1.7.09  Benitez has made me better: Torres

Liverpool striker Fernando Torres has credited manager Rafael Benitez for helping him become a better player during his two seasons in England.

Torres arrived at Anfield in the summer of 2007 from Atletico Madrid with a reputation for being a prodigious talent without necessarily being prolific.

The Spain international scored 91 goals in 244 matches for his hometown club before his £20million-plus transfer to Merseyside.

Benitez was instantly rewarded for his club-record investment as Torres scored 33 times in his first campaign in English football, adding another 17 in an injury-dogged last season.

His half-century of goals came up in just 84 matches and the 25-year-old believes the influence of Benitez had a major impact on him adapting so quickly to the Barclays Premier League.

"Rafa concentrates on the professional side of things," said Torres, who signed an improved contract in May.

"He tries to improve every minor detail and movement you carry out during the course of a game, and he also explains the reasons behind his decisions.

"He's obsessed that you understand what you are doing and why. He's not happy that you do things just because he tells you that something has to be done.

"He says: 'Do it like this. Do you understand why you are being told to do so? No? We'll go through it again then'.

"I remember when I signed for the club people were questioning me as a goalscorer. I received criticism because I wasn't getting goals.

"The first thing he told me was that I was signed to score goals. Benitez is adamant that I live in the area because that's where you get goals.

"That was the first thing he told me, the wing is for the wingers, and that the striker should be focused on the two rival centre-backs.

"The Spain team play very differently, we have to be constantly on the move.

"In England I have to draw the centre-back out of place so that Steve Gerrard can burst through."