Terrific Torres strikes terror into Bolton

SO Liverpool's American owners aren't too sure whether to trust Rafael Benitez with their money.

Perhaps the thrifty Tom Hicks and George Gillett just do not believe that Benitez can spend it wisely.

The recent war of words between Benitez and Hicks that threatened to end the Spanish manager's reign at Anfield is now on something of a ceasefire following soothing statements from both parties, but the issue has yet to be resolved and there may yet be blood on the boardroom carpet before the end-game plays out.

However, if either Hicks or Gillett had been bothered to jet across the Atlantic to witness Fernando Torres destroy Bolton with his pace, power and rabid eye for goal, they would probably have given Benitez the key to the club safe without another murmur.

Value for money? €30million was spent on Torres in the summer. It was a club record buy, a major statement of intent, and Benitez's first dabble in the big league. Seventeen games on, Torres has struck 11 goals and if anybody is going to inspire Liverpool to the league title this season, put your money on Torres being the man.

Benitez said: “When you have a striker who can score 20 goals a season, it can sometimes make it easy for the defenders not to score. But when you have a 20-goal striker like Torres, you need other players to score 15 goals and I think we have that.”

Typical understatement from Benitez, but Liverpool finally look like challenging for the big prize having moved into third spot with this win against Bolton and the Anfield manager admits that he expects a real challenge for domestic glory in the second half of the season.

“In the last three years, we have been too far away from the leaders at this time of the season, yet we are now closer and we have a better squad, so I have confidence.

“Let us wait until we get to the end of January, though, before we see what the situation is then. We have confidence and we will keep going and hope that the other teams make mistakes.”

Credit must go to Benitez for having the courage to take on a belligerent Bolton with the likes of Yossi Benayoun, Harry Kewell and Fernando Torres in his starting XI. The combined tackle count from those three would probably struggle to reach double figures during 90 minutes, but where they lack muscle, they possess skill in abundance and Bolton had no response.

Kewell and Benayoun combined as early as the fifth minute to tee up Crouch for the first chance of the game, but the England forward's effort from six yards was hacked off the line by Lubomir Michalik.

The easy manner in which Liverpool carved open the Bolton back-four was merely a sign of things to come, though, and Sami Hyypia's opener on 17 minutes was overdue considering the home side's dominance.

Poor defending by Abdoulaye Meite allowed Hyypia to break free and guide Steven Gerrard's free-kick past goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen from 12 yards for his second goal of the season.

It was one-way traffic and Bolton simply could not escape their own half as Kewell and then Torres both went close to doubling Liverpool's lead before Nicolas Anelka produced one of the worst misses of the season to deny Bolton an undeserved equaliser.

Anelka, a January target for Manchester United, has earned a justified reputation as one of the best finishers in Europe during his nomadic career, so he will not reflect fondly on his 38th minute howler. A collision on the edge of the penalty area between Jose Reina and Jamie Carragher left Anelka unmarked and with an open goal gaping from 12 yards.

But instead of rolling the ball into the back of the net, he somehow chipped it into the side-netting. There was no need to be so extravagant when a simple roll of the ball would have done.

Mistakes are often punished in the Premier League and so it was when Torres embarrassed Anelka on the stroke of half-time with a sublime finish to make it 2-0.

Gerrard's pass was exceptional, but Torres still had work to do when he took it on 30 yards out. Inside the right channel, however, the Spaniard escaped Michalik before guiding the ball into the near corner of the net.

Bolton were not going to come back from that. In mitigation, they were without the suspended Kevin Nolan, the injured Andy O'Brien and ineligible Danny Guthrie, but they were still way off the pace.

And although Liverpool added two more goals in the second-half, from a Gerrard penalty and Ryan Babel's late tap-in, it could have been worse for Bolton. Much worse.

Megson said: “I told the players before this game that we had to make sure that we use that performance against United as the benchmark for the rest of the season.

It set a standard in terms of the way we should go about games, but we didn't match that. It’s disappointing, but we’ll bounce back.”

LIVERPOOL (4-4-2): Reina 6, Arbeloa 6, Carragher 6 (Hobbs 51, 6), Hyypia 7, Riise 7; Benayoun 7, Lucas 7, Gerrard 8, Kewell 7 (Babel 67, 7), Crouch 7, Torres 9 (Kuyt 77, 6).

Subs Not Used: Itandje, Mascherano.

BOLTON (4-1-4-1): Jaaskelainen 5, Samuel 5, Meite 4, Michalik 4, Gardner 6; Campo 6, Davies 5, McCann 5, Speed 5, Diouf 5 (Stelios 66, 5), Anelka 5.

Subs Not Used: Al Habsi, Wilhelmsson, Andranik, Alonso.

REFEREE: Steve Bennett (Kent) 6: Not as fussy as he can be, but he should have shown a red card rather than a yellow to El-Hadji Diouf following a shocking studs-up challenge on Arbeloa's shin in the first-half.

MATCH RATING: **** It usually takes two teams to make for an entertaining game, but Liverpool did it all by themselves. They dominated from start to finish and both Gerrard and Torres were out of this world.