Adding firepower to Spanish armada

English FA Premier League: While Fernando Torres was intent on joining Liverpool's Spanish enclave last summer, it was the Merseysiders who benefited most, writes Andy Hunter.

Back when Americans could be persuaded to spend heavily during their freshman year at Liverpool it was the success or failure of a €37 million striker that had the greatest bearing on Rafael Benitez' job security. Strip away the political machinations that have developed since, and Fernando Torres today stands as a compelling reason why football transfers should involve football managers at Anfield.

A different Liverpool awaits Manchester United tomorrow from the side beaten in five of six Premier League encounters under Benitez and the difference, as the Old Trafford assistant manager, Carlos Queiroz, stated this week, is Torres.

Mesmerising in Marseille, where he shrugged aside brutal French tackling and the tension of Liverpool's predicament to help secure a place in the last 16 of the Champions League, the Spain international provides Anfield with hope of more than just a goal against the champions. Along with Steven Gerrard, he is why the club can still entertain thoughts of a title race.

Peter Crouch's header in the FA Cup fifth-round tie of 2006 is the only time Liverpool have triumphed and scored against Alex Ferguson's men since Benitez arrived at the club.

In six league meetings they have taken a solitary point and have not won this Anfield fixture for six years. The grim statistics from their most treasured scalp do not end there. Liverpool's only league goal under the Spaniard came courtesy of a John O'Shea own-goal in September 2004, and even he exacted revenge with the stoppage-time winner that devastated a dominant home team last season.

Benitez, still grimacing at the memory, admits: "We have enjoyed plenty of possession against United and controlled games but we didn't create much because they have good defenders and we needed to be stronger in attack. Now with Torres we have a striker with pace and ability and he will be a threat on Sunday. Manchester United know he is a good player and that we have more things we need to win this year. They know his qualities and they will be worried about him."

Ferguson knew plenty about the 23-year-old when he inquired about the then Atletico Madrid captain, only for two rejections, a spiralling price and doubts about his finishing skills to end United's interest this summer. Though Inter Milan offered a higher fee for Torres, the striker was intent on joining the Spanish enclave at Liverpool following a personal intervention from Benitez.

"I don't know if United were really interested in him but the main thing is that he wanted to come here. I just called him and he said he wanted to come," said the Liverpool manager, revealing the influence on transfer policy he has now been asked to curtail by the owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks. He remains reluctant to do so.

Benitez added: "Another top side offered £6 million (€8.4 million) more for Torres than we did, and we knew a lot of top sides were talking about him. The difference was he knew this club and he knew the Spanish players and the Spanish staff here could help him. I had a lot of information about him and I knew the mentality of the player when we decided to sign him. It was a gamble, but not a big one because his mentality and his age were right.

"We were not thinking about him scoring 20 goals in his first season for us, we just wanted him to give us something different and to keep progressing, but maybe now he can score more than 20 goals. He is a shy boy, but he is very confident."

Pointedly, the Liverpool manager admitted the then working relationship among the Anfield hierarchy also helped secure his compatriot's signature - "We signed Torres because the situation at the club was good and hopefully in the future we can do the same things again," he said - and the €24 million transfer of Javier Mascherano remains the next test of their rift or rapport.

The Argentinian has a vested interest in Benitez' meeting with the club's owners this weekend given that his future at Liverpool, or lack of one, will be one of the topics up for discussion.

"I have said a lot of times that I have done everything to stay in Liverpool. Now Liverpool have to decide to buy me or not," the midfielder said yesterday. "It's their decision now, not my decision, because everyone knows that I have done everything to stay. We will see after the weekend."

Mascherano is savouring his first confrontation with his close friend Carlos Tevez in a United shirt since the striker followed him out of West Ham in the summer. "We are very big friends because I played with him for a long time in the national team, at Corinthians and at West Ham, and I talk with him very often," Mascherano added. "But we will not talk before this game."

• Guardian Service