Liverpool striker Fernando Torres

Liverpool striker, Fernando Torres, has said that the club are paying the price for not replacing some of the best players the club have had.

Liverpool sold a couple of key players to Real Madrid last summer and Torres says the reason the side is struggling is because they have not been adequately replaced with consistent and quality players.

Torres is the biggest asset still at the club and there are rumours circulating daily that he could be tempted to move away from Liverpool this summer if the club don’t get back into the Champions League.

The Spaniard said: “There have been various important factors, like being so far behind the top teams so quickly. That killed us psychologically. After that, injuries hit us hard and we have suffered a lot because of them.”

“But after a good season last year, we needed certain reinforcements and we needed to keep the squad we had together. But circumstances dictated that we had to sell players and so everything got messed up. The sales of (Alvaro) Arbeloa, (Sami) Hyypia and (Xabi) Alonso were important losses.”

“Alvaro always did a vital job for us, always played to a high level, and his flexibility was a huge bonus. Sami did not play every week but he was a 10 out of 10 on and off the pitch. And Xabi? Players like him are very rare. He was the team’s engine, and you know that when you change an engine, it takes time to work again.”

“The biggest clubs in Europe always go through difficult spells where there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel. But because they are big clubs, they always come back and they do so with a vengeance. It is just a matter of time. Rafa signed a five-year contract last summer. He did that because he wants to help the club grow. Rafa’s new era is just starting.”

Liverpool will have to play consistently well for the rest if the season if they want any hope of being able to attract the best players to the club. This is something they have not done all season and there are no signs that this will change soon.

The side need to have faith in the manager and hope that he knows what he’s doing. The club are short in one or two areas of the team and this will have to be sorted out in the very near future.

If Torres goes or if Liverpool lose one more influential player then the club will quickly run into difficulties. They cannot afford this if they want to get back to the high Level they have just been at.

If the club was pitted against a Barcelona at the moment then they would get ripped apart and it is this gulf in quality that Rafa Benitez has got to get rid of as quickly as he can.

Liverpool manager, Rafael Benitez, hopes that his star striker, Fernando Torres, will be treated with care if he is called into action for Spain.

Spain are due to play France in the not too distant future and the Liverpool boss does not want his prize asset to be unnecessarily hurt in a meaningless game. It has been all too apparent just how important Torres is to Liverpool and an injury to him could see their top four push slide.

Torres has continued pledging his allegiance and support to the Liverpool cause but player around very good players at big clubs in the Spanish team could give him a flavour of something he may end up wanting on a more regular occurrence.

Benitez said: “Fernando is our player, working with our physios, but we have a good relationship with Fernando Hierro  [Spain's technical director], Del Bosque and Javier Minano [the fitness coach].”

“When people try to create a mess between Spain and us, remember that Del Bosque was the academy director at Real when I was an academy coach and I was his assistant for the first team. We have a really good relationship.”

“His fitness coach was my fitness coach in the Under 18s and the second team. He is my friend. Hierro was in the first team when I was assistant at Real and we had a very good relationship.”

“If I defend my players, it is because I have to, but we have very good communication with Spain.”

Torres gives Liverpool something that only he can do. The problem is if he does get hurt then they do not have someone with the same impact who can just step into the team and carry on where the Spaniard left off.

Only Steven Gerrard holds a similar sort of influence in the Liverpool team. Both of these players have been hit on and off with small injuries that have hampered them in playing terms and stopped Liverpool playing the football they became known for.

So far Dirk Kuyt has been leading the front line or either playing on the wing and neutrals all over the country will say what poor football the team has played, despite the fact they have managed to grind out a few results.

If Torres goes then Liverpool will not make the top four of the Premier League and will be stuck with a Europa League spot for next season. This means irregular games and more European nights, which will clog up an already busy fixture list.

They need to keep him fit and if that means the boss has to have a sly word with a couple of old friends then that is the only way that Liverpool can look. If he plays for Spain and scores great, if he plays for Spain and gets hurt, disaster.

Stories like this always appear near to international fixtures but in Liverpool’s case the consequences would just be too big to think about.

Rafa Benitez is trying to stay upbeat about Liverpool’s title chances, despite the 2-0 defeat at the hands of Chelsea yesterday. Goals from Nicholas Anelka and Florent Malouda were enough to put Chelsea right back into the driving seat after Manchester United’s draw with Sunderland.

Liverpool were also soundly beaten in a Champions League match against Fiorentina during the week, a match that Benitez said was one of the worst performances that he had ever seen from his side.

Liverpool will need to buck up their ideas very quickly or it will probably end up being just another dull and boring season that will not play to the ambitions and expectations of the average Reds fan.

Benitez said: “We must stay calm. We will see what happens in March and April. I think you will see all the top sides losing more points against the other teams. It’s good for the Premier League, good for the competition, and it just means we have to try to win more games.”

“I think the performance wasn’t bad. We were against a very good team. The end of the championship is a big distance away. Manchester United’s result [a 2-2 draw at home to Sunderland on Saturday] was a surprise, but we want to stay concentrated on our season, not on the season of other teams.”

Benitez seems to be quickly running out of patience with his side and could wield the axe of rotation all over again ahead of Liverpool’s next game. The problem for them is finding the consistency that will help them move forward and be able to challenge for the title all season long.

The point is that Liverpool do have it in them to compete but what they don’t seem able to do is compete regularly and make good of their best form. Once they find the consistency then they will be amazing.

The other factor is that the club look one or two players short. Fernando Torres does not have a world class partner in attack, too much pressure is put onto Steven Gerrard and the defence needs an extra world class player to hold the side together.

Once all of these things have been found then Liverpool will be fine. January can’t come quick enough at the moment but the message is already clear that the team will not be able to reach the top level of competition this season.