PHOTO CREDIT: Daily Mail
PK’s Premiership/PATRICK KINMARTIN
There is not one of those “if you had to choose one…” mandates for Liverpool between Steven Gerrard or Fernando Torres.
But applying that test to the team’s intentions would bring quite the explicit look into the changing identity of the organization. The general opinion lately (though not the official word from within the franchise) has been that Gerrard’s coat of arms needs some retrofitting. Meanwhile, Torres is the face that comes to mind with the hint that the Reds might finally be worthy of breaching Chelsea-Manchester United’s territory.
This is the hearsay at the moment — and it is taking a siesta while Torres sits out slightly injured and Gerrard is being credited with contributing heavily to the Reds’ adorable 1-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Look out for the divisive idea to return since Torres’ penchant for heroism isn’t bound to disappear overnight. Plus, Gerrard is prone to get caught eating the wrong flavor of ice cream by the local press, which seems like a plausible enough excuse to dismiss him as old news these days.
The easiest case for taking Torres over Gerrard lies in the current status of both careers. Gerrard is closing in on 400 appearances in his 12th season with Liverpool. Such a background exercises feelings that the man has given his best performances to the club by now.
Yet it was only last season the Reds’ captain notched career individual league highs with 11 goals and 11 assists. That total came in a mere 32 starts, 34 appearances overall. And he’s still an endurance machine. Despite the all-out active central midfield role he serves for Liverpool and the near-ridiculous demands of the club’s yearly scheduling commitments, he has still managed to play at least 80 minutes in 87 percent of his league starts the past two seasons.
Gerrard is 28 years old and still performing better consistently with a cleaner bill of health at the same work rate as Owen Hargreaves and Joe Cole, younger midfield peers on the national team.
To what extent Gerrard’s play actually impacts Liverpool’s cause is really where his value shows a tendency to plummet. Over the past four seasons, as his career has elevated into its climax years, the Reds have lost just five times among the 30 league matches Gerrard hasn’t appeared in. Additionally, more than half (16) are wins.
As dynamic and forceful as his pace can be, reality will show that it comes from a location where that style isn’t in high demand. In a sense, Gerrard’s talent overachieves at the spot the same a way a speedy wide receiver can flourish brightly in the quarterback role that is designed to thrive off a limited amount of full-on glare.
Replace Gerrard in the equation with someone unspectacular but also solid and there is still a very fair chance for similar success. For that, Gerrard often gets sniped on critically unless he unleashes something overwhelming for opponents to deal with and it’s utterly commendable he has delivered a sizable amount of those efforts throughout his time in the league.
But it is Torres who has the pedigree to help a squad get rich quick in the match context, and for that matter also over the long term. The juice that the 24-year-old Spanish rocket is able to give at the striker spot maxes out his talents and gives the competition instant headaches.
Altogether, he represents the potion the Liverpool faithful yearned for in the opening years of Rafa Benitez’s tenure. There was no relentlessly fruitful source for goals, specifically at the forward spot.
During the 2004-2005 Champions League title campaign, it was Gerrard and winger Luis Garcia scoring at the highest rate while propping up an offense with contributions not befitting of where they operated on the field. Djibril Cisse had that Torres quality playing up front and simply fizzled countless times out en route to putting in a mere four goals in 16 league appearances.
Benitez had little choice but to go out and experiment with the hippest 6-foot-7 novelty at the time, Peter Crouch, to kickstart some offensive swagger. None was reached and only Gerrard reached double digits in scoring by punching out a mellow 10-goal total.
The solution from there was acquiring Dirk Kuyt from Ajax and some progress was made when the Dutch dynamo recorded 12 goals in 27 matches. Understand, however, Kuyt was said to have the same international mojo contained in Torres and the big-money acquisition couldn’t prevent the Reds from finishing up with a 57-goal total that was the lowest among the Big Four — not to mention 26 goals fewer than Manchester United piled up on their title run.
