Injury-hit Torres came off the bench in the closing stages to achieve the breakthrough against a defiant Fulham, who had withstood everything Liverpool could throw at them.

But Torres, playing only his second league game in five weeks, scored a superb opener, with Steven Gerrard clinching the 2-0 win with a late penalty.

Benitez said: "It is good he is back fit, now I have the sort of problems I like with several fit strikers to choose from.

"It was important for Torres to be back and important that he can score goals like that.

"At the end I said well done to them all, not just Torres, his job is to score goals."

Benitez had kept an unchanged side for the first time this season following the 8-0 win over Besiktas in the Champions League on Tuesday.

He said: "I felt it was right to give a side who score eight another chance, but you could see some were tired at the end, so I had to make changes. Would I do it again? Only if they score another eight goals."

Fulham boss Lawrie Sanchez said: "I felt we were heading for a point, and so I think did 43,000 other people.

"But Liverpool brought a bit of talent off the bench and it changed the game. I actually felt that Torres mishit his final shot, and that is what confused Hughes and Niemi. It was a soft goal in the end to concede.

"As for the penalty, I don't believe it was in the box, it wasn't a penalty.

"I felt we had kept them quiet, restricted them to shots from outside the box in the first half.

"It wasn't working for them. That is why they brought on three substitutes. One at £25million, one at £11million and one at £5million. I think there should be a cap on the price of players you can bring on, maybe no more than £20million of players."