Liverpool's Dirk Kuyt has lavished praise on fellow striker Fernando Torres, believing he can carry over his incredible debut season into this campaign...
Torres joined the club from Atletico Madrid for a fee in excess of €25 million from Atletico Madrid last summer. The striker has long been known as an extremely talented prodigy in Spanish football, but did not manage to rack up a significant goal difference with los Rojiblancos in all his time with his hometown club.
However, upon his move, he settled into English football better than any other striker before him, racking up an unprecedented 33 goals in a debut season, surpassing Ruud van Nistelrooy's record made with the Reds' bitter rivals Manchester United.
El Nino had a considerably less remarkable Euro 2008 campaign with Spain, but still ended up a vital part of the title-winning side, scoring the one and only goal in the final to give la Roja the trophy - their first in 44 years and only the second in their entire history.
Kuyt, shunted to right wing to accommodate Liverpool's new prodical son, could not be more impressed with the 24-year-old. "Fernando showed last year that he's maybe the best striker in the world," he said.
Torres got his league campaign off to the perfect start last weekend, netting the only goal of the game with perhaps his only genuine chance against Sunderland to give Liverpool a victory they scarcely deserved. "He doesn't need much to score a goal and you almost know before he shoots he will score," Kuyt continued.
"We work very hard as a team and you know we will progress every game and be better.
"We have a lot of quality in the team like Robbie Keane, Steven Gerrard and of course Torres so we know if we work hard, we'll get our chances and we have the ability to score in every game."
Kuyt is confident the Kop may finally witness a team capable of winning their first ever Premire League, and first league title in 18 years. Bitter rivals Manchester United are closing in on the Reds' all time record and could in fact go level with them if they win their third successive title this season.
"The team is getting better and better and the most important thing is to look at ourselves," added Kuyt.
"I think we don't have to look too much to be teams like Manchester United or Chelsea or Arsenal, we just have to look at ourselves.
"If we can just win our own games the gap will be closer.
"The team is getting better and better and the most important thing is to look at ourselves."
Another to have impressed Kuyt is new signing Andrea Dossena, from Udinese. "He did well but he had already showed his quality in pre-season," remarked the Dutchman.
"He still needs to grow into his role but I think he played really well."
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