SOCCER: ANDY HUNTERon why the sight of Manchester United may be just what Liverpool's number nine needs

ROY HODGSON has played Fernando Torres only five times since becoming Liverpool manager but has already honed his defence of the striker. “You don’t move between ‘wonder’ and ‘hopeless’,” was his final word on a week when the Spain international’s body and mind have been under forensic examination. Torres himself, however, may beg to differ.

These are paradoxical, trying days for the Liverpool striker, who could not even lift the World Cup without experiencing excruciating pain from a groin injury suffered minutes before Spain’s glory was confirmed.

He left for the recent international break as Liverpool’s saviour, having elevated a sterile team display against West Brom to victory with the game’s only touch of class.

He returned jet-lagged from Argentina to an acerbic reception at Birmingham City last weekend, when Jamie Redknapp, a former Liverpool captain, described his lacklustre contribution as “terrible” and “diabolical”.

Tomorrow, Torres confronts Nemanja Vidic at Old Trafford. In keeping with the contradictions this, at least, is a duel he will relish.

The 26-year-old has scored in each of his past three appearances against Manchester United. Vidic collected three successive red cards against Liverpool until ending the sequence with just a yellow in United’s 2-1 home win in March.

Not that Alex Ferguson has identified any mastery of his defenders by the Liverpool number nine, of course. “I don’t see that,” the United manager said yesterday. “I think that when you analyse all the goals we’ve maybe made a couple of mistakes defensively.”

As Redknapp highlighted at St Andrew’s, however, the Liverpool talisman is currently not the player who played off Vidic’s shoulder and preyed on his mind to such devastating effect in recent seasons. But the reasons are more deep-rooted than one sulky afternoon in the Midlands would propose.

Injuries have taken a cumulative toll on a player whose fully-fit debut season at Anfield – which yielded 33 goals in total – is in danger of becoming the exception to his Premier League career. In the past 13 months Torres has completed 90 minutes for Liverpool on only 15 occasions.

The past two campaigns have been frequently interrupted by fitness problems, causing internal conflict between the former manager, Rafael Benitez, and his medical staff, and there have been two knee operations in this calendar year alone.

Torres’ lack of match fitness was painfully apparent during Spain’s World Cup journey and, with his pre-season delayed further by the groin injury against the Netherlands, he is still playing catch-up.

“He has gone three years without a break and he has suffered a few injuries as well but he is still the person everyone would want to play number nine for them,” said Kenny Dalglish yesterday. “We should be grateful he is here. It is a great compliment to him that when he has a bad game it is such a highlight and makes a headline in a newspaper.”

But Torres’ undisguised frustration at Birmingham owed little to his rehabilitation from injury. This week the striker reflected on the start of his goal-scoring sequence against United, the equaliser that provided Liverpool with the platform for their outstanding 4-1 victory at Old Trafford in March 2009. His thoughts were as damning as they were justifiable. “To this day that has to be one of my favourite days wearing the Liverpool shirt,” he said.

No one would dispute that tearing Vidic’s Player of the Year nomination apart, sliding to the knees before the away corner at Old Trafford and hauling a club back into the title race is an isolated moment for any Liverpool striker to savour. But it is not enough for a World and European champion at international level, a player who, after six barren years at Atletico Madrid, left his boyhood club in search of silverware at Anfield in 2007. The Liverpool of 2007, even March 2009, are not the Liverpool of 2010, however.

The midfield supply to Torres at Birmingham comprised Maxi Rodriguez, Lucas Leiva, Christian Poulsen and Milan Jovanovic – signed for a sum total of €12.5 million by a club that received €60 million for its previous central midfield of Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano and has, in fairness, reinvested €14 million in the Raul Meireles.

“I was watching him against Birmingham and he wasn’t flying but he was still dangerous,” Ryan Giggs argued. “When he gets chances he puts them away, so we have to be more wary of that than ever.”

Irrespective of distractions, injury or service, recent history will warn United against any complacency towards one of the finest forwards in the game today.

Rio Ferdinand, who suffered when Torres returned from injury to inspire Liverpool to victory at Anfield last season, says: “People jump on the bandwagon. Players get injuries. He is a great player and has proved that. Two months ago everyone was saying what a world-class player he is, so to become a bad player overnight just doesn’t happen.

“He has been injured for a long time and is just on his way back. You can’t expect him to be the same straight away. I’m under no illusions that, if I play, I will be coming up against a top-class player. You would expect him to produce a world-class performance.”