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Anfield captain justifies Kenny Dalgish’s stance after Bolton debacle and insists the Reds are still challenging for all three of their pre-season targets

Steven Gerrard has the offer of an ambassador’s role from Liverpool but they are not spoiling him yet. The 31-year-old, along with the rest of Kenny Dalglish’s squad, was subject to another calm, composed but cutting critique before training at Melwood on Monday as the manager showed that two nights’ sleep had not lessened his disgust at their performance against Bolton. Backed into a corner and challenged to respond; it seems it was forever thus for Liverpool’s talismanic captain.

Manchester City’s arrival at Anfield for tonight’s Carling Cup semi-final second leg marks the start of a four-day period in which Liverpool could vanquish both Manchester clubs from domestic cup competition and book a first appearance at Wembley for 16 years. Or retreat into renewed self-doubt as City and United move further into the distance while hysteria attaches itself to Dalglish’s rebuilding work. There is no middle to squeeze at Liverpool.

Gerrard, of course, has seen it all before and having converted the penalty that separated the semi-finalists in the first leg, he will be the man Liverpool turn to for the way through once again. The difference in this potentially defining week, however, is that the most strident criticism of Liverpool came from their own manager, a man immersed in the traditions and expectations that he declared his team betrayed at the Reebok on Saturday night.

“It was definitely justified,” Gerrard admits. “When you put in a performance like we did as a group you expect criticism, especially from your manager. Kenny spoke in the dressing room after the game and on Monday before training. He wasn’t angry, he just said it as it was. He didn’t lose his rag or his control. He told individuals and us as a group that it wasn’t acceptable. As captain of the team that is down to me and he went through all of us.”

Gerrard does not dispute Dalglish’s claim that the City second leg contributed to the complacent showing at Bolton. “We didn’t need telling really. I knew at half-time and I knew after the game that that hadn’t been good enough. Maybe the lads had one eye on this and one eye on that. At the beginning of the season the big objective for this club was top four so if you look at it that way, Bolton is bigger than Manchester City.” He rejects outright, however, the idea that the 3-1 defeat represents an opportune wake-up call ahead of City and Saturday’s inflamed FA Cup fourth-round with Manchester United.

“There is no good time to perform like that when you play for this club,” he insists, the disdain clear in his voice. “You have to win every game. The people new to the club will appreciate and understand that a bit more after a performance like that. You can’t do it here. The fans won’t accept it, they don’t deserve it. It’s not allowed. Otherwise you get criticised by your manager, like we have all experienced. I have been here a long time and experienced days like that and the important thing is to move on from it fast. If we perform like that against Manchester City, there will be no Wembley trip.”

Dalglish insisted players would be moved on if the attitude at Bolton prevailed. His problem is that five of the team that started against Owen Coyle’s then bottom-placed team were his signings and Craig Bellamy, the veteran signed on a free, was the only one to impress. The £75m spent on Andy Carroll, Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing remains a weight upon the manager and, with the occasional exception from Henderson, poor value for Fenway Sports Group, the club’s owner.

Gerrard says only: “Those players know themselves. They know how they are playing. They know what form they are in. What I can say is that those players are working so hard to put in good performances. They are not giving up, they are not throwing the towel in, they are working day in, day out. The effort is there. Maybe they just need a little bit of luck, something to turn their way and they can go on a fine run. We all know those three players you have mentioned are good players.”

An outlay of over £100m in the past 12 months by Dalglish and Fenway, with £50m recouped from the sale of Fernando Torres alone, has not transformed Liverpool from a team hovering above the relegation zone when Roy Hodgson was sacked last January into convincing contenders for Champions League qualification. But they are where most expected them to be; competing for a top-four finish, playing far better football – Bolton being the most obvious exception – than in recent seasons and a home draw away from a first visit to Wembley since the 1996 FA Cup final. The murmurs of discontent about Dalglish, and not for his handling of the Luis Suárez controversy, have not escaped Gerrard.

“Our targets were to get into the top four and go on two long runs in the cup and it’s still possible. Why change? Why are we crying out for change?” he asks. “We’re six points off fourth and there are 16 games left. You’re not telling me that this team and the players we’ve got here are not capable of making that up? The sides who we are competing with aren’t on all-out consistent runs. Man United got beat 3-0 by Newcastle the other week, Chelsea drew with Norwich and Arsenal have lost their last three. Why isn’t it possible? Why are people crying out for change?

