Fuente: © Liverpool F.C.
http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/

LIVERPOOL FC: BALAGUE TALKS TO FERNANDO TORRES

On the eve of Euro 2008, Spanish journalist Guillem Balague talks to Fernando Torres about his first 12 months in England and the summer ahead.

/noticias.info/ Did you fulfil all of your objectives this season? The statistics are spectacular: you've broken Ruud Van Nistelrooy's record as the most prolific foreign player in a debut season with 24 league goals; you're the most prolific Liverpool striker since Robbie Fowler and you've scored in eight consecutive matches at Anfield. What's next?

I did all of that in a short space of time and I did meet some objectives: I was successful in not having a problem with adapting, because that had been worrying me. Liverpool paid a lot of money for me and, if you struggle to adapt, people start to get nervous and that's when the doubts start creeping in: I might even have started to doubt myself. However, as a collective, we didn't meet our objectives. I came here to win trophies. In any case, I have many years left on my contract, and I expect to win some silverware. I've gone through things I'd never experienced before, like playing in a Champions League semi final, and now that I've come within touching distance of glory, I want it all. I now know what it means to be a champion, and that has made me even hungrier for success.

If we had to find a fault, is it not true that almost all of your goals last season were scored at Anfield?

There always has to be room for improvement. Next season I hope to continue in the same vein at Anfield and to improve away from home. I've scored at other grounds in other competitions, but it's true that, in the Premier League, I've found it more difficult. I now have a target for next season.

You used to follow the Premier League on television, but playing in it is another thing altogether...

It's a different style of football. I came knowing what to expect, but on many occasions the intensity can still be overwhelming and take you by surprise. The Champions League games against Chelsea are an example of that: they are a team with a lot of committed, capable players who are physically and mentally very strong. I like to come up against these players because it makes me a better player. I've also discovered that defending is more complicated than in Spain, because even though you know how your opponent plays, it's difficult to stop them when the ball spends so much time in the air and there are so few tactics. This style of play cost us a lot of points and in the end we were unable to compete with the clubs at the top.

Rafa Benítez has already warned you that your second season is going to be trickier...

I agree that the second season is always the more difficult. People know all about me now, although I know more about my opponents as well, and I know how to take advantage of their weaknesses. But there's no doubt that I will have to account for the fact that I am better known from now on.

What's your best memory of the season?

The Champions League game against Chelsea is etched on my mind and while it's not the best memory, it's certainly the most striking: the passage of play around that wretched penalty and the third goal that settled the tie. A year's work undone by a couple of acts of bad luck.

There were question marks over your injury in that game...

I felt some discomfort and the coach decided to substitute me. The manager always wants what's best for the team. He spoke with me just before extra time and it is true that I was experiencing some discomfort.

You're being compared with some great players from Liverpool's past. Isn't it a bit soon for all that?

When things are going well, and people are happy with my work, you always get compared with the best. But for things to stay that way, you've got to keep working hard. If things don't turn out the same next season, you'll see how quickly all of that is forgotten. It's up to me to make sure that doesn't happen.

Euro 2008 has arrived, with all the hopes and fears of an entire country hooked on the tournament; does that create false expectations?

I don't believe they're false, but they are unnecessary. The favourites tag doesn't suit us: we're not. The favourite is a team like Italy that has just won the World Cup; or France, runners up at the World Cup and European Champions I don't know how many times. It's all the rage to say that we are going to win and it seems like we’ve already been labelled as having almost won it. They're counting on us, and they use these terms to generate hope, but at the end of the day, that gets confused with an obligation. Just imagine, if we reach the semi finals, we'll have bettered many generations of the national team: teams as famous, or even more so, than ourselves. We want to win and I believe that we have a chance, with some very useful players. This creates unnecessary expectations and if this tournament doesn't turn out well, it gives the impression that everything we've achieved has been for nothing. And it's not like that. We've been through some bad times, before reaching Austria, but we came through and, if things go badly, we'll come through again. But I can assure you, we do not need these false expectations.

I don't think I'm mistaken when I say that these kinds of expectations have hampered many of the players in the England team. Some of them have not even wanted to get picked for that very reason. I get the impression that this hasn't happened yet with the Spanish national side...

I can only speak for myself, not for the others. But nobody's going to take away that thrill. We haven't won anything for a very long time, and we want to go down in history. It's true that the European Championships haven't come at the best time for the players, nor did the qualifiers: shoehorned in to a packed fixture schedule; but everyone wants to play in a competition like this or in a World Cup. Sometimes, you might not fancy a friendly on the other side of the planet, but we all want to play for the national team and that's what you must go through. We know that to take part in the tournament this summer, it's necessary to play those other, less interesting, fixtures.

Would you be so bold as to predict who is going to be the player of the tournament?

I hope it will be someone from the Spanish side. I think it's going to be Cesc Fabregas. The rest of the world is going to find out that he is one of the best players in the world. In England, we already know that. notas_de_prensa_archivo