'Nando will keep firing'
26th Mar 2010 - Latest News

Rafael Benitez believes a free-scoring Fernando Torres could give Liverpool a crucial edge in a top four battle he expects to go to the wire.

The Spanish striker appears to have hit a rich-vein of form at just the right time for the Reds and Benitez is confident he will vent any frustrations in the right way.

"Last week he scored five goals in three games - we must focus on the positives more than negative," Rafa told his pre-match press conference. "It is true that he is frustrated sometimes, but he is also doing well.

"He showed he is a top class player and is ready to score goals. He is always a threat for the opposition defenders. He is important for us. You know that when he is on the pitch for us, he can always score."

The Reds head into Sunday's clash at home to Sunderland knowing that three points are imperative if they are to remain in the hunt for the Champions League places.

Benitez insists his team must continue to take one game at a time and feels nothing will be decided until the final week of the season.

"I think we have said before that it would be a long race," he said. "It has proved to be the case and hopefully it will go right to the end (of the season).

"We will see. We have to keep doing our job, keep winning our games and we will have to see about the other teams.

"We have to win almost every game if we want to be there, but it will be the same for the others.

"We have to see what will happen ahead of us, so we can't be worried about other teams below us. We have to look after ourselves and try to win our games. That is it."

Aston Villa and Manchester City dropped points in midweek, bolstering Liverpool's hopes of breaking back into the top four.

However, Benitez is adamant it is too soon to suggest their rivals could be feeling the pressure.

"I would like to say yes, but it is too early to say," he said. "It is only one or two games. We would have to analyse if it was three or four games in a row - one or two bad results is not a big difference."

Asked if he felt Villa could suffer the same case of jitters that ended their hopes of finishing fourth last season, Benitez said: "This year is different. They have an extra motivation and more experience. It is too early. There are seven games to play and there are a lot of points to play for."

The visit of Sunderland has inevitably led to replays of the infamous 'beach ball' incident that saw Liverpool lose 1-0 at the Stadium of Light earlier in the campaign.

The Reds boss admits it was a huge piece of misfortune but believes it would be wrong to suggest it had a negative effect on the rest of their season.

"It was a bad decision, but we move forward," he said. "It was not just this game. We made some mistakes in other games. It was very strange, but now we must concentrate on the next one and not think too much about the past.

"Sunderland are a team who doing much better now. They were quite good against Aston Villa. We know it will be tough. I'm sure it will be a physical test for our players."