Carra urges Torres to commit to Reds

Liverpool veteran Jamie Carragher hopes Fernando Torres follows Steven Gerrard's lead by pledging his commitment to the Anfield club.

Reds skipper Gerrard said earlier in the summer that he would be staying at Anfield, despite interest from Real Madrid, in order to help the club recover from the disappointment of last season.

The future of Torres is less certain as Chelsea and Manchester City circle the Spanish World Cup winner, who is unhappy that Liverpool will not be playing in the Champions League in the new campaign.

Carragher is keen for the striker to take a note from Gerrard's book to allow his club to go into the new season on a high, while the defender also thinks that another couple of signings will boost morale.

"Well, he's our best player," Carragher told Liverpool's official website after a 1-0 pre-season defeat to Borussia Monchengladbach on Sunday afternoon.

"For me he's probably the best player in the history of the club, alongside Kenny (Dalglish), so it's obviously going to give everyone a massive lift.

"Hopefully Fernando will do the same and we can bring one or two more in so that we head into the season with a real feel-good factor."

Summer signing Joe Cole made his debut in the loss to Monchengladbach and Carragher has been impressed by the impact of the former Chelsea star.

"He's not taken too long to settle in and he knows quite a lot of the lads from England," he said. "He's a good lad too and he's staying right in the centre of Liverpool, so a lot of the fans have seen him around.

"He loves playing here and being at Liverpool. You like people to get involved with the city and he's doing that from an early stage."

Roy Hodgson's Liverpool are now preparing for Thursday's Europa League qualifying second leg against FK Rabotnicki and a domestic season-opener against Arsenal on August 15.