League goals in 72 games up to the first knee operation in January 2010 but since then, he has scored a pitiful 32 Premier League goals in 125 appearances.
Sadly for Torres, and for all those who watched in wonder at his once world class goalscoring vitality, force of nature and brilliance, the overall statistics tell the entire story.
As he approaches the wrong side of 30, there will be no way back to the golden days of his former self.
Peter Fraser believes Fernando Torres' fall from grace can be attributed to a knee operation the Chelsea striker underwent in 2010.
It is one of the greatest mysteries of football - whatever happened to Fernando Torres?
The Spaniard, a combination of pace and power, was one of the most feared strikers in the world during his pomp with Liverpool between 2007 and 2010 - custom made for the Premier League.
But now, at Chelsea, he is being deemed as simply "not good enough".
Those were the words of Sky Sports' Gary Neville, directed at all of Chelsea's strikers after last Monday's forgettable 0-0 draw at Arsenal ensured none of them have scored an away goal in the Premier League in 2013.
It is a remarkable statistic but one which epitomises Torres' loss of form over the past three-to-four years. It is a fall from grace which, ahead of Sunday's latest reunion with Liverpool, means he has yet to score against his former club in six previous attempts having not been involved in the 2012 FA Cup final.
Torres took the Premier League by storm when arriving at Liverpool from Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2007 in a £26.5million deal as a 24-year-old. He went on to score 24 goals from 33 top-flight appearances in a spectacular debut 2007-08 campaign.
He had also become the first Liverpool player to score more than 20 league goals in a season since Robbie Fowler in 1995-96, and the season ended with him scoring the winner for Spain in the final of Euro 2008.
He hit 33 goals in all club competitions for the Reds to surpass the record set by Manchester United's Ruud van Nistelrooy and become the most prolific foreign debutant in English football.
It was form which led Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard to say in the December of 2007: "Fernando is getting a lot of praise at the moment and rightly so, because the way he has settled into English football has been amazing and the way he has played is frightening. It can be difficult for players from abroad to settle into English football but, at the moment, Fernando looks like he has been playing here for years."
Tellingly, though, that number of 33 appearances would be the highest total Torres would play in a single Premier League season for Liverpool. He had suffered from a groin problem in the October of 2007-08 and then a hamstring injury in the February but that was just a sign of things to come.
Hamstring injuries plagued Torres in the 2008-09 campaign. He experienced one in each month of August, October and November.
Torres said of those injuries in his 2009 book, 'El Nino, My Story': "It was a real hammer blow. The first time it happens you think it is normal and you keep going. The second time, you stop, you take more care and you start to ask yourself why it happened. The third time, you stop properly, you start to investigate the underlying causes and work as hard as you can to make sure it never happens again.
"That was even more important in my case, because it was my hamstring that was causing me problems - the muscle I live by, the one that gives you acceleration and speed."
Torres has always relied upon his ability to turn on the afterburners - knocking the ball past a defender followed by a burst of speed - above the accuracy of his shooting in order to create his goalscoring opportunities.
This is emphasised by his shooting statistics. The best of his first four seasons in England came in 2009-10 when he got 50.79 per cent of all his efforts on target. but that is still poor in comparison with the current likes of Romelu Lukaku, Sergio Aguero and the new darling of The Kop, Luis Suarez, who all boast shooting accuracy levels of more than 60%.
Torres' developing hamstring injuries were something of a surprise given he had suffered just one muscle injury in his previous six years at Atletico.
It created an argument that perhaps the changes in Torres' physique - the slight shifts in the ever-so-finely balanced physiology and metabolism of professional sportsmen combined with playing in the increased physical nature of the Premier League - meant his body was creaking as he grew into his mid-20s because of the very attributes which made him such a dangerous player. It was an eerily familiar story to former Liverpool striker Michael Owen.
Despite Torres' injury problems, Liverpool still enjoyed their best campaign in Premier League history in 2008-09, finishing second and just four points behind champions Manchester United.
