Fernando Torres: The best finisher on the globe?

Tagged with: Fernando Torres Rafa Benitez

I was rather hoping that this would be yet another season in which we could gleefully wallow in the many weaknesses of Liverpool.

But whilst the club has had a torrid time off the pitch and continues to idle in the Premier League, they somehow keep pulling off big wins in the Champions League. After a slow start in this year’s competition, they have just completed back-to-back victories when it most matters.

For all Rafa’s contentious decision-making, he does seem to have a great understanding of how to match and beat some of the finest teams in Europe.

Perhaps the overall lack of quality in the squad will tell in the latter stages but one player who will doubtless end the season with his reputation enhanced is Fernando Torres. After successive Anfield hat-tricks, he scored the winning goal in the away tie at Inter Milan on Tuesday evening.

If his scoring tally of 26 is impressive, the manner in which he has scored these goals is breathtaking.

Torres had long been linked with some of the biggest names in club football, but when he finally became available last summer, few were willing to take the plunge at £27m. Some pundits have said that this was perhaps due to his modest scoring exploits in Spain.

Although he was a regular scorer, he was thought by some to need lots of chances to score relatively few goals. I for one never doubted the quality of the player and was surprised that Liverpool were the only overt bidders for his signature. A mere glance at Torres in the 2006 World Cup told you all you needed to know about his potential suitability to the English game. But I never expected him to become quite such a good finisher.

You seldom see Torres with easy opportunities in front of goal, but it is even more rare to see him miss the target from anything less than 20 yards. His finish against Inter on Tuesday was quite superb. The defender gave him what he thought to be a safe amount of space, but Torres simply turned and struck in one movement. It was a half-chance to most strikers but a gilt-edged opportunity for someone in Torres’ form.

As the season has progressed, Liverpool have often stumbled, but the Spaniard has constantly impressed with his speed, strength, balance and composure in front of the posts. With each passing week his shooting accuracy (with both feet) has improved to a now deadly level. You have to wonder how many goals, even the very best of the rest in the Premier League, would score in a Liverpool side which hasn’t otherwise noticeably improved for the last three years.

Would Rooney score 26 goals in this Liverpool side? Drogba? Adebayor? I’m not sure they would get near Torres’ total because whilst all three are great forwards, they all receive better service at their respective clubs than they could realistically expect to receive at Anfield.

Torres’ record is even more impressive when you consider that this is his first season in England.

Can any of the continent’s other top strikers claim to be as good an out-and-out finisher as Torres?

He makes so many chances for himself and feeds off scraps at other times. He is quite simply frightening in front of goal. Conversely, let us consider for a moment how many goals Torres might score at any of the other top four clubs in England. Long-term admirer Sir Alex Ferguson must surely feel he has missed a trick, whilst Arsene Wenger must drool at the way in which Torres moves, his consummate composure and clinical use of the ball. So is there really a better finisher in world football than Fernando Torres?

Ruud Van Nistelrooy must still be up there, but he is not the man he once was and lacks the pace to continue at the top beyond next season. Dimitar Berbatov shows regular glimpses of world-class but surely isn’t quite as deadly in front of goal.

Ibrahimovic lacks the power/precison combo to be put in the same bracket. Cristiano Ronaldo has scored even more goals than Torres but still couldn’t claim to have scored from quite as many shots to nothing as the Spaniard.

Rooney is just as crucial to United as Torres to Liverpool, but the Scouser needs more chances than his counterpart. Anelka shone at Bolton but hasn’t scored many at Chelsea. David Villa. Definitely not. Henry? Still a great player but no longer as prolific.

The list goes on and has only touched upon the wealth of talent in the Spanish and Italian leagues, but while each of the players mentioned have a healthy complement of qualities, can any of them claim to be as good an out-and-out finisher as Torres?

Even a club of Liverpool’s size might struggle to keep Torres in the summer because he is just about as good as strikers get, and at 23, there is surely much more to come from the ice-cool boy from Madrid.

Can Liverpool hold on to Torres?
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