The positive thing about all this offensive misery was that it gave Benitez the ammunition he needed to justify smashing the savings account for Torres’ $32 million contract signature. With some serious tailsman-ness to their attack, the Reds broke the 60-goal plateau last season. While they had to hustle just to finish fourth in the standings, it’s easy to forget the Reds were unbeaten with a 16-0-2 record in league matches with Torres goals.
His 24 goals on the season made that Kuyt tally of 12 look despicably modest. Granted, the Reds didn’t lose a single match when Torres didn’t appear, but they also picked up four one-goal wins and two draws in matches where he scored. Furthermore, he pressured defenses to the tune of 57 shots on goal and 50 fouls suffered.
Gerrard put 60 shots on goal, giving him an 18-percent success rate with his 11 goals. Torres’ rate checked out at 51 percent. He usually didn’t enjoy the luxury of a dynamic No. 2 forward, which has been acquired this season in the form of Robbie Keane.
Torres has taken full advantage, making good on six shots on goal with his five scores. The pressure really emanates this year for the club’s momentum in the standings to coincide with his individual success. At least now, there is that distinct measure of promise.
Gerrard simply hasn’t been showing the same type of pop. At 24, his role with the team — heralded as it was at that point — wasn’t this integral. Looking into the future of what is a much different era at Liverpool, it may never be for Gerrard.
Wrapping up the rest of Prem weekend…
OWED DRINKS: League legend Alan Shearer, getting credit here and now for resisting the sirens calling him toward the Newcastle head coaching gig relentlessly over the year and a half. With another Newcastle loss Saturday to Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, speculation will intensify after last week’s suggestion Shearer has reconsidered his stance but at least he remained apprehensive this long and hasn’t made a Kevin Keegan of himself.
OWES DRINKS: Since he couldn’t deliver the ultimate thrill by singlehandedly turning a 1-1 with home draw with Manchester United into a massive victory, Toffies forward Louis Saha can exhilarate the new fan base this way. By no means was the stalemate at Goodison Park the fault of the former United forward — yet it also wasn’t his doing, either, and Everton desperately need him to be a new offensive spark at the moment.
GOAL FULFILLED: Alfonso Alves’ contribution for Middlesbrough in their 1-1 draw with Blackburn at Ewood Park. Alves netted a big-forward classic in the 74th minute by outmuscling veteran centre-back Andre Ooijer in the first phase and then completing the drill by turning to fire past Paul Robinson.
LET IT BE: In two home setbacks, West Ham fell 2-0 to Arsenal at Upton Park and West Brom 3-0 to Hull City at The Hawthorns. Both scores don’t properly indicate the flow of play — counter-attacking and set pieces paid dividends for the victors — but also give an early warning about the dangers of such losses in a relegation year where the bottom caliber of clubs looks like a rowdy, even bunch.
SAY IT IS SO: That Harry Redknapp’s departure opens the door for Tony Adams to take the reins after his time as a star assistant under the red-headed one. This was the subject of last week’s column. Adams has a royal chance to make a splash as an able-minded manager and also embarrass Redknapp inadvertently if Pompey’s talent takes over, discarding their now former high-profile boss’ work.
3-POINT FINISH: Urgency to get Saha onto center stage for Everton has and will continue to subside considerably with the way Marouane Fellaini continues to roll for the Toffies. His $30 million signing in August was a club record and a surprise for many fans outside of Belgium, where the agile 6-foot-4 workhorse was a dominant force in Standard Liege’s regular charges toward European qualifying. Fellaini scored Saturday against United, his second goal in six league starts. … Redknapp had a viable luxury with an accustomed layout of back-line starters at Fratton Park. As he inherits the madhouse troop of Spurs defenders, it is worth pondering if he will put on the brass underwear and go with a three-man unit on the faith that another insertion from the team’s offensive treasure chest can hold teams off on possession alone. … Kenwyne Jones as a sub made his first appearance of the season in Saturday’s win for Sunderland. With any progress toward regaining the strength that helped him score a team-best seven league goals last season, Jones upon fully recovering from a three-month injury absence has an opportunity to begin working on a potentially zest-filled partnership with Cisse that Black Cat supporters fed up with the team’s literal goal per game average will embrace.
