Despite a bright start, Liverpool now trail leaders Manchester United by five points, having been deprived of their top marksman for long spells of the season.

Torres, who hit 24 league goals in his first season at Anfield, has only featured in 15 games this term, scoring eight goals in 27 games.

"The worst thing has been the injuries to Torres," Benitez said ahead of Tuesday's game with Sunderland, which Torres will miss with an ankle injury.

"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.

"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."

Better League Performance

Nonetheless, Rafa believes that the overall performance of his team in the Premiership is much better than last season, where they finished fourth.

"We must not forget that our league performance is better than last season," added the Spaniard.

"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."