[INTERVIEW] Fernando Torres

Interviewer: So playing for Liverpool is a relief?

Torres: Yes, and a pleasure. It’s a relief because in any game you feel like any number of your team-mates can step forward and win the match for you. Benayoun, Babel, Voronin … you don’t feel that it has to be you or everything is going to collapse. You know that if you’re having a bad day, the team can still win – something I didn’t always feel at Atléti. You travel to games thinking you’re going to win and that was something I needed: I needed
to get into the habit of feeling I was part of a big team, with ambition, that people respected.

Interviewer: Why Liverpool?

Torres: Liverpool have always been a club with a mentality, an identity, that I like. They are a club trabajador [humble, hard working, people ’s club]. They are a team that maybe doesn ’t have as many stars as other clubs but it has traditionally been as successful, or more so, because of the attitude, the values, the mentality. Liverpool are a huge club but with a humility about them that attracted me. Liverpool haven ’t won the Premier League for a long time, but they ’ve had success and still have a real ambition to win things. That was the perfect combination: a
successful, big club but one that still had real hunger. That ’s not easy to find…

Interviewer: How important was the presence of other Spaniards?

Torres: I knew Pepe Reina, Xabi Alonso, and Alvaro Arbeloa and I knew adapting would
be easier because of that. I ’d always talked to Reina about England – Cesc, too. I asked them about the way they play, the atmosphere, life here, the way the fans treat you. Life in Liverpool is great. It ’s very relaxed, people are very respectful of you. I like the football too: it ’s fast, there’s lots of contact, and I’ve settled well.

Interviewer: Does your style suit the Premier League, more so than La Liga even?

Torres: Because the football here is fast and powerful, because you can ’t switch off for a minute, it suits me. Every time you get the ball, there’s a chance of scoring.
In Spain it’s different: it’s
slower, there are more touches, the game stops more. I used to watch English football and I always thought I could fit in. Now I’m here I’m enjoying it enormously. It’s been even better than I expected.

Interviewer: Have you had to change your game at all?

Torres: The biggest change is the fact that I play further up front, more as a No. 9. In England, I don ’t have to drop deep as much to help build the moves. In England the ball drops in and around the penalty more, so you have to be more alert to that rather than worrying so much about playing a part in the move. The game is more direct here and I like that: I ’m always a few metres further forward, which means you get more chances to score, even if you feel like you ’re not as involved in the game. I feel more comfortable here as a proper No. 9 trying to get in behind defences, looking to be on the shoulder of the last defender, getting chances, running through.


Source:
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