LIVERPOOL: Fernando Torres has told Liverpool’s owners to ease the pressure on under-fire manager Rafael Benitez by launching a major spending spree.

Benitez faces a fight to keep his job after Liverpool’s woeful season hit rock bottom when the Reds were knocked out of the FA Cup by Reading. Torres belives Liverpool, who are already out of the Champions League and may not even finish in the Premier League’s top four, desperately need an injection of new blood to boost morale and strengthen a squad that is weak in several key positions. The Spain striker hopes George Gillett and Tom Hicks — Liverpool’s American owners — will show their support for Benitez by giving him money to spend in this month’s transfer window and then in the close-season.

Torres said: “It’s frustrating. We finished second last season. This season should have been a turning point for us — a chance to do something great. But it hasn’t been. It’s now the owners’

turn. They have to sign players so that this does not happen again. If we want to compete with United and Chelsea we need a much, much more complete squad. We need more genuinely first-class players and we can’t let our best players leave.”