Brendan Rodgers has said Steven Gerrard does not have an automatic route back into the Liverpool team as the club captain aims to make his comeback at Swansea City .
Gerrard has missed his team's previous seven matches with a hamstring problem but is fit for the trip to the Liberty Stadium where Rodgers' team will seek to maintain their push for Champions League qualification. Fellow midfielder Lucas Leiva is also available having been absent since the Merseyside derby on 7 February with a thigh injury.
Liverpool have impressed in the Premier League during Gerrard’s absence, and lost only one of those games that the 34-year-old has missed, the Europa League elimination against Besiktas. Rodgers insists the team’s performance must come first and there will be no sentimentality attached to his selections as the midfielder enters the final straight of his illustrious Anfield career.
“I am respectful and this guy is one of the greatest players in the history of the Premier League and arguably the greatest player of this club,” the Liverpool manager said. “But what I do know is that Stevie always puts the team first. I have huge respect for him whether he is playing or not playing and huge admiration for him as a player and person.
“But I am not one that makes emotional decisions on whether I like someone or not. For me it is about picking and finding the right balance in the team and what makes the team function to ultimately win. He still has big qualities that we will need between now and the end of the season.
“What you have seen over my time here is that I rely on the team. The team, of course, has to have good players in it, but ultimately it is about the team and what is going to benefit and how we can get results as a team. I will repeat again the most important thing is Steven is back fit and we have Lucas Leiva coming back too. The beauty of this season is that everyone has had an opportunity in the first three or four months and then we have found a way to win. It is something everyone has to respect. It is about the team and the spirit of the team and I will always pick the best team I feel to win a game.”
Gerrard has a maximum 13 games remaining in his Liverpool career, should the team overcome Blackburn Rovers in an FA Cup quarter-final replay at Ewood Park and ultimately reach the Cup final on 30 May, but Rodgers insists managing the captain’s game time will not be a difficult aspect of his job. “It won’t be hard for me because I don’t pick a team on whether I like someone or not,” he said. “Of course we try and bring in a certain profile of player but it is whether they can do the job . I tend to work closely with the players but it is not based on whether I like them or not because their personalities are different. It will be about whether they have the efficiency to make the team work.
"There are things you have to manage and one is managing the situation here with arguably the greatest player to have played for the club, towards the end of his career. These are challenges. Luis Suárez – one of the greats. Jamie Carragher. It is about managing all these situations whilst trying to build a team to make this club competitive again at the very highest level. You earn your money."
Rodgers’ side swept Swansea aside 4-1 at Anfield at the end of December and their goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski said that defeat still hurts. “It wasn’t the best of nights but this is an opportunity to put that right,” he said.
