Steven Gerrard has revealed that Liverpool are taking every cup competition seriously after manager Kenny Dalglish put out a strong side in their 2-1 victory over Brighton in the League Cup.
t was the Reds captain's first appearance after spending six months on the sidelines through injury, and he insisted that being at Liverpool is "all about winning trophies".
"For a club like Liverpool, we haven't been to a major cup final for a long time, so we've got to take every cup seriously - especially when there's no Europe - it makes it a little bit easier to put stronger sides out," he said after the match.
"Kenny's assembled a fantastic squad and now we've got a couple of good players in every position, so even when he mixes it round or rests people we can still put a strong side out like you saw tonight."
He continued: "It's drilled into you from a young boy when you play for Liverpool. It's all about winning trophies and that's the reason why we've got to take every cup seriously - that was the message from the manager tonight before we went out.
"We want to be one step closer to a major cup final and we've delivered tonight. As the captain I'd love nothing more than to get to Wembley with the lads and lift the cup."
"I've been really happy with what I've seen since Kenny's come in. There's been a lot of happy faces around the training ground, and the supporters are happy and I think 90 per cent of the performances have been fantastic.
"If you take Tottenham away and it's exactly what I've been hoping for, and that makes you even more desperate and hungry to get back and get in amongst the lads.
"So it's been frustrating, but it's also been nice to see that the lads have been progressing well and the signings we've made have been good; from top to bottom at the club now everyone's smiling."
Gerrard was also happy with the dominance Liverpool displayed in the first half, and the performance of Craig Bellamy, who scored his first goal since rejoining the Anfield club.
The captain added: "I thought in the first half we were fantastic, we could have had the game dead and buried and been three or four up, but you know in these cup ties the opposition are always going to have a spell of pressure.
"Credit to Gus Poyet, he's got a fantastic team here who play well and they'll probably find themselves hard done by that they didn't take us to extra time. Though that wouldn't have been the end of the world, I'd have got an extra 30 minutes.
"But we're glad to be in the draw for the next round, and looking forward to Saturday to see who we get in the draw.
"It's a fantastic performance from [Bellamy], that's why we've signed him.
"He's got pace, he's always dangerous, it was a great finish for his goal and he's unlucky not to score a worldie when he's cracked the bar so we're really pleased to have him here and I think the fans have had a taste of what he's going to offer us for the rest of the season."
No comments:
Post a Comment