Benítez prepared to risk Torres

Andy Hunter
Tuesday September 25, 2007
The Guardian

Rafael Benítez has invited further accusations of tinkering with Liverpool's Premier League prospects by selecting a near full-strength squad for tonight's Carling Cup tie at Reading.

The manager kept Fernando Torres on the bench for an hour of Saturday's goalless draw with Birmingham City but has included the Spainiard, plus Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, in his plans for a competition that he has admitted rates fourth on the club's list of priorities.

Benítez has pledged to employ fringe players where possible in the third-round fixture, and Gerrard, Carragher and Torres may well be merely an insurance policy to be deployed from the substitutes' bench if required, but there will be an element of risk and further questions about what prompted his team selection against Steve Bruce's Birmingham team should any take the field at the Madejski Stadium.

Carragher has only recently returned from a broken rib and may be the only experienced central defender available tonight. The inclusion of Torres and Gerrard is more surprising with the striker supposedly pivotal to Liverpool's hopes of a credible title challenge and Benítez bemoaning the effect of England's recent Euro 2008 qualifiers on the form of his influential captain. "It could be that playing twice for England has had an impact. Gerrard was not 100% physically fresh, I don't mean fit but fresh," Benítez said.