Friday, 28th November, 2014
Former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier has revealed that Steven Gerrard had the appetite to fight and compete at the top level from his early years.
Houllier handed Gerrard his debut for the Reds against Blackburn in November 1998, when the former England midfielder was only 18.
Since then Gerrard has only grown from strength to strength at the club, cementing his legacy as one of the all-time greats at Anfield.
He also became the England captain and led the Three Lions to this summer’s World Cup in Brazil. He finally retired from international football at the end of the tournament.
Gerrard is still Liverpool’s leader and at 34, still a regular starter in Brendan Rodgers’ otherwise youthful Reds team.
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But Houllier remembers the young Gerrard and said that the desire to succeed at the top level through grit and determination has been in the Liverpool captain’s skin since his teenage years.
“To succeed at the very top level, obviously you need talent, hard work and also have a great desire and great game intelligence, he had that”, Houllier told LFC TV.
“Apart from the player, the man is somebody who can take the blow.
"Even when he is down, you can see he has a desire to compete, to fight and to win things.”
With 686 appearances, Gerrard is third on the list of most appearances for Liverpool behind Ian Callaghan and Jamie Carragher.
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