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Luis Suárez and Andy Carroll have livened up Anfield but the Liverpool manager realises more is needed – and securing his own future is just as important a step as signing the strikers

Luis Suárez is a hit, Fernando Torres a flop so far at Chelsea and Andy Carroll has scored his first England goal. No wonder “progress” is the mantra at Anfield as Kenny Dalglish prepares to take Liverpool to West Bromwich Albion, where Roy Hodgson found refuge from the swirl of blame that blew him away from Merseyside.

Liverpool’s coup in attracting Suárez and Carroll was surely the greatest zero-balance transfer trade in Premier League history. Out went the trudging and disaffected Torres (and Ryan Babel) and in came a Uruguayan with electrifying spacial awareness and a kind of Alan Shearer on steroids who could yet restore the standing of the giant English No9.

Carroll was not answering the call of the Mersey so much as the desire of his loss-making hometown club to snatch the £35m before Liverpool ceased to be cash-rich from the Torres deal. But Suárez appears to have been motivated by an authentic urge to become a Liverpool player, which shows in his play. He ignored the Premier League table. Will others, this summer, and in January? These are the two big windows on John W Henry’s ownership.

All the talk of recovery is music to the Kop. For it to be sustained, though, Liverpool will have to cull again this summer and attract the kind of player who may reasonably look at their final league position and balk if it fails to offer continental action. Dalglish – assuming his contract is sorted out – and Damien Comolli, who has a lot to prove as the newly promoted director of football, already know they will not be able to entice recruits with the promise of great Champions League nights at Anfield.

So Liverpool are a hard sell, for 12 months at least, but Suárez and Carroll certainly brighten up the brochure at a club where the goalscoring department had tumbleweeds blowing through it before the sale of Torres came to feel less like a tragedy than a catharsis.

The England setup is not somewhere the average Liverpool fan looks to for inspiration (many decline to look at it at all) but the sight of Carroll scoring against Ghana revived the hope on Merseyside that he will cause damage in the eight league games the club have left. “It is a great reward for his recuperation and it will give him a lift and kick him on further,” Dalglish says. “He’s got a wee bit to go before getting up to match fitness but he came in here for five and a half years, not two

• Striker reveals Liverpool ‘was not the same anymore’
• Torres believes the atmosphere is better at Chelsea

Despite a failure to score in five games and a series of abject displays, Fernando Torres is convinced he made the right decision to leave “the chaos” of Liverpool behind for Chelsea.

The 26-year-old moved to Stamford Bridge from Anfield for a British record £50m on the final day of the January transfer window, and has revealed that although he was a hero to the Liverpool supporters, the atmosphere around the club had changed to such an extent that the striker felt he had to move on.

“I knew I was an idol for the fans but it wasn’t the same any more,” Torres told sports paper Marca. “The institution was in chaos with the sale. There was all this talk of possible projects. In many ways it reminded me of (former club) Atlético Madrid … a great history, many ideas but without money, it needed time. I don’t have that.”

Torres has previously spoken of “broken promises” and has now hinted at a greater malaise behind the scenes at Anfield which led to his decision to leave.

“People aren’t honest in the world of football,” he said. “You can’t say the truth or be clear with people. It’s a business and nobody is anyone’s friend.”

Torres is convinced that he has found something different at Stamford Bridge and that Roman Abramovich’s finances will ensure that the club is consistently challenging for major honours.

“Chelsea have proved they have top-level players in all departments and that they will always be competitive whatever happens, with an owner who will invest when it is necessary,” he said.

Torres also brushed off concerns about his current form saying a bedding in period was always likely after such a transfer.

“I didn’t expect it to be easy. It never is,” he added. “It was the same for me at Liverpool. There are two months of adaptation to something so new, and more so in February.

“The fans have been impressive from the first day. They are almost more enthusiastic than I am to score the first goal.”

He also said he had been surprised at how easy it had been for him to settle in with his new team mates. “I expected something more distant with a team full of stars,” Torres said.

“There are more personal relationships and jokes between the players than there were at Liverpool. Everything was much more serious there. Here, you don’t have to prove you are a professional, it is assumed.”

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• ‘Liverpool played with three at the back. We didn’t expect that’
• ‘We will fight until the end. There are a lot of points to play for’

Fernando Torres has reacted defiantly after a “difficult” debut for Chelsea by insisting the champions will learn to flourish within Carlo Ancelotti’s preferred diamond formation and will continue to fight to retain their Premier League title.

The striker has joined the Spain squad ahead of their friendly against Colombia on Wednesday having hardly adjusted to life as a Chelsea player following his £50m move on transfer deadline day. His disjointed performance and 66th-minute substitution in the defeat to his former club Liverpool on Sunday provided a dispiriting start to his career in London, though Torres believes he will prosper alongside the likes of Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka within the champions’ ranks.

Ancelotti has indicated he will persevere at Fulham next Monday with the slightly rejigged diamond formation that had struggled to break down a stubborn Liverpool side. Asked whether the system can prove successful, Torres said: “Yes, I think so. As Carlo has said, when you have good players you have to try and keep the balance, keep working on the system.

“There are a lot of good players here and a lot of possibilities and chances to play. There are still a lot of games to come and we have to be ready to play in different positions. All that matters is the team.

“It was a very difficult [debut] because Liverpool played a good game, with three at the back. We were not expecting that and maybe they took advantage of that. We didn’t create enough chances to score, but we had two or three controversial chances at the end when maybe we could have had a penalty. I think the fair result would have been the draw – it was unfair to lose that game – but now we are looking forward to the next game and will keep fighting until the end. There are a lot of points still to play [for].”

Defeat represented a missed opportunity for Chelsea, who continue to languish some 10 points behind the leaders, Manchester United, despite Sir Alex Ferguson’s side suffering their first defeat of the campaign on Saturday. Yet, even with 13 games remaining, Chelsea retain hope of clawing their way back into the title race with two games against United still to come. Torres will need to be at his best for those contests and his former team-mate Jamie Carragher, so accomplished in snuffing out the Spaniard’s threat on Sunday, is convinced the forward will prove his worth in a Chelsea shirt.

“I don’t think any of the players had a problem with him,” said Carragher. “He was a great player for us, and scored lots of goals. In our opinion we had the best striker in the world. Unfortunately these things happen in football, and we now have to focus on the players that have come. You wish him well. I’ve played against him in training many times, and he’s a fantastic player. He and Drogba are probably two of the best strikers in the world, and I’m sure Fernando will be a fantastic signing for Chelsea. No doubt about that. Good luck to him.”

The Liverpool goalkeeper José Reina said it had been “tough” to see his friend Torres depart but added: “Football is like that, as players we come and go. You have to understand his decision; he felt it was a good opportunity to continue developing. The club has to look forward and forget Fernando. He is not here any more and we can’t do anything but wish him a lot of luck.”

Addressing the fans’ anger towards Torres, Reina said: “It’s logical that people don’t understand it but I think they have to make an effort and remember what he did for the club during these past three and a half years. He scored a lot of goals, he provided many entertaining afternoons of football and that is what we have to remember, the smile that he put on people’s faces in many matches.”

Torres returned to Madrid to link up with the national team fit and ready to play against Colombia and hoping to find form with which to make his mark at Craven Cottage next week. “I am fine,” he said. “I have had no injuries this season at all. I keep working on my form and keep improving and hopefully all the injuries are gone.

“I have to forget that and think I can play every game for 90 minutes. But it is important to be there with Spain. We are world champions so I will enjoy these three days, but I will be ready to come back as soon as possible to London to keep training and meeting all the people.”

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