Liverpool Hit by Loss of Fernando Torres, Says Steven Gerrard

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, admits the absence of injured striker Fernando Torres damaged belief within the squad, but the prospect of a Europa League final and snatching fourth place in the Premier League has lifted spirits.

Torres’s presence in a Liverpool starting lineup not only offers them a considerable goal threat but the fear factor he generates means teammates often are given more freedom by opponents.

That has been missing since the Spain international’s last appearance in the quarterfinal second-leg victory over Benfica, after which he underwent a second knee operation in three months which prematurely ended his Liverpool season.

The players are used to being without Torres—he was sidelined for five weeks after surgery in January—but it has taken them time to assume the goalscoring responsibilities themselves.

A 3-0 win over West Ham last Monday followed by Sunday’s 4-0 defeat of Burnley—Liverpool’s first away victory in eight attempts—has proved they can score goals without their Spanish striker.

And Gerrard hopes they can carry that form into Thursday’s Europa League semifinal second leg, when they will seek to overturn a 1-0 deficit, and their remaining two Premier League fixtures against Chelsea and Hull.

“I won’t lie. Sometimes when you lose your top striker, it can damage belief and affect your confidence but this was much better,” said Gerrard.

“It was important we scored a few goals against Burnley and won convincingly.

“We are now going to pile everything into Thursday’s game, which can’t come quickly enough.

“The players are up for it and we have to leave every bit of sweat and blood out on that pitch on Thursday.

“Let’s hope we don’t have to score a lot of goals and we can win it with two.

“But if they score we have to score three; we’ll have to adapt during the game and do whatever it takes to win.

“There have been many occasions when we’ve had our backs to the wall and people have doubted us but we go into every game believing we can win and do anything possible to win on the night.

“But we have done it before and we hope to do it again.”

Liverpool’s chances of coming back against Atletico to reach the May 12 final in Hamburg look infinitely better than those of securing fourth.

“We’ve got a couple of games left and the idea is to take maximum points to sneak into fourth via the back door,” said Gerrard.

“We are underdogs to sneak this fourth position but our fans know that we have also got Everton breathing down our necks and we certainly don’t want them finishing above us.”