Through Liverpool's illustrious history has a player rarely performed as greatly in his debut season as Fernando Torres. The enigmatic striker has captured the imagination of Reds all over the world by his virtuosity. Let's look at the legend El Niño has already created in his first season at Liverpool.

The most prolific striker in his debut season in Liverpool's post-war history.

Torres' average of a goal every 1.40 games (46 games/33 goals) is better than John Aldridge (1.55 games - 45/29), Ian Rush (1.63 - 49/30), Roger Hunt (1.65 - 38/23), Robbie Fowler (1.89 - 34/18), Michael Owen (1.91 - 44/23) and Kenny Dalglish (2 - 62/31) managed in their first full seasons.

The most prolific foreigner in his debut Premier league season 

The goal machine that is Ruud van Nistelrooy scored 23 league goals in his first season for Manchester United in the 2001/2002 season and that would take some beating. Torres knocked van Nistelrooy off his perch with his wonderful strike vs. Tottenham in the last round of the Premier league. 24 league goals a fact for Torres!

"The Kop" drawing shows Torres leading the way with Balmer, Rush and Fowler struggling to keep up with him. Few defenders could cope with Torres as he was measured as the third quickest player in the Premier League, at 20,5 mph (33 km/h) in full flight!

Two hat-tricks in a row at Anfield

Torres is the first player to score hat-tricks in two successive games at Anfield since Jack Balmer in November 1946. Balmer scored three goals vs Portsmouth at Anfield on the 9th, four vs Derby on the 16th at the Baseball Ground and three vs Arsenal on the 23rd at Anfield.

 24 goals at Anfield!

'Home sweet home'. Torres scored 24 of his 33 goals at Anfield and 17 of them in front of the Kop. "I can't explain it but I’m always more confident when I am facing that end of the pitch", says the Spanish master. He is only one of 9 players who have scored 20 goals or more in one season at Anfield.

Scored in 8 games in a row at Anfield

Torres scored in his 8th home league game in a row vs. Manchester City, equalling the record set by Roger Hunt in the 1961-62 season, when the Reds were playing in the 2nd division. If Torres continues scoring in his first game at Anfield in the 2008-9 season he will go past Hunt's record.

A hat-trick of hat-tricks

Torres put himself in exclusive company by scoring three hat-tricks in his debut season for Liverpool. He became the fifth player in Liverpool's history to achieve this great feat and entered the history books in glorious fashion vs. West Ham at Anfield on 5th of March 2008, previously scoring hat-tricks vs. Middlesbrough just two weeks earlier and Reading in September.

John Miller scored three hat-tricks in his debut season and only season at Liverpool in 1892-1893 in the Lancashire league. He scored a hat-trick on the 15th of October, 22nd of October and put five goals past Fleetwood Rangers on 3rd of December.

No Liverpool player can match the achievements of the great George Allan who scored FOUR hat-tricks in his first season in 1895-1896. Port Vale (4 goals), Rotherham United (3 goals), Rotherham United again (4 goals) and Crewe (3 goals). It must be noted though that Liverpool played then in the second division.

Tony Hateley was Liverpool's record signing back in 1967 when he arrived for 96,000 pounds from Chelsea. He scored a hat-trick in only his third game vs. Newcastle, scored four goals vs Walsall in a 4th round replay in the FA Cup and in the penultimate game of the season he netted three times in a 6-1 Nottingham Forest thrashing.

John Wark signed for Liverpool late in the 1983-84 season and only featured in 9 games, but in his first full season he became the first player since the 1967-1968 season to score three hat-tricks in his debut season for Liverpool. He scored three vs. Lech Poznan in the first round of the European cup at Anfield, three in a 7-0 win vs. York in a FA Cup replay (yes, Liverpool needed a replay to get past York!) and three goals in 18 minutes finished off WBA at the Hawthorns in the league.

Torres even overshadows Robbie Fowler who grabbed two hat-tricks in his debut season. Fowler scored 5 goals vs. Fulham on 5th of October 1993 in the League cup in his 4th game for Liverpool's first team and a hat-trick vs Southampton on 30th of October 1993 in his 5th league match. Fowler was only a raw 18-year-old back then and not as accomplished as Torres, but never in his glorious Liverpool career did Fowler manage three hat-tricks a season.

If you are wondering how the likes of Ian Rush, Gordon Hodgson, Kenny Dalglish, Michael Owen and Roger Hunt did in comparison with Torres, they did not match Torres in terms of number of hat-tricks in their first full seasons. Rush scored one hat-trick vs. Notts County. The hat-trick king of Liverpool, the South African Gordon Hodgson, who scored 17 hat-tricks for Liverpool, "only" scored two hat-tricks in his first season. Dalglish scored a hat-trick vs. Wrexham in the league cup and Manchester City in the league. Owen netted two hat-tricks vs. Grimsby and Sheffield Wednesday and Roger Hunt did not achieve that feat in the 1959-60 season though he scored a brace on four occasions. 

Fernando Torres has impressed us all and added a new dimension to Liverpool's play. He deserves his plaudits and has become quite a phenomenon. His popularity has reached heights that only a select few achieve at Liverpool.

His song hit the top of the charts at Anfield:

His armband proved he was a Red. - Torres Torres,
You'll never walk alone, it said - Torres Torres,
We bought the lad from sunny Spain,
He gets the ball, he scores again.
Fer-nan-do Tor-res, Liverpool's number nine!

source: LFChistory.net
This is a copyright article by LFChistory.net

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