Why the Egyptian King Mo Salah will never be loved like Fernando Torres by the Liverpool faithful

It is gameday at Anfield. The players are making it through the tunnel and onto the pitch.

All but one position is lined up, the forward. Who would you want to walk out for the Reds?

For me, it has to be El Nino.

Fernando Torres’ career at Liverpool was nothing short of a rollercoaster. A striker from sunny Spain arrived at Anfield and brought the number nine shirt back to life at Liverpool.

Foreign strikers coming over to Liverpool hadn’t always been the best move- Nicolas Anelka, El Hadji Diouf and even Djibril Cisse never hit the mark in a Reds shirt, so when Torres came and scored 33 goals in his debut season (more than the three strikers named combined goals at their time in Liverpool,32), he had brought a level of excitement back that the club had been missing for some time.

As an eight-year-old supporting the club, Gerrard was the stand out world class player in the team and you were just begging for someone to help him. Then suddenly, this tall blonde man who was as quick as he was intelligent signs for the club and made supporting Liverpool unbelievably exciting again. We had gone from watching Milan Baros and Peter Crouch to Fernando Torres breaking the record for the most goals scored in a debut Premier League season by a foreign player.

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Unfortunately, injuries lead to less game time for El Nino in a Liverpool shirt, but across his 4-year period at Anfield, 81 goals in 142 appearances is very good.

Now, fast forward to the present where the Egyptian King is on the brink of winning Liverpool’s first league title for 30 years.

Torres tried but injuries and poor ownership meant Liverpool struggled to consistently challenge. Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez is arguably more talented than Salah and Torres, but he even slipped at the final hurdle. Salah has all the pieces of the puzzle-phenomenal footballing ability, world class team mates, a manager who has implemented a never give

up mentality and an owner fully behind the journey of a Liverpool team who are sailing into the history books.

Salah has been exceptional for Liverpool. Critics have been silenced time and time again, but the structure around him is why I believe he has been in the best form of his career.

He currently has 70 goals in 100 appearances for Jurgen Klopp’s side. The former Chelsea player has helped his Liverpool teammates lift the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, and the FIFA World Club Cup.

Other than individual honours, Torres won nothing at his time at Liverpool, except the hearts of the Liverpool fans.

Salah also has 10 more assists in a red shirt. The often labelled ‘selfish’ forward Salah averages an assist every 377.4 minutes, compared to the Spaniard Torres whose 20 assists averaged at 547 minutes per assist-he was the more natural striker though.

You may be thinking, ‘well stats don’t lie, Salah’s been more successful and has contributed more in less time than Torres,’ but without Torres you don’t get the Liverpool of today.

The Spaniard signed for Chelsea for a record deal of £50 million, but that money fuelled the transformation of the Liverpool side then, to the top team it has become now.

Admittingly, £35 million of that fee was wasted on Andy Carroll, but the rest used to buy Luis Suarez who nearly single handily won the title for Liverpool. Suarez then left Liverpool to move to Barcelona for £65 million, which has funded Jurgen Klopp’s rebuilding phase to get him the team he has at his disposal…including Mo Salah.

The best part about this is that in Fernando Torres’ final game for Liverpool, it was against Chelsea who he knew were very interested in signing him. He was no longer happy playing under then manager Roy Hodgson, but he was still able to pull off a great performance where he scored both goals in the game as his side beat Chelsea 2-0.

His final season at Liverpool, injury ridden and shot of confidence, Torres was able to switch his form as quick as snapping your fingers to get Chelsea to believe buying him was the right thing to do.

Hand on heart Torres would have been more successful than Mohammed Salah if he were in the current barracks at Anfield. If I flip the point and ask would Salah of scored more than Torres during his time at Anfield, only those who did not truly knew what Torres was capable of, would back Salah.

Salah isn’t even the most loved forward at Anfield as we speak, Sadio Mane tops that list, but his 77 goals in 161 matches means Fernando Torres beats him too.

Ultimately, they are two very different players who will be both remembered as legends, but the lad from sunny Spain trumps Salah any day.

Prime Fernando Torres with the long blond mop, small white headband and socks won the hearts of Liverpool fans at a precious time for the club, Salah is on the verge of doing so.