STEVEN GERRARD today ordered his Liverpool team-mates not to be distracted by the ongoing crisis at Anfield.
The Liverpool captain is acutely aware of the dangers of players losing their focus – particularly with tomorrow night’s crunch Champions League meeting with Porto coming at a time when manager Rafa Benitez and the club’s American owners are at loggerheads.
Anfield chief executive Rick Parry held two hours of talks with Benitez last night and those talks were described as “amicable” by club insiders – but the rift between the manager and Tom Hicks and George Gillett is still to be healed.
Despite the ongoing speculation, Gerrard is confident Liverpool will retain their professionalism on the pitch and believes they can continue their good form against the Portuguese champions.
He said: “It’s important that the players keep their focus.
“We realise that there is stuff going on behind the scenes but as a player you have just got to blank that out.
“As players we get judged on results so it's vital that we don't get distracted from what is going on on the pitch and keep on winning.
“The match against Porto is crucial so we have to take our form into it and make sure we perform on the night.”
Gerrard admits the Liverpool players were shocked when Benitez wore a tracksuit rather than one of his trademark suits for the Newcastle game at the weekend – but joked that he would like to see him wear one more often if it helps get results like the 3-0 win at St James Park.
He said: “The manager is usually in a suit, it’s not like him.
“But he can keep wearing a tracksuit for away games if we keep getting results like the one at Newcastle.”
Gerrard delivered one of his best performances of the season so far against Newcastle, scoring one fantastic goal and playing a key supporting role in the other two, but was happy to play down his own contribution and hail that of Brazilian youngster Lucas.
He said: “The manager has got a lot of faith in Lucas and so have his team-mates. He has got fantastic talent and he has just got to keep his feet on the ground.
“He had great players around him at Newcastle, the likes of Harry Kewell, Fernando Torres and Carra and Sami Hyypia behind him, helping him and talking him through the game.
“But he did really well and now he just needs to take the confidence from that performance and build on it.”
做得好...呢個時候隊長都真係要講下野穩下軍心作者: andychuah 時間: 2007-11-28 09:11 AM
HE IS GREAT PLAYER作者: canz85 時間: 2007-11-28 10:12 AM
