Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina has praised Steven Gerrard, stating that the Anfield skipper is ‘inspirational’ to the entire squad.
Steven Gerrard made his presence felt for the team with a brilliant set-piece goal against arch rivals Manchester United in front of more than 40,000 loyal Liverpool fans at the electric atmosphere of Anfield on Saturday. The goal was then unfortunately cancelled out by the Red Devils’ Mexican talisman Javier ‘Chicarito’ Hernandez with a close range header after a teasing corner from Luis Nani.
The 31-year-old captain featured for the first time since March due to a groin injury but his Spaniard teammate Pepe Reina is confident that his skipper’s crucial return to football can boost and help strengthen up the team.
Stevie is the badge of this football club, the soul of this team and we are more than happy to have him back in the team.
Hopefully he will be back for a long, long time. Just by the fact that he is on the pitch it is an inspiration for us, he always lead by example and anything he does he does with passion and a lot of commitment. He is a born winner.
It is a positive thing to be disappointed not at having beaten Manchester United.
It speaks well about the hunger of the team and the performance of the team that clearly we deserved three points. We have to keep going and keep winning games.
We have been consistent I think we have had just one poor game so I think that is not a bad balance at all.
It shows without doubt the progress that has been made. We are all much happier than a year ago.
It is not about belief. It is about the quality of the team and the squad and the strength we have as a group, as a group of players, as a football club. That is all that matters. We have to work on a daily basis to improve, keep going and compete more often with the people above us.
It is still early days to speak about closing gaps or not, we will find out at the end of the season and hopefully the distance won’t be that big.
Kenny Dalglish’s men will take own Scottish outfit Rangers in a friendly at Ibrox on 18th October before hosting Norwich City at Anfield this weekend for their upcoming Barclays Premier League match.
