WHEN the opposing supporters are sporting your name and number on their shirts and they’re as disappointed as their rival fans at your absence, you know you’ve made it.
And the fact that Fernando Torres failed to make last night’s reunion with his former employers was as big a blow to expectation and anticipation as the failure of Diego Maradona to grace Anfield with his presence.
Torres is indeed a big miss. For both the travelling hordes who idolised him for so many years and those who have inherited that hero-worship.
The key difference is, Liverpool’s anguish over his absence goes way beyond last night. The reason Liverpool were so keen to get qualification sewn up was so they could keep key players fresh for resuming their title challenge.
In fact, the only reason there was so much at stake last night was because a lack of a clinical and ruthless finisher cost them victory in Madrid two weeks ago.
It also cost them their unbeaten league record at the weekend, when for most of the game they made Spurs look like the bottom-of-the-table side they are and inexplicably failed to cast them further adrift.
With Torres around, it’s safe to say that wouldn’t have happened – and they might not have had to rely on an injury-time penalty to rescue a point last night either.
When the 24-year-old limped out of Spain’s game with Belgium last month, his club wasn’t just losing its star striker but a star striker bang in form.
His hot streak – that had yielded four goals from his last two Premier League – was frustratingly suspended in mid-air. The fact Liverpool’s ambitions haven’t yet suffered a similar fate since is testament to the players Benitez has at his disposal. They are still well placed in the league and should still sail through to the knockout stages if the evidence of earlier meetings with Marseille and PSV Eindhoven is anything to go by.
But this can’t go on for much longer, even if Liverpool’s run of games over the next month looks more like a Christmas list than a fixture list.
Last night’s struggles to break Atletico down weren’t confined to having nobody in the six-yard area to tap into an open goal. It was the lack of someone with the ability to make something happen out of nothing when it’s all as flat as a dud firework.
The early stages of last night’s encounter were just that, with the visitors diligently sticking to their defensive duties, sitting back and waiting for the counter-attacks to present themselves.
It worked to perfection when right-back Antonio Lopez’s sublime control led to Maxi Rodriguez’s opening goal and in terms of the tactical pattern of the game that only made Liverpool’s task of breaking their opponents down even harder.
Robbie Keane, as he did in the first game, perhaps best summed up the cutting edge missing in the absence of Torres when he found himself clean through on goalkeeper Franco but, as he did a fortnight ago, opted for the over-elaborate when just a straightforward blast at goal would have done.
The chronic lack of invention was such that many in the Kop must have wished they were cheering Luis Garcia’s touchline warm-up in anticipation of him entering the fray in a red shirt rather than a blue one.
His impact on European nights has clearly not been forgotten and it could certainly have come in useful on this particular one.
But it’s Torres’s return that is really longed for, which is little wonder given that Daniel Agger looked the most likely outlet for an equaliser for much of the second half.
His comeback is now more than a week overdue based on the original prognosis but it is worth remembering there have been times during his spell on the sidelines when the message from his team-mates has appeared to be: “Take your time, there’s no rush.”
Dirk Kuyt filled the void admirably with his double strike Wigan, while the whole team did likewise with their compelling performance at Stamford Bridge.
But the Dutchman can’t be expected to sustain the kind of strike rate that Torres has delivered since bursting on to the English football scene and it’s clear Benitez’s squad can’t sustain a successful campaign while he’s spending games closer to his girlfriend than his fellow strikers.
Although one of the biggest problems now is that there aren’t too many of them about. David Ngog is one for the future rather than the current unforgiving deep end of a vital Champions League game.
In the final analysis of it, defeat may have been avoided. But nobody can swerve the fact that the extra rehabilitation time that has denied Torres a reunion with his old pals had better start coming to fruition.
Because right now a reunion with his current team-mates is far more urgent.
And the fact that Fernando Torres failed to make last night’s reunion with his former employers was as big a blow to expectation and anticipation as the failure of Diego Maradona to grace Anfield with his presence.
Torres is indeed a big miss. For both the travelling hordes who idolised him for so many years and those who have inherited that hero-worship.
The key difference is, Liverpool’s anguish over his absence goes way beyond last night. The reason Liverpool were so keen to get qualification sewn up was so they could keep key players fresh for resuming their title challenge.
In fact, the only reason there was so much at stake last night was because a lack of a clinical and ruthless finisher cost them victory in Madrid two weeks ago.
It also cost them their unbeaten league record at the weekend, when for most of the game they made Spurs look like the bottom-of-the-table side they are and inexplicably failed to cast them further adrift.
With Torres around, it’s safe to say that wouldn’t have happened – and they might not have had to rely on an injury-time penalty to rescue a point last night either.
When the 24-year-old limped out of Spain’s game with Belgium last month, his club wasn’t just losing its star striker but a star striker bang in form.
His hot streak – that had yielded four goals from his last two Premier League – was frustratingly suspended in mid-air. The fact Liverpool’s ambitions haven’t yet suffered a similar fate since is testament to the players Benitez has at his disposal. They are still well placed in the league and should still sail through to the knockout stages if the evidence of earlier meetings with Marseille and PSV Eindhoven is anything to go by.
But this can’t go on for much longer, even if Liverpool’s run of games over the next month looks more like a Christmas list than a fixture list.
Last night’s struggles to break Atletico down weren’t confined to having nobody in the six-yard area to tap into an open goal. It was the lack of someone with the ability to make something happen out of nothing when it’s all as flat as a dud firework.
The early stages of last night’s encounter were just that, with the visitors diligently sticking to their defensive duties, sitting back and waiting for the counter-attacks to present themselves.
It worked to perfection when right-back Antonio Lopez’s sublime control led to Maxi Rodriguez’s opening goal and in terms of the tactical pattern of the game that only made Liverpool’s task of breaking their opponents down even harder.
Robbie Keane, as he did in the first game, perhaps best summed up the cutting edge missing in the absence of Torres when he found himself clean through on goalkeeper Franco but, as he did a fortnight ago, opted for the over-elaborate when just a straightforward blast at goal would have done.
The chronic lack of invention was such that many in the Kop must have wished they were cheering Luis Garcia’s touchline warm-up in anticipation of him entering the fray in a red shirt rather than a blue one.
His impact on European nights has clearly not been forgotten and it could certainly have come in useful on this particular one.
But it’s Torres’s return that is really longed for, which is little wonder given that Daniel Agger looked the most likely outlet for an equaliser for much of the second half.
His comeback is now more than a week overdue based on the original prognosis but it is worth remembering there have been times during his spell on the sidelines when the message from his team-mates has appeared to be: “Take your time, there’s no rush.”
Dirk Kuyt filled the void admirably with his double strike Wigan, while the whole team did likewise with their compelling performance at Stamford Bridge.
But the Dutchman can’t be expected to sustain the kind of strike rate that Torres has delivered since bursting on to the English football scene and it’s clear Benitez’s squad can’t sustain a successful campaign while he’s spending games closer to his girlfriend than his fellow strikers.
Although one of the biggest problems now is that there aren’t too many of them about. David Ngog is one for the future rather than the current unforgiving deep end of a vital Champions League game.
In the final analysis of it, defeat may have been avoided. But nobody can swerve the fact that the extra rehabilitation time that has denied Torres a reunion with his old pals had better start coming to fruition.
Because right now a reunion with his current team-mates is far more urgent.
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