But conflicting with many people's memories of that campaign, which included the Gerrard-Torres attacking partnership, this was achieved with their star striker experiencing his worst campaign of the three full seasons he spent at Anfield.
Torres scored a very respectable 14 Premier League goals from 24 appearances but his shooting accuracy was down at 43.06% and his shots-to-goals conversion rate (excluding blocked shots) was less than 20%.
In 2009-10, Torres suffered an abdominal strain which saw him miss more than a month between the November and December but, positively, he had seemingly overcome his hamstring problems.
This, though, seemed to be at a cost. He was to endure a recurring cartilage problem in his right knee which required two operations - firstly in the January and then again in the April.
Did the knee injury come as a result of trying to protect his hamstrings? The April operation ended Torres' season.
However, Torres was statistically still at his most lethal in front of goal for Liverpool in 2009-10. In just 22 Premier League appearances, he scored 18 goals.
He averaged a goal every 95.28 minutes, had a shooting accuracy of more than 50% and recorded his best shots-to-goals conversion rate of 28.57%.
But, and it is a big but, that excellent form came almost completely before the first knee operation in the January. After returning from that surgery, he scored just six Premier League goals in the remainder of 2009-10.
Torres also struggled after the second knee operation in the April. He recovered in time to go to the World Cup that summer but, surrounded by rumours of concern he had rushed back in order to be a part of Spain's squad for a World Cup in which they were strong favourites to win, he failed to score in seven appearances at the tournament.
To make matters worse, he suffered another groin injury in the final victory over Holland which required three weeks of rehabilitation.
Amid Torres' knee operations, Liverpool had also been having a bad time. They finished seventh in the league and made an early exit from the Champions League, resulting in the departure of manager Rafa Benitez at the end of the campaign.
This was all engulfed by the off-field ill-feeling from fans towards the club's American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, and a status in multi-million pounds' worth of debt. It led to snowballing speculation of Torres' discontent.
Having recovered from his World Cup final injury, Torres was fit for the start of the 2010-11 Premier League season, coming on as a 74th-minute substitute in the opener against Arsenal. He would go on to make 23 league appearances for Liverpool, of which 22 were starts.
However, he scored only nine times and looked a different player to before his knee injuries while also appearing too frustrated by Liverpool's on and off-field struggles.
It would prove to be his final campaign at Anfield. Fenway Sports Group completed their takeover of Liverpool in the October of 2010 and, although doomed Roy Hodgson would be replaced by Kenny Dalglish in the January of 2011,Torres still ultimately requested a transfer and made his record-breaking £50million move to Chelsea that same January.
Torres' forcing of the transfer caused outrage among millions of Liverpool fans who were appalled by a player who had always spoken of his commitment to the club and appreciation of their values.
With all that in mind, many of the Reds faithful felt betrayed when Torres left and directed the sort of fury in his direction which would damage the self-belief of any hardened soul, let alone one who was widely assumed to not have the greatest self-confidence.
Could this have also affected his form? Torres was, and is, a player who needs to be at peak mental fitness to be at his best. It is considered he needs to be loved.
Aged 27 when he joined Chelsea, Torres has infamously continued to struggle. He scored just once - against West Ham United in April - in the second half of that 2010-11 season.
Perhaps that level of scrutiny he found himself under as the Premier League's most expensive transfer combined with the fury from Liverpool fans had led to the yips?
Torres ended 2010-11 with his overall statistics, including both his time at Liverpool and Chelsea, at their lowest since he arrived in England. He made more Premier League appearances (37) than in any of the previous three seasons but he scored just 10 times, averaged a goal only every 265.8 minutes and his shots-to-goal conversion rate was at just 13.33%.
That dip in form has, of course, proven to be far from a blip, as a player who will turn 30 years old at the end of January 2014 has scored just 17 goals in 64 Premier League appearances for Chelsea. Last season, he scored 23 goals for Chelsea, but only eight of those came in the Premier League.
