Roy Hodgson left Liverpool FC on Saturday after an ill-fated reign in charge at Anfield, although the departing manager will have been frustrated by many of his star players and their inability to produce consistent performances this term.

One player who falls firmly into that bracket is Fernando Torres, the Spaniard who is apparently world class but has regularly gone missing this season and failed to demonstrate his ability.

Kenny Dalglish knows that getting the best out of Torres is key to Liverpool prospering for the rest of the season and he was encouraged by the striker’s input at Old Trafford on Sunday.

“Fernando Torres has got a magic wand. We have great aims to build on and it is up to us to get him going,” said Dalglish.

“He wants to do it, you can see he wants to do it, and we’ll get him going sooner rather than later.

“He ran himself into the ground and that is a great sign he is determined to get himself back and silence a few critics he has.

“Fernando worked his socks off and there is only so much a man’s body can take so we took him off at the end to try to preserve him a bit.

“He did everything that was expected of him in terms of effort and commitment and if you look at the lads, it doesn’t matter how good a player you are, you still need confidence and we need to get it back.