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Rafael Benitez is concerned as Fernando Torres gets treatment at the Bernabeu

The Spanish striker has been restricted to just 11 league starts this season due to a series of hamstring problems. And now he is on the sidelines with an ankle injury suffered in the Champions League victory at Real Madrid last week.

Torres, who has scored eight goals despite making a total of just 15 appearances in the top flight in 2008/09, plundered 24 goals last season - a record for a foreign player in their debut season. The fact he has barely been able to get up to full match fitness due to his constant injury ills is understandably a constant frustration.

The 24-year-old is unlikely to return to action until the second leg against Real Madrid on March 10 at the earliest.

Benitez firmly believes that Liverpool would have been stronger title contenders with a fit Torres, something pundits have been saying would come back to haunt the Anfield club all season. He was also happy to admit his side had made too many mistakes in recent weeks and this had been brought up in a team meeting.

The manager said: "We have talked about the mistakes we made (at Middlesbrough) and the future. And the immediate future is playing Sunderland, trying to get three points and then waiting to see what happens with Manchester United.

"The title was difficult before, it is more difficult now. What we have to do is take our chances, and that is something that has been the same problem the whole season.

"Maybe if Torres had not been injured so much things would be different, but we cannot change the situation now. Everybody has players who get injured.

"Since the Champions League win in Madrid we have had some problems, several players have been injured, among other things.

"The worst thing has been the injuries to Torres. He has been our main striker and scored a lot of goals for us last season. And this season could have been totally different with him.''

There are rumours also that there have been frank exchanges with senior players.

He said: "At this stage of the season when every point is important, having your best players available is the most important thing because they have the experience.

"It is not fair to expect young players to come in and change games, that is when you need your more important players to bring something more to the side.

"We must keep going in the title race, to try to win each game as it comes along.

"Now we have the opportunity against Sunderland to do things right, to be able to approach the Real Madrid second leg next week with confidence. We have to remain positive.

"We have learned we must be more clinical, to finish games when you have chances.

"But we played with anxiety at Middlesbrough, we gave the ball away too easily with simple passes. These are things we have to improve if we are going to fight for the title.

"But we must not forget that our league performance is better than last season. Still we have to improve. Yes, we have had key players injured and maybe that could have cost us four or five points.

"In this title race that would be a massive difference. We are in a good position but we could be in a much better position. We are now rated in the UEFA rankings as the best team in Europe over the last five years, that underlines how we have done in those seasons.

"But we must go forward for the rest of the season, and in the future. The squad is good, but there are too many games when things go wrong and that makes a massive difference. We had confidence and we were in a very good position for a long time. It has been our best performance for several seasons.

"But when we need fresh legs when senior players are injured, things are not easy. To improve in attack is not easy, you can improve in defence with hard work but forwards need accuracy and confidence.''

Benitez's mood was hardly improved by being asked whether he admired Sir Alex Ferguson's achievements. He said only: "Manchester United are a good team, they have very good players and they have a good manager.''