Interestingly, Torres' muscular injuries, although not completely a thing of the past, have become less frequent at Chelsea.
This could be due to a training programme which, to the eye at least, appears to have increased his muscle bulk. But this could also be due to him intentionally becoming less dynamic in his style of play, adopting a more static approach, in order to protect his muscles.
It could also be argued he has simply become less mobile since those knee operations in 2010, which in turn has led to the decrease in his goalscoring threat.
Torres has had his moments at Chelsea. In fact, that is somewhat of an understatement considering he has been a part of squads who have won the Champions League, FA Cup and Europa League.
At the same time, he and his team-mates have also had the challenge of having to adapt to the changing tactics of five different managers, including interim boss Benitez.
In the current season, there have been flashes of Jose Mourinho rediscovering the player of old, against Schalke in the Champions League and Manchester City in the Premier League in October.
And Torres did finish with the Golden Boot as top scorer at Euro 2012, again netting in the final as Spain defended their continental title with a 4-0 hammering of Italy.
But they have been anomalies and he is unquestionably not the same threat as the player who arrived in England in 2007.
All of Torres' injuries, particularly those in his hamstrings, have taken their toll, ebbing away at his natural attributes and self-confidence. But the manner in which he enjoyed his best season, statistically, in 2009-10 having overcome his hamstring-plagued 2008-09 suggests his muscular injuries have not been the main root of his downfall.
The argument that his loss of confidence after leaving Liverpool also has merit but his collapse in the first half of the 2010-11 season, before he left Anfield, would also suggest that is only a minor variable.
The true point at which Torres' goalscoring brilliance was shattered appears to clearly trace back to the double knee operation of 2010.
Knees are the second heart of any footballer - once they are gone, it is the beginning of the end. Torres had scored a phenomenal 50 Premier League goals in 72 games up to the first knee operation in January 2010 but since then, he has scored a pitiful 32 Premier League goals in 125 appearances.
Sadly for Torres, and for all those who watched in wonder at his once world class goalscoring vitality, force of nature and brilliance, the overall statistics tell the entire story.
As he approaches the wrong side of 30, there will be no way back to the golden days of his former self.
Peter Fraser believes Fernando Torres' fall from grace can be attributed to a knee operation the Chelsea striker underwent in 2010.
It is one of the greatest mysteries of football - whatever happened to Fernando Torres?
The Spaniard, a combination of pace and power, was one of the most feared strikers in the world during his pomp with Liverpool between 2007 and 2010 - custom made for the Premier League.
But now, at Chelsea, he is being deemed as simply "not good enough".
Those were the words of Sky Sports' Gary Neville, directed at all of Chelsea's strikers after last Monday's forgettable 0-0 draw at Arsenal ensured none of them have scored an away goal in the Premier League in 2013.
It is a remarkable statistic but one which epitomises Torres' loss of form over the past three-to-four years. It is a fall from grace which, ahead of Sunday's latest reunion with Liverpool, means he has yet to score against his former club in six previous attempts having not been involved in the 2012 FA Cup final.
Torres took the Premier League by storm when arriving at Liverpool from Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2007 in a £26.5million deal as a 24-year-old. He went on to score 24 goals from 33 top-flight appearances in a spectacular debut 2007-08 campaign.
He had also become the first Liverpool player to score more than 20 league goals in a season since Robbie Fowler in 1995-96, and the season ended with him scoring the winner for Spain in the final of Euro 2008.
He hit 33 goals in all club competitions for the Reds to surpass the record set by Manchester United's Ruud van Nistelrooy and become the most prolific foreign debutant in English football.
It was form which led Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard to say in the December of 2007: "Fernando is getting a lot of praise at the moment and rightly so, because the way he has settled into English football has been amazing and the way he has played is frightening. It can be difficult for players from abroad to settle into English football but, at the moment, Fernando looks like he has been playing here for years."
Tellingly, though, that number of 33 appearances would be the highest total Torres would play in a single Premier League season for Liverpool. He had suffered from a groin problem in the October of 2007-08 and then a hamstring injury in the February but that was just a sign of things to come.
