Steven Gerrard has revealed how he handles the obsession for football he believes overwhelms his Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez and team-mate Jamie Carragher.
Gerrard prepares to celebrate 10 years in the Reds' first team as he leads Liverpool into action against West Ham at Anfield on Monday.
The 28-year-old wants to win the title even more than the Champions League and Liverpool – without a league title for 18 years – acknowledge the manic desire from their fans to win the Barclays Premier League puts increasing pressure on the side.
Gerrard watches the way football dominates every waking hour for Benitez and Carragher, and just has to get away from it all.
"Football is the priority, but not an obsession," Gerrard said. "I love it, I make sacrifices for my job and I wouldn't put anything before it.
"But there are times when you have to get football out of your system.
"I don't know how Rafa and Carra do it. You have to take your hat off to them, they are obsessed 24/7.
"I have to get away from it to help my game, maybe Rafa and Jamie need it all the time to help theirs.
"I find it helps me to get on to a golf course for four hours, and don't talk or think about football. I spend half my time looking in the trees for my ball, but at least I am not thinking about football."
Gerrard is single-minded when he has to be, however, saying: "I can understand why people are saying we have title credentials, it is because when we have gone a goal down in games we just haven't given up. We have managed to turn things around.
"So now everyone says we have title credentials. That is the sort of pressure I suppose we expect.
"It is nice, but it raises expectations so it is important for us to stay humble.
"We know we are a good team, we know we are getting close to a title challenge. We know we can say that.
"But we have now got to prove we can stay in the race right to the end.
"The longer we go without delivering the title the more the pressure comes. But this is Liverpool, you have to expect that and deal with it. Every single game we play there is pressure to win.
"Even more so now because the wait for the 'bread and butter', as Bill Shankly used to describe the title, is getting longer.
"I have lived with it since I broke into the first team 10 years ago, but we are always under pressure.
"Making the Champions League every year is the minimum target, you have to earn the right to be in it.
"But with our history, and the number of cups we have won in Europe, we know it is our stage, it is where we want to be.
"We see how successful the club has been, players before our generation delivered, and fans expect the same today."
Liverpool are still unbeaten in the league at home in 2008, and it would be a major shock if West Ham – who have not won at Anfield since 1963 – were to wreck that record.
They will be without striker Fernando Torres again – he has a recurrence of his hamstring injury - and also Fabio Aurelio, who has a calf problem.
Gerrard prepares to celebrate 10 years in the Reds' first team as he leads Liverpool into action against West Ham at Anfield on Monday.
The 28-year-old wants to win the title even more than the Champions League and Liverpool – without a league title for 18 years – acknowledge the manic desire from their fans to win the Barclays Premier League puts increasing pressure on the side.
Gerrard watches the way football dominates every waking hour for Benitez and Carragher, and just has to get away from it all.
"Football is the priority, but not an obsession," Gerrard said. "I love it, I make sacrifices for my job and I wouldn't put anything before it.
"But there are times when you have to get football out of your system.
"I don't know how Rafa and Carra do it. You have to take your hat off to them, they are obsessed 24/7.
"I have to get away from it to help my game, maybe Rafa and Jamie need it all the time to help theirs.
"I find it helps me to get on to a golf course for four hours, and don't talk or think about football. I spend half my time looking in the trees for my ball, but at least I am not thinking about football."
Gerrard is single-minded when he has to be, however, saying: "I can understand why people are saying we have title credentials, it is because when we have gone a goal down in games we just haven't given up. We have managed to turn things around.
"So now everyone says we have title credentials. That is the sort of pressure I suppose we expect.
"It is nice, but it raises expectations so it is important for us to stay humble.
"We know we are a good team, we know we are getting close to a title challenge. We know we can say that.
"But we have now got to prove we can stay in the race right to the end.
"The longer we go without delivering the title the more the pressure comes. But this is Liverpool, you have to expect that and deal with it. Every single game we play there is pressure to win.
"Even more so now because the wait for the 'bread and butter', as Bill Shankly used to describe the title, is getting longer.
"I have lived with it since I broke into the first team 10 years ago, but we are always under pressure.
"Making the Champions League every year is the minimum target, you have to earn the right to be in it.
"But with our history, and the number of cups we have won in Europe, we know it is our stage, it is where we want to be.
"We see how successful the club has been, players before our generation delivered, and fans expect the same today."
Liverpool are still unbeaten in the league at home in 2008, and it would be a major shock if West Ham – who have not won at Anfield since 1963 – were to wreck that record.
They will be without striker Fernando Torres again – he has a recurrence of his hamstring injury - and also Fabio Aurelio, who has a calf problem.
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