Torres took his tally of league goals to 24 by clinching a 2-0 win at Tottenham, edging ahead of Ruud van Nistelrooy's record for goals scored by a foreigner in a rookie season.

Benitez bought 'El Nino' for more than £20million from Atletico Madrid last summer, which appears a bargain for what the Spain striker has delivered.

"Always when you sign a player you do not know if he will settle down and how he will do in the Premier League, but Torres is a young player who is hungry and wanted to do well," Benitez said.

"Sometimes you sign a player for a free transfer and people say he is bad signing.

"Then other times you can sign a player for a lot of money and he does well and everyone is happy, so lucky for us he is a good signing.

"He is one of the best strikers in the Premier League and is the best for us.

"We had spoken about the record. After the last game he said he wanted to play in this one and score here."

Despite Torres' prolific first season, scoring 33 in all competitions, Liverpool still finished the campaign empty-handed.

There were other personal accolades, with Jose Reina again keeping a clean sheet, but Liverpool fell short in cup competitions and drifted out of contention in the league.

Benitez added: "We did not win silverware but you talk about 119 goals, the goalkeeper has won the Golden Gloves Award again for the third time in a row.

"And with Torres, he was terrific at scoring and 76 points is a good total for us. There are a lot of positive things from this season, but the most important thing is we did not win a trophy."

Benitez will now look to strengthen his squad over the summer.

"Our idea is to finish as high up as possible and to win trophies was a priority, but we know this season has been very difficult for us," he added.

"We are working hard to improve the squad. Throughout the whole season we are watching players and trying to sign the players we need.

"We want to sign the best players as soon as possible and I think we will get investment from the owners, so we can go forward."

He could also let Peter Crouch and Jermaine Pennant go, with neither in the matchday squad for the final game of the season.

"Some of the players here are under contract and they are our players and we are waiting now to see if clubs are interested in them," he added.

Andriy Voronin opened the scoring at White Hart Lane in the 69th minute, with Torres grabbing his goal five minutes later.

"I think you have to give all the credit to Torres. He has had a great season and although he had a bit of space for the goal, he has played well," said Spurs head coach Juande Ramos.

Defeat meant Spurs finished in the bottom half, although they still did a lap of honour to parade the Carling Cup they won in February.

"I think we maybe did suffer after the Carling Cup success, maybe we achieved our target too soon," Ramos said.