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Liverpool
have got over Fernando Torres’ departure already, manager Kenny
Dalglish said as his side prepared to face their ex-team mate less than
a week after the striker’s move to Chelsea.

The Spaniard is
expected to make his debut for the Premier League champions in Sunday’s
match against his former club at Stamford Bridge and while Dalglish was
disappointed to have let him go, he has also moved on.

“Everybody was
disappointed that he left the club, what was most disappointing was the
timing but we’ll get on with life,” Dalglish told a news conference
when asked about Torres’ 50 million pound move to London.

“The football club,
the owners did everything we possibly could but it wasn’t to be. We’ve
moved on, he’s playing for someone else. It’s something we’ll live
with.” Torres’ departure came just as the 18-times English champions
were showing signs of recovering from the slump they endured under
previous manager Roy Hodgson after appointing fan favourite Dalglish to
turn things around last month.

Dalglish denied
that facing Torres so soon after his departure added extra spice to the
encounter, saying his players put in maximum effort whatever the
occasion.

Focusing on positives

Dalglish said no
player was bigger than the club and instead focused on the positives
such as the fact the new owners had shown ambition by splashing out on
strikers Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez to replace Torres.

“They said when
they came in they wanted to get the club back to where it should be and
this was the first opportunity to show ambition and they have certainly
done that,” Dalglish said of the Americans who took over in October and
spent more than 55 million pounds on the England and Uruguay strikers
on Monday.

“They are actually
a little bit disappointed they didn’t get more players in, that’s a
good thing.” Dalglish, who won eight league titles as a player and
manager at Liverpool before leaving 20 years ago, said there was no
point dwelling on a player who had left the club.

“If we’ve lost one, we’ve lost one. The most important thing for us is the two people that have come in,” he said.

“The most important
people are the people at this football club and the people who care for
this football club.” Asked how Liverpool would deal with the threat of
Torres on Sunday, Dalglish replied: “We’ll just play against any player
they put on the pitch. We’re more important than any player they’ve
got.” Liverpool have now strung together three wins in a row to move up
to seventh in the table with Suarez scoring on his debut in Wednesday’s
2-0 win over Stoke City.

The Uruguayan will
have to wait a few weeks before he can link up with his new partner as
Carroll has a thigh strain but he was confident they had the makings of
a great strike force.

“He’s a typical tall number nine that my type of player combines
well with historically,” he told reporters. “It’s a promising
partnership.”