COMMENT: Why Fernando Torres could beat Ronaldo to player of the year

Apr 14 2008 by Nick Smith, Liverpool Daily Post

AS far as split votes go, it won’t exactly be of Anfield boardroom proportions. Cristiano Ronaldo should, and probably will, walk away with the Player of the Year honours later this month.

But there is a school of thought that thinks Fernando Torres could pip the unstoppable Portugal star. And the fact that the pens are indecisively poised over the voting boxes, even if it’s just for a split-second, is testament to the impact Torres has made in his debut season.

Ronaldo should be walking away with the PFA Player, Young Player and Football Writers awards, celebrating that unique treble for the second successive season.

In any other season he would have done. His 38 goals represent not only a remarkably prolific tally for a player who isn’t an out-and-out striker, but also a range of skills unsurpassed in the world game at the moment.

The solo runs, gravity-defying free-kicks, towering headers, audacious back-heels and stepovers – and in recent weeks he has reinvented himself as a classic penalty area poacher.

Achievements beyond even those of Torres, and unlike his Spanish counterpart, Ronaldo’s contribution is on course to earn him a second successive title medal, and perhaps a Champions League one as well.

Torres and co. can still deny him that prize, of course, but the individual gongs seem to be heading east down the M62 once again.

If those professional players and sections of the media who have the ultimate say are to be persuaded to make that delivery van perform a swift U-turn, however, it could come down to criteria.

Because if the Premier League’s best player was judged on how one copes with pressure and adversity, Torres would win hands down.

For a start, Ronaldo is in his fifth season in English football. Although still younger than Torres, that’s more than enough time to fully devise your masterplan for world domination.

Like a racehorse bred over time before being unleashed to show everyone else a clean pair of heels, Ronaldo is finally in full gallop. and rampaging towards the finishing line.

He has learnt how to mix the flashy with the physical, knows when to stop take the taking the mickey and take the bull by the horns instead. He has been allowed the chance to suss everything out in his own time.

Torres has never had such freedom. Coming in as the club’s record signing last summer, he never had the luxury of being able to bide his time and find his feet – they had to hit the ground running, and did when they scorched past Tal Ben Haim and slid the ball past Petr Cech in his first league game at Anfield.

He’s never looked back since – but what if that shot against Chelsea had gone a centimetre the other way and hit the post? What if he had struggled to get off the mark and thus lacked the oxygen of goals that feed every forward’s confidence?

An arm around the shoulder from Rafael Benitez and a reassuring message of “don’t worry son, Peter Crouch took 19 games to get off the mark here” before the manager tries to placate the press with the usual “he needs time to adapt” nonsense?

It wouldn’t have washed because you don’t have time when you cost as much as Torres did.

That record price tag hovered over him with all those scrutinising eyes from day one. What he has achieved since shows a strength of character and an ability to cope with expectation that so many strikers fail to do.

And he’s seemed so cool about the whole thing. No snarling, no gritting of teeth, no cries of “come on!” to steel himself for the challenge. None of the amateur dramatics Ronaldo often indulges in when he misplaces a cross or narrowly misses the target.

Torres has made it all look so effortless and easy. His latest piece of brilliance was a good example, when he thought nothing of receiving the ball with his back to goal against Arsenal in midweek and turning to smash the ball into the top corner.

Yesterday he became a record-breaker by scoring in seven successive home league games and hit the 30-goal mark for a season in which his brilliance has threatened to be undermined by baffling off-field conflict.

Ronaldo has done what is now expected of him, which doesn’t make it any less outstanding.

But Torres, despite his reputation and price tag, has taken us all by surprise and that’s such a rare quality in modern-day football it would seem harsh if he didn’t wrestle at least one of Ronaldo’s hat-trick of awards from him.

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