I WISH I could answer the questions as to why Fernando Torres was taken off at Birmingham on Sunday – but I for one have given up trying to guess.

Preserving players early in the season is one thing – but doing it in April just doesn’t make sense.

No wonder Steven Gerrard was scratching his head.

I hate harking back to the old days because that’s exactly what they are – old. But if Rushie had been subbed after 65 minutes of a game we needed to win back in the 1980s there would have been a mutiny.

And Torres is the modern day Ian Rush – the one player who you need on the pitch when you are chasing a winning goal.

Yes, he might have been having an off day but looking at the way Liverpool pressed late on, he would have only needed to stand there and swing his leg at the ball to have an impact.

He would surely have buried the couple of chances David Ngog had when he came on to replace him.

But the most baffling thing about the decision to haul him off was, if you really need to wrap him in cotton wool and make sure he doesn’t do any long term damage, why didn’t that happen in Portugal on Thursday night?