Roy Hodgson says Fernando Torres was not up to the mark
Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson had been defending his ace striker Fernando Torres through the course of new season. There had been criticism of the front man from all corners especially after the draw against Birmingham, but Hodgson
had continued to support him and said that there is nothing wrong with Torres and he is just short on match practice. After the 3-2 loss to Manchester United the former Fulham manager has finally let his feeling show regarding his striker. Hodgson said that
Torres has not been up to the mark this season. John Oshea and Nemanja Vidic were able to get the better of Torres and despite all his best efforts the Spaniard was not able to penetrate through United’s defence.
After the match while talking to a news channel Hodgson said:"I don't think he [Fernando Torres] is firing on all cylinders, and a lot more is expected from him”
"Fernando's [Torres] performance was a lot better [than last week against Birmingham City]. He is a player who needs more games, more time and more training.
The Liverpool manager believes that the unimpressive performance from Torres was also down to a good show by United’s defence and midfield. The Manchester United manager had made sure that Torres was well marked and not given much
space to roam around and cause problems.
Hodgson added: "Manchester United do not often surrender possession, so it was difficult for him”.
Still the Reds boss knows that the season is only 5 games old and there are a lot of big games to come, so he did not completely play down his player. He said: "We'll get a tremendous amount of use from him this season."
The manager said that going 2-0 down was unfortunate and his team did extremely well to fight back and get to 2-2. Hodgson said that the first goal was probably due to bad marking and Berbatov just managed to make enough room in
the box for the easy header, he added that the 2nd goal was just one that you would see once in years. It was a phenomenal effort from Berbatov he said and one has to just applaud such a goal. Liverpool got back, courtesy 2 fouls from United; one
that led to the penalty and 2nd that got Liverpool a free kick just on the edge of the area. Steven Gerrard knocked in the goal on both occasions.
Hosgson added:"We deserved to get back in the game, we were unlucky to go 2-0 down,"
The Reds were beaten by a fantastic winner by Berbatov which also completed his hat trick, the Liverpool manager said that it was just an unfortunate goal and his team could have done better to hold onto one point.
"Conceding late is always tough, and we're disappointed in that but otherwise we made a really good effort to bring us back into the game.
"If we had more composure we could have seen the game out."
Joe Cole was one player brought into the team this season and was believed to be a key for them in big games. But the former Chelsea man was invisible in the match and there was a clear lack of coordination between Cole and Torres.
The manager would have to make some big decisions later on to decide who are his best players, and realise that his team is most probably already out of the title race and finishing 4th may be their best option. Liverpool have managed just 5 points
this season from 5 games, and scored just 2 goals. Their only win this season came against West Brom that was 1-0.
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