 |
| NEWS STORY |
STEVIE KEEN FOR LANDMARK GOODISON STRIKE
Paul Eaton
27 September 2008
|
|
Steven Gerrard looked ahead to this afternoon's Merseyside derby and admitted: "It would be fantastic to score my 100th goal at Goodison!"
|
The Liverpool captain thought he had netted his landmark goal against Stoke last weekend only for the referee to cut short his celebrations.
While victory is all that matters for Gerrard and co this afternoon, he admits it would be extra special to reach a ton of goals at the home of the Reds city rivals.
"You could tell from my celebration against Stoke how excited I was at scoring my 100th goal," says Gerrard. "The feeling that I thought I had scored it was great, but to then have it taken away was a bit of a blow, to be honest.
"Hopefully I won't have to wait long, and to score the 100th against Everton would be fantastic.
"Everyone knows how much playing in the derby means to me. I've managed to score a few against Everton in the past, which has been a brilliant feeling.
"But I'm more concerned that we win the game than I score my 100th. I'm not going to be selfish about it, the one thing I want more than anything is for us to win."
While Gerrard goes in search of his landmark 100th strike for the Reds, Irish forward Robbie Keane is still looking for his first.
With Fernando Torres having netted just the once since the start of the season there has been much talk about the Reds' lack of firepower this term - but Gerrard insists it's just a matter of time before the goals are flowing once more.
"There's been a lot of talk about Robbie in the last few weeks, and people have also been mentioning that Fernando hasn't been firing on all cylinders because of his injury," he says.
"But I believe they are the least of our worries. They are two quality players who, although they aren't scoring as much, they're still doing an awful lot for the team.
"And you can't keep quality down forever. I'm sure the goals are only around the corner.
"Robbie is a different case to Fernando. He is desperate for a goal, and perhaps he's a bit anxious and it's playing on his mind a bit.
"I said the other week that his first goal will be the most important and when it comes he'll score a lot more.
"But it doesn't matter whether it's me, Robbie, Fernando or whoever that scores on Saturday, as long as we get the three points."
And despite Everton enduring a mixed start to the campaign, Gerrard insists only a top class performance today will be enough to secure those precious points.
"A lot of people have been talking about Everton struggling defensively, but for these games the form book really does go out of the window," he added.
"I wouldn't say it's a good time to play Everton at all. In fact, what happened to them at Blackburn might work in their favour and against us, because it will fire their players up even more.
"It's all about the game on the day, and every player will forget what's gone before once they step on to the pitch. The derby game is always different.
"There's a lot of local pride at stake in this city and neither set of players will want to lose this game.
"We're going to see if we can exploit any weaknesses throughout the Everton team, and I'm sure they will be doing the same with us.
"Everton have got some real matchwinners in their team, Cahill, Yakubu, Arteta and now Saha, who I really rate. So we will have to be careful."
You can listen to the derby live on Liverpoolfc.tv. Click here to sign up for an e-Season Ticket>>
|
|
|
|
| COMPETITIONS |
 |
| Win LFC Family Album Books! |
 |
|
|
