Liverpool Football Club News

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Gerrard admits to hurt

23 Oct 2007 - 09:34:10

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Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has admitted he was hurt when Reds boss Rafa Benitez substituted him in Saturday's controversial derby success against Everton at Goodison Park.

Benitez's decision seemed strange at the time, but Gerrard's replacement, Lucas Leiva, won the last-gasp penalty that ensured Liverpool scraped a 2-1 win against their local rivals.

Gerrard told the Daily Mirror: "I'm a local lad so the derby is really important to me and I'd have liked nothing better than to play the full game and to be on the pitch when we got the winner.

"I was hurt and disappointed at being taken off because, like I said, I'm a local lad and the derby means everything to me.

"I've been in the game long enough to know that no-one is going to play every minute of every game and there'll be times when I'm taken off like everyone else.

"The most important thing is we won the game. When we lost there last season, it left a bad feeling that didn't go away for quite some time, so it's good to get that out of our systems."

Benitez had earlier backed his decision, saying: "The idea was clear. We were playing with 11 players against ten, we had plenty of possession and we needed to control the ball.

"I needed to change a player for playing between the lines around the midfielders.

"Gerrard is a fantastic player, there is no doubt about this, but you are playing the game and you need to take decisions to win the game.

"If I'd had needed to change Pepe Reina because he was nervous I would do it. Sometimes you need to wait, sometimes you need to do it.

"He wanted to play for sure. I tried to talk to him, but he was disappointed.

"The clever decision will be to look at it with him later and analyse why the decision was made. I think he will understand, because it is normal to do the best for the team."