England striker Peter Crouch accepts he will probably
have to consider quitting Liverpool in the summer to get regular
first-team football.
The 6ft 7ins forward scored an impressive opening goal in the
1-1 Barclays Premier League draw with Arsenal at Emirates Stadium
on Saturday.
However, Crouch feels he is likely to be back on the Anfield
bench for tomorrow night's second leg of their Champions League
quarter-final with the Gunners, when leading scorer Fernando Torres
is expected to lead the attack again.
Liverpool have offered the 27-year-old, who arrived from
Southampton in a £7million deal during 2005, a new contract.
Yet Crouch, who has 25 England caps, intimated his future could
well lay elsewhere if he cannot hold down a first-team place.
'I would love to stay, it is a fantastic club and I love
everything about it, but I have got to be realistic,' said Crouch,
who has just seven Premier League starts this season.
'If I want to have any aspirations of playing for England, or
furthering my career, then I have to be playing - and that doesn't
seem to be the case at the moment.
'I will have to look at it - but that's certainly something I
won't be doing now, I will be doing it at the end of the
season.'
Crouch, though, insists his current focus in on helping
Liverpool progress in Europe.
'At the moment I am concentrating on winning something for
Liverpool and playing some part in the end of the season,' he
said.
'We have got a Champions League run-in now and it's exciting for
us, and all my efforts are focused on that.'
Reds boss Rafael Benitez made eight changes for the Premier
League match on Saturday, and looks set to tinker with his side
again tomorrow.
Crouch, though, is expecting to be back on the bench.
'It's pretty clear I probably won't start,' he said.
'Obviously if the manager plays one up front, he is more than
likely to go with Fernando - and rightly so, he's been fantastic
this season.
'Before when he was rotating at least I was getting a game here
and there. But the manager's obviously stuck with a formation now
that seems to be working, and credit to the players that have been
playing in that system.
'We have certainly been playing well and I think we have got a
great chance of going through to the semi-finals now in Europe.
'But for me, I will just have to obviously keep working hard and
try and change his mind.'
Crouch revealed: 'It can be disheartening, but you have to keep
going.
'I am one of those players that will keep going, I keep working
hard in training, and, if called upon then hopefully I'll do what I
did at Arsenal.
'At a big club there is always that pressure. Even if you start
every game, if you don't perform, you know you are going to be
out.
'But maybe me more so, with the fact that I haven't played that
much this season, so, when I do, I have to make sure that I do well
and do the business to try and stay in.'
After holding the Gunners to a 1-1 draw twice in the space of
four days, Crouch believes Liverpool will have a psychological edge
tomorrow.
'We have got to take confidence from the fact that we've played
two away games now against Arsenal and certainly not been outplayed
at any time,' said the striker.
'We have given them a good account of ourselves, could have won
either game, it could have gone either way.
'Now, when we are at Anfield and with the crowd behind us, we
feel we can beat anyone.'