BARGAIN BUY

Mar 17 2008 by Chris Beesley, Daily Post

TWO players at opposite ends of the scoring spectrum ensured that Liverpool recorded a seventh straight victory on Saturday, as Fernando Torres’s 20th Premier League strike of the season defeated Reading after Javier Mascherano had cancelled out Marek Matejovsky’s opener with his first goal for the club.

Quite simply, Torres seems unstoppable at the moment and there isn’t a more in-form striker in world football at this present time.

With nine goals in his last six games, the Spaniard couldn’t have picked a better time to slip his scoring boots back on as Rafael Benitez’s side now embark on a crucial four-week period which includes next Sunday’s trip to Manchester United, followed by the derby against Everton at Anfield a week later and then a hat-trick of games against Arsenal.

Liverpool fans will be praying that El Nino’s hurricane force does not die down over the next month because if he carries on like he is he could blow the opposition away.

With 20 Premier League goals from Torres in just the first three quarters of his debut season in English football, the player, who turns 24 later this month, has fully justified the club record £20m fee his compatriot Benitez paid to bring him to Anfield.

It’s a feat that no Liverpool player has matched since a young Robbie Fowler, the most natural finisher of his generation, was in his pomp 12 years ago and an achievement even Michael Owen was unable to reach before he embarked on the opposite journey to Torres from Merseyside to Madrid.

Another player now living up to his stellar price tag is midfielder Javier Mascherano, who showed there is an added dimension to his game by netting his first Liverpool goal in some style.

Many eyebrows were raised when it initially emerged that Liverpool would have to shell out more than £17m for the Argentine international, but the man Diego Maradona once described as a ‘monster’ of a player is now scaring the hell out of teams both at home and abroad.

Just four days after Mascherano produced a man-of-the-match performance at the San Siro to enable Liverpool to become the first non-Italian side to beat Inter on their own turf in the Champions League, he outshone even Torres and skipper Steven Gerrard against the Royals.

It now seems staggering that West Ham United, who took Carlos Tevez to their hearts before he departed for Manchester United, were unable to utilise Mascherano properly and he was unable to hold down a regular spot in their relegation–threatened side in the first half of last season.

Three months younger than Torres, his best years should still lie ahead of him, but his growing influence did not go unnoticed by Argentinian national team skipper Javier Zanetti last week and he is the main reason for both Xabi Alonso’s restricted first team duties of late and Momo Sissoko’s departure through the Anfield exit door in January.

Benitez will be mightily relieved that he managed to turn Mascherano’s loan into a permanent switch this month because, like Torres, he has shown that Liverpool need to spend big on the most high quality of players if they’re to take that crucial but oh so difficult final step up to become the leading side in English football again.

Following Tuesday night’s 1-0 win over Inter, Benitez made two changes to his starting line-up as Sami Hyypia and Lucas made way for Alvaro Arbeloa and Alonso – back in the frame after missing the trip to Italy for his son Jon’s birth.

Steve Coppell kept faith with the team that had beaten Manchester City 2-0 at home a week earlier to climb out of the relegation zone and up to the relatively dizzy heights of 14th position.

The Royals had of course become the first side to defeat Liverpool in the Premier League this season with a 3-1 victory at the Madejski Stadium back in December and they stunned Anfield just five minutes into this contest by taking a shock lead.

Referee Andre Marriner, who had officiated in that fixture, was also in charge on this occasion.

In Berkshire three months ago, the West Midlands whistle-blower had infuriated Liverpool by awarding their opponents a penalty for a foul by Jamie Carragher that was outside the area before turning down what Benitez’s side felt was a clear penalty appeal of their own for a foul on Torres.

Marriner continued to frustrate Benitez on this occasion when he gave Reading a free-kick a couple of metres in from the left-hand touchline following a challenge by Arbeloa on Stephen Hunt which had seemed to go out for a corner-kick.

From the resultant set piece, former Everton midfielder John Oster slid a low pass across the area to pick out Matejovsky who showed terrific technique to keep his shot on target as he struck sweetly past Reina from outside the box.

The Czech international midfielder, a January recruit from Mlanda Boleslav in his homeland, was probably unknown to many English fans until now but he certainly signalled his arrival to these shores with his first Premier League goal.

As Liverpool searched for an equaliser, new dad Alonso went close with the first of two speculative effort, a cross-shot striking Marcus Hahnemann’s crossbar, but the American keeper had no chance with Mascherano’s 19th-minute leveller as the Argentine swept past Hunt before unleashing his unstoppable right-foot effort from 20 yards out.

The winner came just three minutes after the restart and was probably the simplest goal Torres will score all season as schoolboy defending from Reading enabled the unmarked Spaniard to get between Andre Bikey and Ivar Ingimarsson to nod past Hahnemann from Gerrard’s left-wing free-kick after Torres himself had been fouled by Liam Rosenior.

As the game went on it was the Royals who became more irked by referee Marriner’s performance and Shane Long displayed unsavoury petulance when substituted for Dave Kitson on 63 minutes.

As the Irish striker went past manager Coppell in the visiting dugout, he threw his jersey down in disgust and Reading’s anger boiled over in the final minutes when Gerrard appeared to handle a goalbound effort from Kitson, prompting post-match sarcasm from Coppell.

“It’s never going to happen,” he said. “There is verbal pressure put upon referees after games, and I’m doing it now, because you feel if you don’t do it you will suffer in the future. The very subtle pressure applied by the big teams can intimidate officials.”