Fernando Torres will be back to scoring best says Albert Riera

Sep 22 2008 by Nick Smith, Liverpool Daily Post

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Albert Riera

ALBERT RIERA is convinced that Fernando Torres is on the verge of recapturing his goal-scoring form after his subdued start to the season.

Riera and fellow Spaniard Torres started a game together for the first time on Saturday as Liverpool disappointingly drew 0-0 with Stoke City at Anfield.

The point was good enough to take Liverpool back to the top of the Premier League – but they were overtaken by Arsenal and Chelsea over the course of the weekend.

And the good work of the previous week’s 2-1 victory over Manchester United was undone as Liverpool failed to score against a side that has conceded 10 league goals this season and started the game in the bottom three.

Torres, back to full fitness after a hamstring injury, has failed to score in five games since his opening-day winner at Sunderland, which is still his only goal of this season – and on Saturday he missed three chances he would surely have buried during his 33-goal debut season last year.

The stalemate with Stoke also meant Robbie Keane’s wait to open his Anfield account extended to eight games as the strikers struggle to establish an effective partnership.

But left-winger Riera is convinced he can help supply the opportunities that will have Torres and Keane soaring up the scoring charts once again.

“The thing with Fernando and Robbie is every player has periods when they don’t score,” said Riera. “But they are fantastic players.

“The only problem is that the shots aren’t going in for them at the moment, but I’m sure they will score a lot of goals. But Stoke was a very difficult match for the forwards. Sometimes they had a line of nine men defending so it was hard to break through

“We knew before the match it would be like that so it wasn’t a surprise. We tried many times to score but it was one of those typical games where if you don’t score quickly it becomes more and difficult because they just get more and more men behind the ball.”

He added: “I’ve known Fernando for a long time, I was with him at under-18s, under-21s and with the Spanish national team last year. I’m sure there will be a connection because we know each other’s games very well.”