Rafael Benítez admits to crisis talks with Steven Gerrard over loss of form

Posted Thursday, December 24, 2009 by theguardian.com

Rafael Benítez admits to crisis talks with Steven Gerrard over loss of form
Steven Gerrard has played nine times for Liverpool since returning from a month-long injury.

Rafael Benítez has revealed he has held talks with Steven Gerrard over the midfielder's struggle for form as he looks to the Liverpool captain and Fernando Torres to end the club's alarming slump.

Liverpool host Wolves on Boxing Day having won only four times in 17 matches, with two rivals for a Champions League place, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur, to follow. A miserable campaign reached what Benítez hopes will prove its nadir at Portsmouth last Saturday, with Gerrard on the margins as the Premier League's bottom club secured a comfortable 2-0 win.

The 29-year-old has made nine appearances since recovering from the adductor problem that kept him out for a month but his influence has been limited in a season disrupted by injury, the departure of Xabi Alonso and the prolonged absence of the Spaniard's intended replacement, Alberto Aquilani. And Benítez admits he needs a confident, in-form Gerrard to rescue Liverpool once again.

"Steven knows that he has to improve but that for me is very positive," the Liverpool manager said. "He knows he is a very important player for us and we were analysing his statistics and he is doing much better. In the last game he wasn't at his level but that can happen in one game.He knows he is improving physically and the main thing now is confidence.

"I was talking with him this week about how to improve. He wants to give more. I am 100% that he wants to give more. He is the captain and he is very important for the team and the club. He is someone who is pushing now and wants to improve."

Benítez insists the onus is on every Liverpool player to lift the club and fulfil his guarantee of a top-four finish, although the manager concedes there is an added burden on Gerrard and Torres.

"Everyone talks about Gerrard, Torres, Gerrard, Torres. They are very important for us and in any team it would be the same," he said. "They have to be good and play well and that means the rest of the team would be better. But if everyone can improve a little bit it will be good for the team."

With Javier Mascherano commencing a four-match suspension on Boxing Day, there is an opportunity for Aquilani, who missed the defeat at Fratton Park with a calf problem, to finally make his first league start four months after his £18m arrival from Roma. And Benítez admits the Italian's recovery period contradicted medical advice Liverpool received before signing the midfielder.

"We spoke to three different doctors and the worst-case scenario was that he would be out for two months," he said. "It has been more because he is a person and each person reacts in a different way to injury. He wants to play and we have to manage different players in a different way. A lot of people are talking about him. We know he is a big signing for us and we want to protect him because he hadn't the match fitness he needed. But with Mascherano not available he will have more opportunities."