Torres Injured

As mentioned above, maybe its time for the 'back up' strikers to show their worth or perish...or for Ryan Babel to step into the spotlight and show just what we all know he is capable of.

No excuses Sunday evening, our team can stand toe to toe with any other in the prem and its time they proved it. At the moment we lack genuine quality in the final third (Mr Torres excluded), but that doesn't mean that we are dead and buried even before kick-off.

Babel is the man for me, he's got to step up and play with more confidence. If he does, he will be lethal. At the back, we need more solidity on our defence of set pieces, which has suddenly become an area of concern this season.

I'm quietly confident that we can confound the critics and shatter Chelski's glittering home record.

From LFC Website

Rafa Benitez is backing Dirk Kuyt to fill Fernando Torres' boots over the coming weeks. 
Liverpool will be without their top scorer for 10 days due to a hamstring injury sustained on international duty this week.
 
Of immediate concern is Sunday's trip to Stamford Bridge, a venue the Reds rarely leave with anything at the best of times.
 
Benitez, though, is hopeful Kuyt – who by his own admission has struggled in front of goal of late – can step up to the plate.
 
"He has scored some goals," said the Liverpool boss. "If you look at his record in Holland he always scored a lot of goals, but here he is doing a good job for the team."
 
Holland coach Marco van Basten left Kuyt out of his squad for only the second time this week.
 
The striker's response, according to Benitez, has been entirely as expected.
 
The Spaniard said: "He has been training really well for us and that is the kind of reaction you want from a player.
 
"Kuyt is a fantastic professional."

Well it could be mind games but I hope Rafa is no serious about this.  Kuyt has not shown any indication lately that he can fill Torres's boots.  I think any Crouch/Babel altenative would be preferable.   

Ryan Babel is a doubt for the game aswell by the way. He picked up a small ankle injury in the holland match.

Ryan Babel is a doubt for the game aswell by the way. He picked up a small ankle injury in the holland match.

i dont believe this. its not certain tho is it?

I read it on football 365 and they normally get our injury updates correct.

Well it was'nt as if torres would have played against barnsley anyway so thats no loss and we beat chelsea without him and kuyt always does well against them so i think 2-1, 1-0 dwn but then kuyt will score and gerrard will get the winner in the 85th minute

Or if i am really optimistic Carragher will get a hat trick

Torres is injured. He's no good to us while he's injured.

His thread is here: http://www.lfcreds.com/reds/index.php/topic,3266.0.html