Hamstring injuries plagued Torres in the 2008-09 campaign. He experienced one in each month of August, October and November.
Torres said of those injuries in his 2009 book, 'El Nino, My Story': "It was a real hammer blow. The first time it happens you think it is normal and you keep going. The second time, you stop, you take more care and you start to ask yourself why it happened. The third time, you stop properly, you start to investigate the underlying causes and work as hard as you can to make sure it never happens again.
"That was even more important in my case, because it was my hamstring that was causing me problems - the muscle I live by, the one that gives you acceleration and speed."
Torres has always relied upon his ability to turn on the afterburners - knocking the ball past a defender followed by a burst of speed - above the accuracy of his shooting in order to create his goalscoring opportunities.
This is emphasised by his shooting statistics. The best of his first four seasons in England came in 2009-10 when he got 50.79 per cent of all his efforts on target. but that is still poor in comparison with the current likes of Romelu Lukaku, Sergio Aguero and the new darling of The Kop, Luis Suarez, who all boast shooting accuracy levels of more than 60%.
Torres' developing hamstring injuries were something of a surprise given he had suffered just one muscle injury in his previous six years at Atletico.
It created an argument that perhaps the changes in Torres' physique - the slight shifts in the ever-so-finely balanced physiology and metabolism of professional sportsmen combined with playing in the increased physical nature of the Premier League - meant his body was creaking as he grew into his mid-20s because of the very attributes which made him such a dangerous player. It was an eerily familiar story to former Liverpool striker Michael Owen.
Despite Torres' injury problems, Liverpool still enjoyed their best campaign in Premier League history in 2008-09, finishing second and just four points behind champions Manchester United.
But conflicting with many people's memories of that campaign, which included the Gerrard-Torres attacking partnership, this was achieved with their star striker experiencing his worst campaign of the three full seasons he spent at Anfield.
Torres scored a very respectable 14 Premier League goals from 24 appearances but his shooting accuracy was down at 43.06% and his shots-to-goals conversion rate (excluding blocked shots) was less than 20%.
In 2009-10, Torres suffered an abdominal strain which saw him miss more than a month between the November and December but, positively, he had seemingly overcome his hamstring problems.
This, though, seemed to be at a cost. He was to endure a recurring cartilage problem in his right knee which required two operations - firstly in the January and then again in the April.
Did the knee injury come as a result of trying to protect his hamstrings? The April operation ended Torres' season.
However, Torres was statistically still at his most lethal in front of goal for Liverpool in 2009-10. In just 22 Premier League appearances, he scored 18 goals.
He averaged a goal every 95.28 minutes, had a shooting accuracy of more than 50% and recorded his best shots-to-goals conversion rate of 28.57%.
But, and it is a big but, that excellent form came almost completely before the first knee operation in the January. After returning from that surgery, he scored just six Premier League goals in the remainder of 2009-10.
Torres also struggled after the second knee operation in the April. He recovered in time to go to the World Cup that summer but, surrounded by rumours of concern he had rushed back in order to be a part of Spain's squad for a World Cup in which they were strong favourites to win, he failed to score in seven appearances at the tournament.
To make matters worse, he suffered another groin injury in the final victory over Holland which required three weeks of rehabilitation.
Amid Torres' knee operations, Liverpool had also been having a bad time. They finished seventh in the league and made an early exit from the Champions League, resulting in the departure of manager Rafa Benitez at the end of the campaign.
This was all engulfed by the off-field ill-feeling from fans towards the club's American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, and a status in multi-million pounds' worth of debt. It led to snowballing speculation of Torres' discontent.
Having recovered from his World Cup final injury, Torres was fit for the start of the 2010-11 Premier League season, coming on as a 74th-minute substitute in the opener against Arsenal. He would go on to make 23 league appearances for Liverpool, of which 22 were starts.
