Rio Ferdinand has labelled former Liverpool striker Fernando Torres as a “nasty guy” when naming his toughest opponent.
The ex-Reds forward scored 81 goals in 142 appearances for Liverpool in three-and-a-half years with the club. He eventually left Merseyside to join Chelsea for £50million on a dramatic transfer deadline day in January 2011.
Torres was among the world’s best strikers during his days at Liverpool. His three goals against Manchester United in a Reds shirt endeared himself to the Anfield faithful even more.
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Ferdinand was asked who he found a tougher player to play against - Torres or former Chelsea star Didier Drogba. The ex-Man United defender went on to explain why he found Torres a more difficult challenge.
“Torres was hard, I was talking about this the other day. He was quick, he was strong, aggressive, ran in behind, did all the stuff you didn’t want,” said Ferdinand on the FIVE Youtube channel.
“I was talking to [Rafa] Benitez about him actually, and he actually was a nasty guy sometimes on the pitch. Great player.
“He stamped on my foot once, and at half-time I had about four or five stitches in my foot, the ball wasn’t even there.
“So he had an aggressive nature. But I enjoyed games against him. Drogba didn’t actually make the game as hard for me, but he scored big goals against us.”
When asked for an answer on who he thought was the better player, Ferdinand replied: “I’m going to go Drogba because of the big goals he scored, but Torres was harder.”
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