Taming Torres; Liverpool’s chance

Reds fans do take these kinds of things a lot more personally than any others in England though, and even if this was not quite the blasphemous move to Manchester United or Everton, Torres did really hurt them by jumping ship and seeming to insinuate that he had gone to a bigger club.

Eighty one goals, most of them spectacular match winners, had seen them take the Spaniard to their hearts during a period in which his loyalty appeared to transcend all belief in light of the club’s overall fortunes.

Long before the fire started by the burning of his No 9 shirts dies out on Merseyside however, Liverpool fans have got to accept the reality that players, managers and even owners move on these days; only the fans and the club stay behind, and we have got to live with it.

With the retirement of Gary Neville this week, bitter rivals Manchester United are resigned to the fact that similar announcements from Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes will signal the end of the one-club-man era, and Liverpool are destined for a similar fate the day Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher draw the curtains.

In the Torres case, the only consolation plausible this early is to deny the ‘hitman for hire’ a victory which he claims is his by right.
El Nino is lucky that Carragher is still out injured, or it would have been raining tackles and not goals tomorrow. It is not beyond the veteran defender to seek vengeance on behalf of the fans, in fact he would have relished the opportunity.

The Liverpool backline has done well in Carragher’s absence, but they will do even better to not obsess about Torres at the expense of leaving Chelsea’s other potent threats unattended to. At the end of the day, it will better to concede a Torres goal and get a result than shut the Spaniard out and suffer a humiliating defeat from a Drogba hat-trick or multiple strikes from any one of Nicholas Anelka, Frank Lampard, Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou.

Kenny Dalglish seemed to have Chelsea in mind when he once again tinkered with his defence to bring Sotirios Kyrgiakos into the centre and push Daniel Agger out wide to left back against Stoke on Wednesday night, thus ensuring plenty of height and heading ability in the same way Rafa Benitez used to send Carragher to right back and against Jose Mourinho back in the day.
For size and brute strength, Stoke and Chelsea have similarities; but with Kenywn Jones not fielded at all and throw-in specialist Rory Delap not introduced until late, Tony Pulis did not provide the Liverpool backline with as much practice as they would have liked, what with the tiring legs of old war horse John Carew providing the only challenge.

With Torres and Drogba linking up the aerial strength and overall physicality of Chelsea is doubled, but Liverpool defence will have to pay equal attention to both men and watch the Blues struggle with compatibility issues.

It is not entirely true that Drogba and Torres cannot play together because they are too similar, players of that quality and stature find it relatively easy to adapt.

For Carlo Ancelotti however, there are will be many other adjustments to make besides paring those two, and the oft times tactically rigid Italian is going to have to show some suppleness this time.

Anelka is the soft target and should drop to the bench despite a goal in each of the last three victories, but the midfield diamond will have to assume another shape too; having Mikel-Essien-Lampard-Malouda means leaving Ramires out and yet the industrious Brazilian has been their best in the department recently, and were Ancelotti to retain Anelka (he loves him so) on the right, Mikel would drop out too and Chelsea would be dominated.

The alternative would be to keep Anelka in his role, keep the diamond in place and have Torres wait on the bench, but that would be an anti-climax wouldn’t it?

Poulsen, Gerrard
On the other hand, Dalglish has shown more flexibility and a willingness to experiment in just a few games, and will have to do so yet again.
It is all credit to the Scottish manager that he has had more faith in Christian Poulsen than the man who signed him, but having dropped the Danish midfielder for the Stoke game I believe he should restore him tomorrow.

In recent times I have consciously refused to let English fans and their media decide for me how good a player is, especially the foreign imports that I have seen for much longer, and having caught several games involving Poulsen in Germany, Spain and Italy over the years, I cannot accept that he is a bad player. If the Dane came in alongside Lucas Leiva, they would release Gerrard to roam from right to left to second striker behind lead man Dirk Kuyt, with the Liverpool captain constantly switching roles with Raul Mereiles and even Glen Johnson, who should start on the right.

The mobility will help rattle Chelsea and also ensure that Gerrard doesn’t play deep and sit in midfield where he has never been effective against the Blues or any of the other big boys. Gerrard and Mereiles are so forward thinking that Poulsen would help Lucas plug the holes left behind, and I would pick the Dane ahead of Fabio Aurelio for whom two games in a week are a tough ask.

Kuyt should lead the line because Luis Suarez is not ready to start yet, unless of course Andy Carroll is miraculously declared fit, which wasn’t the case by the time I penned this; Kuyt, Gerrard and Mereiles are always on the move, and would be a nightmare for John Terry and Ivanovic if let loose on the Chelsea pair. A motivated Torres would still be a much bigger worry on the other side though, and Liverpool have their work cut out denting destiny.

The Wolves-Man United and Newcastle-Arsenal games have a bigger impact on the title race as it is now, but Chelsea still habour hopes of retaining the trophy.

Liverpool would loathe seeing United win a record 19th gong, but Torres gives them a reason to not want Chelsea to be champions either; and here is an opportunity to do something about it.

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