However, he scored only nine times and looked a different player to before his knee injuries while also appearing too frustrated by Liverpool's on and off-field struggles.
It would prove to be his final campaign at Anfield. Fenway Sports Group completed their takeover of Liverpool in the October of 2010 and, although doomed Roy Hodgson would be replaced by Kenny Dalglish in the January of 2011,Torres still ultimately requested a transfer and made his record-breaking £50million move to Chelsea that same January.
Torres' forcing of the transfer caused outrage among millions of Liverpool fans who were appalled by a player who had always spoken of his commitment to the club and appreciation of their values.
With all that in mind, many of the Reds faithful felt betrayed when Torres left and directed the sort of fury in his direction which would damage the self-belief of any hardened soul, let alone one who was widely assumed to not have the greatest self-confidence.
Could this have also affected his form? Torres was, and is, a player who needs to be at peak mental fitness to be at his best. It is considered he needs to be loved.
Aged 27 when he joined Chelsea, Torres has infamously continued to struggle. He scored just once - against West Ham United in April - in the second half of that 2010-11 season.
Perhaps that level of scrutiny he found himself under as the Premier League's most expensive transfer combined with the fury from Liverpool fans had led to the yips?
Torres ended 2010-11 with his overall statistics, including both his time at Liverpool and Chelsea, at their lowest since he arrived in England. He made more Premier League appearances (37) than in any of the previous three seasons but he scored just 10 times, averaged a goal only every 265.8 minutes and his shots-to-goal conversion rate was at just 13.33%.
That dip in form has, of course, proven to be far from a blip, as a player who will turn 30 years old at the end of January 2014 has scored just 17 goals in 64 Premier League appearances for Chelsea. Last season, he scored 23 goals for Chelsea, but only eight of those came in the Premier League.
Interestingly, Torres' muscular injuries, although not completely a thing of the past, have become less frequent at Chelsea.
This could be due to a training programme which, to the eye at least, appears to have increased his muscle bulk. But this could also be due to him intentionally becoming less dynamic in his style of play, adopting a more static approach, in order to protect his muscles.
It could also be argued he has simply become less mobile since those knee operations in 2010, which in turn has led to the decrease in his goalscoring threat.
Torres has had his moments at Chelsea. In fact, that is somewhat of an understatement considering he has been a part of squads who have won the Champions League, FA Cup and Europa League.
At the same time, he and his team-mates have also had the challenge of having to adapt to the changing tactics of five different managers, including interim boss Benitez.
In the current season, there have been flashes of Jose Mourinho rediscovering the player of old, against Schalke in the Champions League and Manchester City in the Premier League in October.
And Torres did finish with the Golden Boot as top scorer at Euro 2012, again netting in the final as Spain defended their continental title with a 4-0 hammering of Italy.
But they have been anomalies and he is unquestionably not the same threat as the player who arrived in England in 2007.
All of Torres' injuries, particularly those in his hamstrings, have taken their toll, ebbing away at his natural attributes and self-confidence. But the manner in which he enjoyed his best season, statistically, in 2009-10 having overcome his hamstring-plagued 2008-09 suggests his muscular injuries have not been the main root of his downfall.
The argument that his loss of confidence after leaving Liverpool also has merit but his collapse in the first half of the 2010-11 season, before he left Anfield, would also suggest that is only a minor variable.
The true point at which Torres' goalscoring brilliance was shattered appears to clearly trace back to the double knee operation of 2010.
Knees are the second heart of any footballer - once they are gone, it is the beginning of the end. Torres had scored a phenomenal 50 Premier League goals in 72 games up to the first knee operation in January 2010 but since then, he has scored a pitiful 32 Premier League goals in 125 appearances.
Sadly for Torres, and for all those who watched in wonder at his once world class goalscoring vitality, force of nature and brilliance, the overall statistics tell the entire story.
As he approaches the wrong side of 30, there will be no way back to the golden days of his former self.
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers is unfazed by a possible FA charge over his post-match comments at Manchester City on Boxing Day.
