Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez explained his decision to replace Fernando Torres on 65 minutes with the scores still level at 1-1 against Birmingham City. Despite most people believing the Reds needed a win from the match at St Andrews, Benitez took off the striker and replaced him with David Ngog. Both Torres and Steven Gerrard looked bemused at the decision but Rafa stated his reasoning after the match.
“He was exhausted. He had some ice to protect his knee but he was tired, like some of the other players who played on Thursday. Fernando knew we needed to win and he knew he was tired. All the players want to be on the pitch and make a difference but you could see Ngog with fresh legs, and also Babel, making a big difference in the last few minutes. You have to manage and I think Ngog did a very good job. We needed fresh legs, that was very clear.”
Torres is fully expected to start against Benfica in the Europa League at Anfield on Thursday.
no other manager in the world would of taken torres off in the circumstances yesterday, and for good reason – rafa is totally unpredicable in the conventional sense – he insists on reinventing the wheel unnecessarily only resulting in the uncanny ability to create the most basic mistakes from nothing when error didnt seem possible – he is a massive liability – there was almost a dig at torres for not trying in the match or following his instructions or something – more classic man management from rafa – insane childish incompetent fat waiter OUT OUT OUT