Fernando Torres, Ryan Babel Offer Liverpool Glimpses of Bright Future

Fernando Torres scored his second successive Anfield hat-trick this week as Liverpool cranked up the pressure on Everton and Aston Villa in the race for fourth place in the EPL. At just 23 years of age, Torres has taken to English football like a duck to water.  Many were skeptical, observing his goalscoring record for Atletico Madrid, averaging 12-15 goals a season. 33 games and 24 goals later, Torres has silenced all but the harshest critics.  Some, unbelievably, still contend that he only scores against weaker opposition—ignoring his goals against Chelsea, Marseille, and Porto. This also ignores the fact so many other strikers fail to score any where near as frequently against even the weakest opposition. While Liverpool fans lick their lips at the thought of Torres getting even better—it is after all only his first season in English football, and his first season in the Champions League—his fellow flyer Ryan Babel has made fewer headlines. That is, until ... [link]