Athens agony can spur title charge

Jul 24 2007 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

DETERMINED Steven Gerrard believes the agony of Athens can help spur Liverpool’s championship challenge his season.

The Anfield skipper went into the summer nursing the disappointment of defeat in the Champions League final against AC Milan. It was in stark contrast to his experience two years earlier, when the European Cup was lifted in unforgettable circumstances against the same opposition in Istanbul.

Gerrard has revealed the loss to Milan, which consigned Liverpool to their first season without a trophy under Rafael Benitez, contin-ues to play on his mind.

But the 27-year-old is determined to use the pain of that setback as a driving force behind the quest to end Liverpool’s title drought.

“Losing a game that big is always going to come back into your system from time to time and haunt you,” said Gerrard. “Something will just jog your memory back to it and really, as a player, you have to then take a look at yourself and use that defeat as a spur. That’s certainly what I am going to do.

“My dad always taught me as a kid to take a look at yourself when you have a setback. We all have to do that now, start working hard and proving ourselves again.”

Gerrard added: “Two years ago in pre-season, everyone was talking about Istanbul still and knowing you have achieved something like that helps when you have to deal with losing a massive game like the one in Athens.

“You have to use the highs and lows you’ve had in your career when you sit down and think what you want to go on and achieve. If you just talk about the highs you can get big headed and complacent and if you just focus on the lows maybe you are not in the right frame of mind.

“Liverpool Football Club is about winning trophies so we want to put that right this season. I am really excited about the quality the manager has brought in this summer, but we have to show we are ready to cope with everything now as a squad.”

Gerrard was speaking at the introductory press conference for the Barclays Asia Trophy in Hong Kong, where Liverpool take on local team South China today (kick-off 1.30pm).

Liverpool haven’t won the league since 1990 and will have to improve on their results against their nearest title rivals if that statistic is to change.

In three seasons under Benitez, the Anfield outfit have taken just 13 out of 54 points in league games against Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea.

Each of those three teams could boast a better record in the big games, something Gerrard concedes isn’t good enough.

“Beating the teams you see as your rivals doesn’t guarantee you the title, you could trip up against other sides and still miss out, but there is no getting away from the fact we need to improve our record against the teams we hope to be fighting with,” he said. “We haven’t done as well as we would want and that’s definitely one aspect we will be looking to improve.

“It usual comes down to small details – we’ve lost in the last minute to United a couple of times – and with the quality of the players we have brought in this summer hopefully we can overcome that and start getting the results to go our way.

“Apart from the points we get and stop the other team from having, those are the games that you can get a massive boost and self-belief from.”

“The reason why we haven’t won the title for so long is that we have lacked consistency, but I think we have a squad now that will hopefully help us push right to the end.

“Chelsea will improve, and the Arsenal youngsters are more experienced now, so they’ll have a better go. The sides below us are getting stronger as well, so it will be a tough title race and more teams involved than just the two this time.”

Gerrard sat out last night’s training session with a slight abdominal strain. Gabriel Paletta was also on the sidelines, while Jermaine Pennant’s involvement was curtailed by a foot blister.

Harry Kewell has joined up with the Liverpool squad in Hong Kong after Australia were eliminated from the Asia Cup by Japan at the weekend, and is in contention for an outing this evening.

Meanwhile, young left-back Emiliano Insua helped Argentina win a record sixth FIFA Under-20 World Cup. The 18-year-old played as his country came from behind to beat the Czech Republic 2-1.