Benitez grateful for unstoppable Torres
The Spaniard is running out of superlatives for Fernando Torres but he scraped together a few more to mark ‘El Nino’ breaking Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s record for Premier League goals scored by an overseas player in their first season in England yesterday.
The Spain international, who cost Liverpool £21.5million from Atletico Madrid last summer, beat Tottenham’s Radek Cerny in the 74th minute for his 24th league goal – and his 33rd in all competitions – to cap a remarkable debut season.
Andriy Voronin opened the scoring for Liverpool in the 69th minute as Spurs, who will have to vastly improve on this to break into the top four, slumped to another defeat.
Liverpool currently occupy that position and Tottenham will need substantial investment to overhaul them.
They have notched an impressive 119 goals in all competitions this season, largely thanks to the Spanish matador.
“We did not win silverware but you can talk about 119 goals we scored and the goalkeeper has won the Golden Gloves award for the third time in a row,” Benitez said.
“Torres was terrific at scoring and 76 points is a good total for us. There are a lot of positive things from this season, but the most important thing is we did not win a trophy.
“When you sign a player you do not know if he will settle down or how he will do in the Premier League, but Torres is a young player who is hungry and wanted to do well.
“We had spoken about the record before the game and after the last match he said he wanted to play in this one and score here.
“Sometimes you can sign a player for free and he can turn out to be a bad signing, but he has been the best for us.”
There was no place in the Liverpool squad for the England forward, Peter Crouch or the left-back, John Arne Riise, indicating they could both be leaving Anfield this summer.
Tottenham head coach Juande Ramos, meanwhile, opted for Radek Cerny in goal, despite the fact he will definitely be leaving Spurs after failing to win a new contract.
Cerny was soon justifying his inclusion in the starting XI when he saved from Voronin after Steve Gerrard’s quick free-kick.
Tottenham also had chances. Dimitar Berbatov, who could also be parting from Spurs following speculation about his future, produced a neat back-heel which almost let in Robbie Keane.
But the clear-cut chances soon dried up and the game lumbered from one end to the other with the odd poor-pass thrown in to make it even less of a spectacle.
After the restart, Spurs had Cerny to thank for keeping them on level terms when he saved form Torres and then Voronin.
But Liverpool eventually made the breakthrough when Arbeloa’s cross was flicked on by Torres, who found Voronin who kept his composure to slot the ball past Cerny.
Any hopes Tottenham had of a draw were dashed when Torres doubled Liverpool’s advantage with a low shot.
Things could have been worse for Spurs when Alan Hutton almost headed into his own net, but Cerny made another excellent stop.
Tottenham were below par and Ramos claimed his side were still suffering from their Carling Cup hangover.
He added: “I think we maybe suffered after the Carling Cup success, maybe we achieved our target too soon.”
Cerny 8, Hutton 6, Dawson 6 (Bent 75, 6), Woodgate 6, Gilberto 5, Jenas 5, (Huddlestone 46, 6), Zokora 5, O’Hara 5 (Tainio 46, 5), Malbranque 6, Keane 5, Berbatov 6.
Robinson, Chimbonda.
Reina 6, Arbeloa 6, Skrtel 5, Carragher 7, Insua 6, Kuyt 6, (Lucas 81, 6), Gerrard 8, Mascherano 6, Babel 5, (Benayoun 59, 6), Voronin 6, (Finnan 71, 6), Torres 7.
Itandje, Hyypia.
Uriah Rennie (Yorkshire) 4: Somewhat whistle-happy, blowing up for any infringement and stopping the game from flowing. He was fair with his decisions but his persistent stoppages grew tiresome.
** This game should have had the lot given the talent in both squads. Sadly, it failed to materialise and became largely forgettable.
