Rafa Benitez believes Steven
Gerrard can still improve in his role
behind Fernando
Torres despite plundering 24 goals this
term. <!-- END SYNOPSIS -->
In an ominous warning to the rest of the Barclays Premier
League, Benitez identified 'one or two' areas where the Football
Writers' Player of the Year can improve when deployed in the hole
behind El Nino.
"Hopefully he can improve even more next year," Benitez told LFC TV
in a three-hour season review to be aired at 8pm BST on Saturday
night.
"He knows the position a little bit but he is aware that he can
still improve. There are one or two little things that if he works
on he will be even better."
The skipper has scored 92 goals in five years since Benitez arrived
from Valencia, compared with 28 in the five seasons previous.
Asked how much Gerrard has improved during his tenure, Benitez
replied: "He has learnt a lot, and he is still keen to learn.
"If you analyse his numbers - he's scored 23, 11, 21 and now 24. I
remember when we talked about him as a right winger and everyone
was talking in the press, but he still got 23 that year.
"Now in a free role he got 24, which is a fantastic achievement for
him. I was really pleased because he said it was thanks to his
teammates - that is really positive."
Meanwhile, Benitez rejects the idea that Liverpool's success in the
second half of the season came after he let the shackles off his
team.
Instead he points to the improved form of individuals to explain
why Liverpool scored on average 1.5 goals per game before
Christmas, compared with 2.3 from Boxing Day onwards.
"People can talk about us needing to be more offensive like we were
at the end of the season, but we were doing more or less the same
things," said Benitez.
"If you analyse our draws at home before Christmas, we had a lot of
chances. You were always talking about 20 chances, but we didn't
take them.
"The difference was that some people were doing a little bit
better. Javier
Mascherano was a big difference in the second half of the
season, and Gerrard also improved as the season went on.
"Also Yossi
Benayoun. Yossi was playing really well and was a key player
for us in the end. If players like Yossi or Gerrard play well, the
team is going to have more chances because they're good at giving
the final pass."
Liverpool's ruthless streak in the second half of the season
resulted in 10 wins from the final 11 games as they kept the
pressure on champions Manchester United until the penultimate
weekend.
"I talked every week about doing our job, getting three points in
every game, so I am really proud of my players," added Benitez.
"When we needed to win, to perform, we did really well.
"We played really well for the majority of the season. The draws
were a problem but we created chances. But we were delighted at how
things went when we took our chances, and I think the fans were
also very pleased with the style we were playing."
The Reds tallied 86 points during the campaign - a club record in
the Premier League, and enough to claim 12 of our 18 titles.
But instead of overhauling United and securing a first championship
since 1990, Benitez and his squad ended the season
trophyless.
The boss added: "For sure I would have taken 86 points at the start
and I would also have been sure that we'd have won something with
this amount of points but the Premier League is very strong, it's
always difficult.
"It was good but you cannot say 'success' if you don't win a
trophy.
"Two or three of the top sides in the world are in England, so
clearly it's not easy to win trophies.
"But to break some records, score a lot of goals and not concede
many, and to only lose two games is not bad.
"Clearly, if you analyse the numbers to see why we have improved,
there are two or three things. But the main one is the results
against the top four.
"Also, our results away have been much better. At home we can talk
about the figures and the draws - but more or less it was the same
as the season before."