Steven Gerrard could not agree with James Milner’s assessment of the Anfield pitch – which he cited as an issue during Liverpool’s draw with Chelsea.
The two struggling outfits played out a goalless 90 minutes – with a point doing little to help either team’s situation. The game lacked quality or many clear cut chances as Liverpool and Chelsea slipped further away from the top four. Milner began the game at right-back before being hauled off in the second-half.
The former Manchester City man did air concerns over the state of the Anfield pitch, which didn’t make it easy during the lunchtime kick-off, but felt they could’ve made it easier for themselves.
He told BT Sport: “It was tough, two teams who aren’t obviously playing their best at this moment in time, that’s why you have to win that battle. The pitch didn’t make it overly easy to play as much as we’d like but we could have made it easier for ourselves by maybe having an extra touch or moving a bit more. There wasn’t many options at times and again, that’s something we could work on.”
Gerrard though, who was on the pitch pre-match as part of BT Sport’s punditry line-up, disagreed with the Red. He said: “It looked perfect to me when I was walking on it before the game so I’ll have to disagree with that one.”
Liverpool have won six of their nine league games at Anfield this term with the majority of their problems coming on the road. Milner bemoaned the fact they couldn’t get the job done on their own patch, but was impressed with their defensive efforts as he called for more improvements.
“We always want to win our home games,” he added. “I think the situation we’re in at the moment things don’t feel as easy as, everything feels a bit more difficult at the moment, but we’ve got to stick together and keep working hard. Pleasing to keep a clean sheet and that’s where we need to start our basis and get that base. You saw the fight out there from the boys and the chances to win it, they had chances to win it you know so that’s something we can tighten up on.”
Liverpool are now nine points behind Newcastle in fourth having played the same amount of games as the Magpies. Since returning from the World Cup the Reds have won two of their last five games, but have failed to pick up three points since December.
Gerrard said on the current state of affairs at his former club: “They’ve got big, big players that are out injured that give them more threat, that make them more potent up front. They’re on the back of two clean sheets so they seem as if they’ve got their base back, but there are elements of Liverpool’s identity that are missing at the moment.”
