There's no bigger compliment that I can pay Steven Gerrard than to say that I just wished he'd turned up at Liverpool 20 years ago when I was with the first team because he's one player I would have loved to work with.

In my 49 years at Liverpool, I played alongside some fantastic players and helped coach some even better ones but I can honestly say that Steven Gerrard is already up there as one of the best players this club has ever had.

To claim a player is one of the best to ever represent a football club means he must be pretty special but when the club in question is Liverpool Football Club, it means the player is right up there with some of the greatest players ever to grace the game.

I've been around marvellous players like Roger Hunt, Kevin Keegan, Ian Callaghan, Emlyn Hughes, Graeme Souness, Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, John Barnes and Robbie Fowler and I think Gerrard is as good as any of them.

As a coach or manager, he's exactly the sort of player you want to see turn up for training every week because of his desire and will to win. He's so driven by winning that he does your job for you. He motivates everyone around him and in that way he reminds me of Kenny or Graeme. When new players come to the club, they see someone like Steven who has already won almost every medal in the game giving it 110% in training and immediately they think, 'This is the standard expected at the club'. That's what I mean when I say he helps the manager or the coaching staff do their jobs.

I was only ever caretaker manager at Liverpool but I think I can safely say that the likes of Shanks, Bob, Joe and Kenny would have had Steven in their team every single week unless of course he was injured. Even with the players they had at their disposal, they'd all have made room for him. It's easy to get carried away with what's hot at the moment but in Steven's case, I think he'd be deserving of a place in any Liverpool team in the club's history.

I've been watching him for years and even if I didn't realise it when I first saw him play at right-back, it didn't take me long to come to the conclusion that he's got everything you need to be a top class footballer. He has strength and massive amounts of energy but not only that; he's also got the footballing brain that Kenny Dalglish had.

I go to watch him play every home game and every time I am impressed by him. You see the way he makes these runs and sometimes people don't realise why he's doing them. I remember the recent 2-2 draw with Bolton and he won a penalty. There are not that many players about who would have made the type of run he did down the left wing to win that penalty. The speed and energy he showed to make that run was the sign of a true athlete at the top of their game but the way he cut across the defender in the box was very clever. He left the defender but with no option to bring him down and that's why I say he's got a really good footballing brain. He saw what was going to happen before the defender and that's not something you can simply teach a player.

The other thing he gives the team is versatility. He can play in any position and he could probably play in goal if he wanted too! You wonder where he gets the energy from sometimes but it's that never-give-up attitude and that infectious enthusiasm that rubs off on all around him. I think he'll stay the same way for the rest of his life because that's who he is. What you see out on the football pitch is what Rafa and his staff will see on the training pitch every day.

Liverpool are playing better than ever now under Rafael Benitez and he has built his team around not just Steven but also the players around him like Xabi Alonso, Jamie Carragher and Sami Hyypia. You can tell that they are now Rafa's players because they seem to think like their manager. They've all got their feet firmly on theground just like Rafa and they're all still willing to learn and improve.

Rafa had this great success at Valencia and wants to achieve the same success at Liverpool. He reminds me very much of Shanks - the way he goes about things at the club - and Steven obviously enjoys playing for him and likes the way the team are playing. The manager takes it one game at a time the way we used to do it under Shanks, Bob, Joe and Kenny because that is the 'Liverpool way'. He is playing the game the way it should be played and the rest will follow in terms of trophies. With Benitez as manager and Steven as his captain on the pitch, I couldn't be more optimistic than I am right now.

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