Lawton: Torres Outshines Ronaldo

"For Ferguson the agony last week was the underperformance of players he has nurtured so relentlessly. While Torres flew, Ronaldo mostly fluttered. Yes, there are some considerable points to be made in defence of Ronaldo. In every game he attracts small battalions of markers. His physical resilience is remarkable, and, a glance at their records tells you, far more so than the injury-prone Spaniard. He remains, with the possible exception of Wayne Rooney, the United player most likely to produce a sublime intervention, as we saw last week when the two of them combined to snuff out the rising hopes of Mourinho. So where is the most pressing point of comparison? It is in the sense of Torres' commitment, of a determination to inflict all that he has for the benefit of the team. Torres and Gerrard are at present emitting it from their very pores. Lionel Messi, along with blinding virtuosity, is doing the same on behalf of Barcelona. But Ronaldo is not and this, surely, gives Ferguson quite as much concern as the fact that Vidic went missing for a day. Ronaldo's absence, after all, has been rather more protracted – a fact illuminated by nothing so much as the passion of Fernando Torres."

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Gerrard Says Torres is the Best Player in the World

"The Spaniard's all-round performance must surely rate as one of the finest from a visiting player at the ‘Theatre of Dreams', a display so full of vitality, so packed to the rafters with guile and deadeye finishing, that Liverpool skipper Gerrard felt the urge to declare that Torres is currently "the best player in the world". He may be right."

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Barclay's Fan Survey Shows Torres to be More Popular Than Ronaldo

"Ronaldo's theatrics, exemplified last Saturday at Old Trafford when he personally asked to be substituted for a hip injury, have alienated even those who do not dispute the pre-eminence of his talent. Instead Torres, the striker as inspirational for Liverpool as he was for Spain in Euro 2008, has emerged as the most popular Premier League player among 32,000 people surveyed for the Barclays 2008 Global Fan Report."

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