You'll Never Walk Alone

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez would never accept that one man makes a team, even if that man is the inspirational Steven Gerrard.But the Liverpool manager, after witnessing Satutrday's limp 0-0 home draw with Fulham, was relieved to be able to reveal his skipper should be back in the starting line-up for Wednesday's Champions League home clash with Marseille.

It was clearly not palatable to consider the prospect of Gerrard's torn groin muscle leaving the club's inspiration again sitting in the directors' box.

Gerrard shuffled with frustration along with the rest of Liverpool's faithful as a team still unbeaten in the league at home in 2008 failed to see off a defiant Fulham.

That muscle injury has caused substantial damage in a matter of days, leaving Liverpool's relationship with the Football Association and the England set-up at best chilly.

Then, without Gerrard, Liverpool wasted the chane to go top. Chelsea and Manchester United also drew, so the only real losers were Arsenal whose defeat at Manchester City leaves them outside the top four and 10 points behind the leaders.

It should have been more because even an off-key Liverpool had enough chances to have buried Fulham.

Robbie Keane missed a sitter - it seems to happen every week now - while Dirk Kuyt failed twice from good positions.

The view afterwards from the Reds camp was that they should be able to win without Gerrard.

Full-back Fabio Aurelio said: "We have played for two months without Fernando Torres, and that is a big loss, but managed to win matches.

"We were able to handle it. And we should be able to do the same without Steven.

"Of course he is a fine player. He is approaching 10 years since his debut and he is very important for us.

"I have only been with him at Liverpool for a couple of years, but I know full well what he means to the club.

"I see him working every day in training, I see him leading the side on the pitch, and he is very, very special.

"But again we should not use as an excuse the fact that he was not playing against Fulham. It is too easy a thing to say.

"We have won games without Steven before, and we have good enough players to come into the side when he is not playing and still be able to win games."

Aurelio added: "Any side in the world would miss a player of Steven's ability and leadership. That is obvious.

"But we are finding teams now coming to Anfield and playing like Fulham did. They did not really have many chances, but tems now defend deep and in numbers.

"It is difficult to break down, but we should be able to do that with the players we have, with or without Steven."

Benitez supported that view and insisted his players must take collective responsibility.

He said: "We will always miss a player of Stevie's ability, but we did not beat Fulham because five or so players were all off form together.

"You cannot win games when that happens. He would have made a difference, yes, but it should not be an excuse.

"He is training now and I would expect that he would be fit to play against Marseille on Wednesday."

Benitez added: "It was a bad day, we did not have enough energy and we did not pass the ball well enough.

"We had a situation when maybe five players were well below their best. The players who had been away with their countries looked tired.

"I know the crowd were calling for Xabi Alonso to come on, but he had played 90 minutes for Spain and we needed fresh legs.

"When he did come on Fulham pressurised him straight away. One man does not make that much difference in such circumstances, when so many other players are off form you cannot