England captain now wants to beat Everton on Sunday to end campaign on a high.
Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard says there should be a lot of optimism at Anfield going into next season.
The Reds currently lie in a lowly seventh position in the Premier League table with now just three matches of the campaign left to play, starting with the 220th Merseyside derby against high-flying Everton at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.
And, if Liverpool’s city rivals win that contest, it will ensure that David Moyes’s side finish above them in the top-flight standings for the second year in a row, the first time that will have happened since the Thirties.
However, the 32-year-old midfield player insists that there is still much to be happy about at Anfield under new head coach Brendan Rodgers, especially since the arrival of both front man Daniel Sturridge from Chelsea and midfield player Philippe Coutinho from Serie A giants Inter Milan during the recent January transfer window.
“Yes, Everton have been consistent, but they are still only sixth,” Gerrard told the Liverpool Daily Post.
“They have had a good season but maybe their targets were slightly different to others around them in the table.
“For real consistency, the example has to be Manchester United. Not Everton.
“Liverpool, though, is my main concern. Our target at the start of the season was the top four so it’s clear our consistency hasn’t been good enough.
“I’m not really a stats man, I prefer to look at the bigger picture, but if you look at our amount of goals and clean sheets, it’s clear we are moving in the right direction.
“It’s not all gloom and doom. We’ve played some fantastic stuff this season, and besides a handful of games we’ve always been in with a shout.
“I don’t really like jumping ahead but for me there’s a lot of optimism.
“When you make signings you need to contribute. If they are attacking players, you need them to score and set up goals and be better than we already have.
“Sturridge and Coutinho are both signings for the starting XI, and they can both be even better next season.
“I’m convinced they will be two big players for us.
“And if you add another striker to that and you have Luis coming back, then that’s the firepower we need to be challenging nearer to the top four.
“In fact, if we had got in Sturridge and Coutinho at the start of the season then I think we’d have been right up there among the top four.”
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