Gerrard Calms Reds Expectations
Almost 10 years since his debut and one goal short of his century for Liverpool, Steven Gerrard is still searching for the holy grail of title glory.
The league championship is the only domestic medal that 28 year-old Gerrard does not possess.
And as he prepares to celebrate a decade in the Liverpool side since his debut in November 1998, Gerrard will surely by then have cracked the 100-goal mark for the club after moving to 99 with his Champions League double in Marseille.
Gerrard is aware that expectation in the red half of Liverpool has hardly been dampened by last weekend's victory over Premier League champions Manchester United and Tuesday's success in Provence.
And if Liverpool beat newly-promoted Stoke on Saturday it will be their best start to a Premier League season after five games, beating the 12 points they amassed back in 1993-94.
The 100th goal, when it comes, will see him equal Kevin Keegan's tally for the Anfield club.
Gerrard knows, however, that it is the league crown, not won since 1990 by Liverpool, that the fans, players and management crave.
But the boy from Huyton is not daft enough to start making wild predictions of success.
Speaking to LiverpoolFC magazine, he said: "It's easy to get carried away at times, but it's too early to start making any sorts of statements.
"I've done it in the past, when I've said we have got a chance in this or that year, only to see us fall short.
"I think we are better equipped to go closer this season, but that's as far as I will go at the moment.
"I don't want to raise anyone's expectations too high in only the second month of the season.
"The plan is to still be in with a chance with five or 10 games to go. We have to be challenging."
Liverpool, unbeaten this term, have lost only one league game since the defeat at West Ham in January. In all 36 matches so far in 2008, Liverpool have been beaten just four times.
It is the sort of form that gives Gerrard confidence that he can add to his own personal haul of medals over the coming years.
He said: I am hoping that the next three or four years will be very good for me. I hope people are right when they say you peak at 28 or 29.
"I often reflect on what I have achieved in the game. I think about it every day and just hope that all those highlights, the trophies, the goals, the great wins and matches, are not the end of it.
"I want more of those experiences and memories. They are the best things that have happened to me in football. The joy you get from them is unbelievable.
"So over the next five years or so I want to get more cups under my belt and I am desperate to try to win this league.
"I feel the squad is a lot stronger than last season. There are certainly a lot more match-winners here."
As for his approaching decade in the first team, Gerrard said: "I'm getting scared, the years are flying by.
"It has gone so quickly, and in November it will be 10 years since I broke into the first team.
"They say time flies when you are having fun, and it's true. Now I just want to make the most of the time I have got left playing football." |
發表於 2008-9-19 02:07 AM
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