Driven by a consolation prize

Interview Steven Gerrard: Grim reality is taking its toll at Anfield these days. The tub-thumping conviction which normally emanates from Steven Gerrard before a trip to Old Trafford was conspicuous only by its absence, his bullish self-confidence apparently drained. There was fear in the Liverpool captain's voice this week

"We can't finish this season the same as last, having to go away in the summer knowing we're coming back to play UEFA Cup football," snarls the England midfielder, the memory of being condemned to a fifth-placed finish by Chelsea 12 months ago a wound which has wept all year.

"There was a terrible feeling of failure that day and it's the fear of that which is driving me on. We failed last season, and that can't happen again."

At least the inescapable sense of dread has not blunted his brutal honesty. Liverpool have relied upon Gerrard's verve all season, looking to him shamefully at times as others have shrunk from responsibility. Yet a campaign of toil has transformed the captain into an angry young man, a scowl of frustration forever teasing at his lips. The 23-year-old has taken his team's shortcomings to heart.

Liverpool make the daunting trip to Manchester United this afternoon aware that, while victory would move them clear of Newcastle, defeat may leave them languishing in seventh place by tomorrow evening. The pursuit of fourth place has long since degenerated into a crawl, such is the inability of the five sides involved to capitalise on each other's slip-ups. Someone, at some stage, is going to have to take the initiative, with Gerrard painfully aware that the scrabble could be prolonged to the season's Anfield finale, against Bobby Robson's side.

Not that he views it with any great relish. "Come that game against Newcastle and the final whistle at the end of the season, I don't want to be walking around the pitch clapping our fans having finished fifth again," he says. "That would make this season a complete wash-out. I would take nothing from it, nothing at all. I want to be clapping those fans knowing we have qualified for the Champions League (qualifying round).

"Last summer we had high expectations to be in the title race come April, and to be left scrapping for fourth isn't good enough for this club. But we've got to come away with some sense of pride, some sense of progress. That's why I'm thinking about nothing else but fourth place. It's Champions League, Champions League, Champions League. I cannot stop thinking about it, and I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't a little bit concerned about our chances of making it because of our form in the last three games.

"I have sensed the urgency in training the last couple of days, but it is all right sensing it and feeling it. It's no good us performing at Melwood if, come three o'clock on Saturday, players are going missing. You can't hide in games. The manager has either brought players through, or bought players, to handle the pressure of these last four games and if people don't want to play, if people want to hide, it's no good to me, no good to the manager and no good to Liverpool Football Club.

"We need players who are going to stand up and be counted, people who want it as badly as the fans."

A solitary point has been picked up from three games since the riotous dismissal of Blackburn at the start of the month. Liverpool were humiliated at times at Highbury but, far more disturbingly, their home displays against Charlton and Fulham have been mystifyingly anaemic.

"There's been a nervousness, a tension there," concedes Gerard Houllier, who also suggests that might be less of a factor away from Merseyside.

This year's inconsistencies have left them the least successful team in fourth position with four games to play since the formation of the Premiership, three points adrift of Blackburn Rovers' 53 at this stage back in 1992-93. Worryingly, the gulf with third-placed United is 21 points, with only 22 separating Liverpool from the foot. That they are a colossal 31 points behind Arsenal is too horrific for some to contemplate.

"The last few results have hurt me but, if anything, this season has shown that United, Arsenal and Chelsea have all improved and are in a league of their own now," Gerrard adds. "We have fallen short. The players here all need to improve and we need to strengthen as well, whether we finish fourth, fifth or whatever. Last season we bought three or four players. This summer we might need the same.

"We would have money to strengthen. Three or four new faces could come in and we would be ready for the challenges that lie ahead, but there is no margin for error any more. We cannot afford, come (this) Monday morning, to have the same number of points on the board.

"We need at least a point from United to stay in this race because, if we get beaten and Newcastle win, there's a chance it'll all be over. It's as simple as that, the biggest game of our season. We need a result."