Zamora – Torres withdrawal gave Fulham a boost
Zamora - Torres withdrawl was crucial
The Fulham striker Bobby Zamora believes that Rafael Benitez’s decision to take off Fernando Torres was the boost that the Fulham team needed to turn up the pressure on the depleted team.
Liverpool were already short of Glen Johnson and Steven Gerrard, so when Torres went off with the score even at 1-1, Fulham believed they then had a real chance to take the three points.
Zamora said after the game: “He’s one of the best strikers in the world and to see him go off the pitch is a massive boost for us and maybe even gave us another gear,”
Rafael Benitez defended his decision, saying that it was better for Torres to come off then, or risk a longer term injury in the future.
“It is a big risk if you keep a player playing if he has this problem so we wanted to protect Torres as we knew it could be worse for him,” said Benitez.
“If you lose the player for 20 minutes it is better than for one month.”
“We knew that we had to change him,” Benitez added. “In the last game he played 80 minutes and needed four days to recover.
“He was always training with pain. We knew that we had to change him but it was a question of when and we did it at the moment we did. I think that it was best for him.”
But whatever the reason behind it, Fulham were encouraged and Liverpool now have a massive hill to climb this season, starting with the trip to Lyon in midweek.
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