Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard targets top four finish
When Roy Hodgson was appointed Liverpool manager this summer, a new wave of optimism swept over the red half of Merseyside.
With the club’s American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, keen to sell and Rafael Benitez having set sail for Italy, there was a general feeling around Anfield that the long-distant glory days could be revived again.
But Hodgson’s honeymoon period never got going. A couple of bright moments in the Europa League aside, it’s been a dire start for the former Fulham manager. Currently sitting in 16th place in the Premier League table with five points from as many matches, doubts are now beginning to surface over whether Hodgson will last the season.
And those doubts became more widespread after Wednesday night’s shock Carling Cup third-round defeat against League Two minnows Northampton Town, which marked a new low for the five-time European champions.
Club captain Steven Gerrard didn’t feature against the Cobblers, but the England skipper did watch on glumly from the stands.
The 30-year-old, who has been the club since he was nine, believes that Liverpool’s target this season is now a top four finish, rather than a title challenge.
In an interview with The Times, Gerrard said: “Winning the title, of course, is a possibility because there’s a chance it can happen. But realistically, our focus is to finish in the top four.
“If we finish first, second or third, fantastic, great, and we certainly won’t give up on that, we’ll fight all the way to the end. But at the start of the season, you have targets and from a realistic point of view, after finishing seventh last season, our target was always to get back in the top four.”
For that to become a realistic possibility, Liverpool require a huge turnaround in their fortunes. From what the Reds have achieved so far this season, the idea of Hodgson’s side finishing inside the Champions League places sounds rather far-fetched right now.
But it’s still a frank admission from Gerrard, who scored both goals for Liverpool in their 3-2 defeat against Manchester United last weekend.
Speaking about the Northampton defeat, the midfielder added: “I was down yesterday morning. I was upset, frustrated, but there’s nothing I can do about it now, it’s gone. I’ve got to look forward, I’m captain of the team.
“But the last thing those young kids who played that game wanted to see when they got into training was Steven Gerrard with his jaw on the floor, upset and frustrated. They wanted to see me upbeat, positive and looking forward to Saturday.
“That’s what I’ve learnt to do as captain. I have an effect on the other players in the dressing room so I’ve got to make sure that I approach the day right and I feel I’ve done that.”
Many Liverpool supporters have pinpointed the ongoing ownership issues as the primary reason for Liverpool’s poor start to the campaign, but Gerrard was able to produce a longer list of factors to explain the early-season slump.
“There’s a lot of factors,” he said. “Players coming back from the World Cup, signings coming in late close to the deadline, a new manager, new physical set-up, players taking time to gel and get used to each other.”
Whatever the main reason for Liverpool’s failure to get off to a decent start under Hodgson, with a personality like Gerrard in the ranks, the club’s under-pressure manager knows he has an influential captain capable of rallying the troops.
But a top-four finish in May, even at this early stage of the season, looks likely to remain an impossible dream.
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