The Reds led at the Etihad through a Philippe Coutinho opener but by half-time, Vincent Kompany and Alvaro Negredo had struck to put Manuel Pellegrini's hosts on course for a 2-1 Premier League victory.
Liverpool were aggrieved early on when Raheem Sterling sprang the offside trap with yards to spare only to be flagged, and Rodgers was also irked by Joleon Lescott's late shirt-tug on Luis Suarez going unpunished.
In the wake of a defeat that left Liverpool fourth, Rodgers questioned the wisdom of assigning Manchester-based Lee Mason to the fixture and called the officiating performance 'horrendous.'
But when asked whether a pending FA charge was of concern, Rodgers said: "I was only speaking open and honestly, after the game. I think the FA and the referees' association know that I'm someone that engages in supporting the referees.
"I'm not one that is berating referees after games, I'm always respectful and I ask my staff to be respectful, on the pitch we're never chasing fourth officials or anything on a match day. I've had a number of referees in here to help and support what they do.
"I think they know that when I come out and make a statement like I did yesterday, it was obviously emotional after the game of course, but it was something that I will speak honestly on. As I said, whatever action they will take, they will decide.
"I have to speak on behalf of the supporters of the club, a club that has an emotional investment for many many of millions of people throughout the world. As the manager I represent them, and I'm sure where they were throughout the world yesterday they would have been asking the questions on the decision-making, which I repeat I didn't think was so good, after the game.
"In terms of geography, it wasn't the case at all, I certainly wasn't questioning the integrity of the referees. As I said before, I fully understand the job, it was more the logic of it, in terms of having a referee from that particular part of the world refereeing a game in Manchester, I wouldn't suspect that Mike Dean from the Wirral has refereed many games for Liverpool over the years."
The FA's rule E3 (1) outlaws "comments about match officials which imply bias, attacke the officials' integrity or which are personally offensive in nature."
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers is unfazed by a possible FA charge over his post-match comments at Manchester City on Boxing Day.
The Reds led at the Etihad through a Philippe Coutinho opener but by half-time, Vincent Kompany and Alvaro Negredo had struck to put Manuel Pellegrini's hosts on course for a 2-1 Premier League victory.
Liverpool were aggrieved early on when Raheem Sterling sprang the offside trap with yards to spare only to be flagged, and Rodgers was also irked by Joleon Lescott's late shirt-tug on Luis Suarez going unpunished.
In the wake of a defeat that left Liverpool fourth, Rodgers questioned the wisdom of assigning Manchester-based Lee Mason to the fixture and called the officiating performance 'horrendous.'
But when asked whether a pending FA charge was of concern, Rodgers said: "I was only speaking open and honestly, after the game. I think the FA and the referees' association know that I'm someone that engages in supporting the referees.
"I'm not one that is berating referees after games, I'm always respectful and I ask my staff to be respectful, on the pitch we're never chasing fourth officials or anything on a match day. I've had a number of referees in here to help and support what they do.
"I think they know that when I come out and make a statement like I did yesterday, it was obviously emotional after the game of course, but it was something that I will speak honestly on. As I said, whatever action they will take, they will decide.
"I have to speak on behalf of the supporters of the club, a club that has an emotional investment for many many of millions of people throughout the world. As the manager I represent them, and I'm sure where they were throughout the world yesterday they would have been asking the questions on the decision-making, which I repeat I didn't think was so good, after the game.
"In terms of geography, it wasn't the case at all, I certainly wasn't questioning the integrity of the referees. As I said before, I fully understand the job, it was more the logic of it, in terms of having a referee from that particular part of the world refereeing a game in Manchester, I wouldn't suspect that Mike Dean from the Wirral has refereed many games for Liverpool over the years."
The FA's rule E3 (1) outlaws "comments about match officials which imply bias, attacke the officials' integrity or which are personally offensive in nature."
Brendan Rodgers has defended his criticism of the officiating in Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat at Manchester City on Thursday, whilst former Premier League referee claimed his comments “smacked of sour grapes”.