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all great here. We’ve got a fight on for fourth but we had a fight on at the start of the season, when we were telling people our aims for the season. Of course you go into every season wondering if you can get into the title race but at the moment we’re not in it and our realistic aim at the start was top four and two good long runs in the cup. At the end of this week we could be going to Wembley, we could be in the fifth round of the FA Cup and six points off fourth. The flip side of that is different but big weeks happen at big football clubs and this is a big week.”

And what would it mean to the Huyton-born midfielder to lead Liverpool out at Wembley? “Nothing,” he states. “But to lift the cup at Wembley would mean an awful lot. To get to Wembley is the target, to win it is the dream.”

Steven GerrardLiverpoolManchester CityAndy Hunter
guardian.co.uk

• Manager wants captain to play into late 30s
• Gerrard says he will only ever play for Liverpool

The Liverpool manager, Kenny Dalglish, has said that the club’s captain, Steven Gerrard, could continue playing well into his late 30s. The England midfielder, who will be 32 in May, signed an extension to his existing deal on Thursday and has said that he wants to play beyond his current contract.

Gerrard has recently been dogged by a groin problem, which required surgery, and then an ankle infection. Dalglish said: “You have to wait and see how they get through injuries. Ryan Giggs is 38, isn’t he? That’s seven years down the line – that’s a long time to predict – but if he’s fit there’s no reason why not. I’ve not got a crystal ball. I’m just delighted he’s done what he’s done and we have got him here.”

Dalglish is widely thought to have been Liverpool’s greatest player but he said Gerrard should come into the reckoning.

“I wouldn’t disagree, he has certainly made a huge contribution to the club but he wouldn’t be far away from being mentioned as the best player,” Dalglish said. “It is not just what he does in and around the first team, it is what he stands for the football club as well – which is more important. His standing within the community is fantastic and the way he does other work happily is a great testimony to himself as well.”

Gerrard refused to sign a new contract until he had returned to playing and could prove his problems were behind him.

“I was down in the dumps at the time and for them to offer me the contract extension was the boost I needed,” he told the Liverpool Echo. “Everyone at the club supported me so well. I agreed the extension a long time ago, I was always going to sign it, but I told them I wanted to wait until I had proved my fitness. I didn’t think it was right to sign when I was out injured. I wanted to wait until I was back out there and had shown people that the injuries were all behind me.”

Gerrard continued: “I can only see myself playing for Liverpool Football Club now. I’m very flattered that the club have offered me the chance to stay on after my playing days. Hopefully I can stay involved with the club and set the right example for youngsters coming through but that ambassadorial role may have to wait for a while. There’s still a great deal I want to achieve as a player.”

Gerrard will lead the team out at home to Stoke on Saturday. Asked what he had learned from two matches against Tony Pulis’s this season, Dalglish said: “If you don’t score any goals, you don’t get any points if you lose one at the other end.

“Every team brings a different problem and we have to deal with the problems we anticipate they’ll bring. But they’ve also got to deal with our strengths and we’ve got a lot of them.”

After Gerrard and the Manchester City manager, Roberto Mancini, confronted each other about a Glen Johnson tackle in midweek, Dalglish said he was looking for consistency from referees.

“The discussion is not about one person’s tackle against the other, it is about consistency and interpretation of tackles,” he said. “There are always going to be inconsistencies and human error but there are laws within the game which are as clear as mud.”

Kenny DalglishSteven GerrardLiverpoolguardian.co.uk

• Deal done less than 24 hours after Carling Cup semi-final
• Gerrard also agrees future ambassadorial role with club

The Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has committed his future to the club by signing an extension to his contract.

The 31-year-old England international finalised the deal less than 24 hours after scoring the only goal in Liverpool’s 1-0 Carling Cup semi-final first leg victory at Manchester City.

He told the club’s website: “I’m very happy. It’s a very proud day for myself and my family. This is the club I love and is the club I have supported since I was a young boy.

“I am living the dream as the captain of one of the biggest clubs in the world. I love coming to work every day and the experiences I have had since I was eight years of age and first signed for the club, I wouldn’t change them for the world. To extend that and to hopefully have some more good times in a red shirt is what I want.”

Gerrard has also agreed to take up an ambassadorial role with the club when he retires as a player.

“It’s really flattering for me that the club have offered me the chance to stay when I eventually hang my boots up,” he said. “Hopefully that will be in many years to come because I want to play for as long as I can.”

Steven GerrardLiverpoolguardian.co.uk