That's not to say he's the best – other strikers may have been more effective or prolific with a lesser armoury, perhaps due to excelling in one particular aspect of the art. And of course, greatness is also measured by time.
Kenny Dalglish, a very different kind of player, wasn't blessed with much pace, and didn't have the Spaniard's athletic physique. But he is still the benchmark for greatness at Liverpool. In Dalglish's case, it was about sharp thinking. And in terms of penalty box ruthlessness year after year, Ian Rush will take some usurping.
Dixie Dean's record of league goals in a season will never be surpassed, and the totals racked up by players like Rush, Alan Shearer and Jimmy Greaves over the course of their careers will make them hard to compare with in terms of pure numbers. (If I'm perfectly honest, Jamie Carragher has left his charge on their records a fraction too late, and must be excluded at this point.)
But whichever name I came up with, I couldn't find anyone to match Torres' all-round ability. He has pace, strength, skill, an eye for goal and a real physical presence. Perhaps even more importantly, he is not possessed of the kind of monstrous ego that disrupts other equally gifted souls, but rather humbleness and the steely determination of a winner.
The only weakness I can think of is that Torres, like Rush, isn't a world-class penalty taker – unlike John Aldridge, who netted around 20% of his Liverpool goals from the spot, missing just once).
But of course, if a player doesn't take penalties – which are basically a free shot at goal often won by someone else – and still gets a total of 30+ a season, then that just means he's an even better striker. Not anyone can plunder goals from open play when outnumbered by defenders, but even a goalkeeper can score a lot of penalties.
Of the recent top strikers, Ruud van Nistelrooy was probably a better penalty-box predator than Torres, but none of his 150 goals for United were from outside the box. He couldn't win games from 20-3o yards, in the way Torres already has this season. The Dutchman also took a lot of penalties, often earned by his unique meteorological sensitivity, whereby a butterfly flapping its wings over the Pacific Ocean could send the striker crashing teeth-first to the turf like a faller at Beachers Brook.
 Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry were also boosting their tallies with spot kicks. Shearer didn't have anything like approaching the skill of Torres, or his ability to go past defenders with anything other than force, although he was better in the air. While not as powerful, Torres has shown excellent accuracy with his heading, which is another one of his many strengths.
Henry, meanwhile, had even more ability than Torres on the ball, but was very weak in the air, and as well as scoring plenty of penalties, also took free-kicks – another admirable skill, but the true judge of a striker can only come in open play, when he has to find his own time and space. Henry was a very special player in his Arsenal days, and remains the most exciting attacking talent I've seen in English football. But Torres looks a better centre-forward.
And of course, Torres works far harder than Henry and van Nistelrooy. Players like Ian Rush and Peter Beardsley showed how important it can be when your forwards don't just look to finish off the moves, but help start them by winning the ball back. If you can work for the team and still score hatfuls of goals, then you are some player.
One area where Torres could score more frequently is from poaching in and around the six-yard box, although that is not to say he has a weakness in this area; he just hasn't snaffled as many close-range goals as some predators, such as Robbie Fowler. In his pomp Fowler was a sublime finisher – the most natural I have seen – but he didn't have the pace or stamina to trouble defenders in the way the Spaniard does.
In many ways Torres combines the artistry and imagination of Fowler with the pace and fitness of Rush. Oh, and with the shooting power of Jimmy Case. And that makes some player.
It's clearly harder for me to judge those forwards who played well before my time. But it seems that the way the game has changed has created more complete footballers, and less one-trick ponies, which seems to be what ‘old-fashioned centre-forwards' were: big bustling bullies who stayed central and didn't really take part in the general play.
And of course, these days the best strikers from all over the world converge on England; it's no longer just the best of British. In many ways Torres has the skill of a Spaniard mixed with what are seen as the natural virtues of the English game: courage and a never-say-die attitude. It's why he can take a good bit of stick from centre-backs, such as at Sunderland, but pop up with an 83rd-minute winner.
Liverpool get criticised when players like Torres and Steven Gerrard win games out of nothing; but that is due to their skill, and the reason they are in the team in the first place. A team will obviously rely most heavily on its match-winners, and Torres is just that.
It makes me laugh, but when Torres scores the winner, a commentator will say "who else?" – exactly the same as when Gerrard strikes.
In time Ryan Babel and Robbie Keane (as well as others) will share in a greater percentage of the goals, but even last season, while struggling to score in the Premiership, Dirk Kuyt, in addition to four other strikes in Europe, got three crucial Champions League goals – the kind that supposedly only Torres and Gerrard score. It's a team game.
 Rather than the Reds rely on Torres, he has simply become a very important weapon in the team's armoury, and a key element in the hunt for silverware. Which is what any team's best players do.
But does Torres need to win the biggest trophies to cement his reputation as one of the best in the history of English football? He won the European Championship for Spain with a superb strike in the summer, but he cannot control the destiny of a team single-handedly.
Paradoxically, he played far better for Liverpool in winning nothing than he did for Spain when crowned the champion of a continent.
In some games this summer it was other players who scored Spain's vital goals, just as Kuyt had in the Champions League. In the second-leg against Chelsea, when Torres ceased his big-stage moment (as he later did in Austria) to level the scores, a tight hamstring denied him the chance to win the game in extra-time. So luck always plays its part, too.
Of course, winning the biggest trophies can't help but enhance a player's reputation. Equally, scoring lots of goals and terrorising defences is no bad thing in the hunt for silverware. So if the Spaniard continues in the same vain as last season, there's every chance that the accolades will be accompanied by something more tangible and distinctly medal-shaped. |
發表於 2008-8-28 01:56 AM
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