Rodgers was frustrated at a number of incidents missed by referee Lee Mason and his team of officials, including a very bad offside decision against Raheem Sterling, and number of possible penalty claims.
The Northern Irishman questioned the Football Association’s decision to appoint Mason, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, to referee a game involving a Manchester team.
Poll, writing in his column in the Daily Mail , said, “For Brendan Rodgers to bemoan a referee from Bolton officiating a Manchester team smacks of sour grapes and should result in an FA charge.
“I thought that Rodgers was a more considered manager than that, but perhaps a whiff of recent success has affected his attitude.”
Speaking in his press conference at Melwood today ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Chelsea this Sunday, Rodgers stood by his comments over Mason and his appointment.
The Reds boss could face charges by the FA, but Rodgers maintained he had complete respect for the men in black.
“I think it [the FA investigation into his comments] is something that happens. I was only speaking honestly at the end of the game,” Rodgers is quoted by the Daily Mail as saying.
“Obviously I was emotional, but the FA and the referees know I fully support them. I ask my staff to be respectful, so we don’t chase officials down the line.
“So they know that when I make a statement like that, I was speaking honestly. I think it was continuous through the game.
“I have to speak on behalf of supporters. These supporters have an emotional investment.”
Rodgers also sought to clarify his comments regarding the choice to appoint a referee from Greater Manchester in a match involving Manchester City.
He added, “In terms of geography, I wasn’t questioning anyone’s integrity. I was questioning the logic.
“How many [Liverpool] games has Mike Dean from The Wirral refereed?
“My team was brilliant, confident and consistent in their attitude. We had no support.
“We will reflect on the performance and move on. If you look at my record I have never had any indiscretions. I don’t play games.
“’I’m sure that is something I will look at. I fight my corner but I always have respect.”
Liverpool now travel down to Chelsea for their final game of 2013 on Sunday afternoon.
Brendan Rodgers has defended his criticism of the officiating in Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat at Manchester City on Thursday, whilst former Premier League referee claimed his comments “smacked of sour grapes”.
Rodgers was frustrated at a number of incidents missed by referee Lee Mason and his team of officials, including a very bad offside decision against Raheem Sterling, and number of possible penalty claims.
The Northern Irishman questioned the Football Association’s decision to appoint Mason, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, to referee a game involving a Manchester team.
Poll, writing in his column in the Daily Mail , said, “For Brendan Rodgers to bemoan a referee from Bolton officiating a Manchester team smacks of sour grapes and should result in an FA charge.
“I thought that Rodgers was a more considered manager than that, but perhaps a whiff of recent success has affected his attitude.”
Speaking in his press conference at Melwood today ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Chelsea this Sunday, Rodgers stood by his comments over Mason and his appointment.
The Reds boss could face charges by the FA, but Rodgers maintained he had complete respect for the men in black.
“I think it [the FA investigation into his comments] is something that happens. I was only speaking honestly at the end of the game,” Rodgers is quoted by the Daily Mail as saying.
“Obviously I was emotional, but the FA and the referees know I fully support them. I ask my staff to be respectful, so we don’t chase officials down the line.
“So they know that when I make a statement like that, I was speaking honestly. I think it was continuous through the game.
“I have to speak on behalf of supporters. These supporters have an emotional investment.”
Rodgers also sought to clarify his comments regarding the choice to appoint a referee from Greater Manchester in a match involving Manchester City.
He added, “In terms of geography, I wasn’t questioning anyone’s integrity. I was questioning the logic.
“How many [Liverpool] games has Mike Dean from The Wirral refereed?
“My team was brilliant, confident and consistent in their attitude. We had no support.
“We will reflect on the performance and move on. If you look at my record I have never had any indiscretions. I don’t play games.
“’I’m sure that is something I will look at. I fight my corner but I always have respect.”
Liverpool now travel down to Chelsea for their final game of 2013 on Sunday afternoon.
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