Bitter sweet for Reds

12 April 2012

Liverpool's encouraging activity on transfer deadline day has been tempered by the news Fernando Torres is out for up to three weeks through injury.

Albert Riera topped a trio of new signings at Anfield, alongside Brazilian striker Vitor Flora and goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi, after arriving from Espanyol on a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee.

"Riera has the qualities we were looking for," said Benitez. "He's a left-footer who normally plays on the left wing."

He added: "He's good in the air, strong, powerful and a good crosser of the ball.

"He can beat players and get good deliveries into the area for our strikers.

"He also had offers from other English clubs but he said no to them because he wanted to come and play for us."

The arrival of Riera has helped soften the blow of losing star striker Torres to a hamstring injury.

Torres faces a battle to be fit for the Reds' Champions League opener at Marseille on September 16 after limping off in the goalless draw at Villa on Sunday.

The 24-year-old has been withdrawn from the Spain squad for the European champions' World Cup qualifiers against Bosnia and Armenia.

Heading in the opposite direction to Riera is full-back Steve Finnan, who has signed a two-year contract with Espanyol. Finnan was followed out of the door by striker Andriy Voronin, who has joined German side Hertha Berlin on a year-long loan.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in