EPL form ´not good enough´, says Gerrard

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard says an FA Cup victory will not make up for the club's poor performance in the league this season.



The Reds lifted the Carling Cup in February and booked a meeting with Chelsea in the FA Cup final on May 5 at Wembley, but Gerrard believes he and his team-mates have let themselves down by not challenging for the top four in the Premier League.



"The league position isn't good enough," Gerrard said. "If we go on and win the FA Cup, we can look at the season as a success as far as the cups are concerned.



"But everyone knows what we will have to address and that’s the league form. We won the League Cup but should have moved up the league and put a big fight in for the top four.



"We need more consistency. We need to be winning games against the likes of Wigan and Stoke. We are better than those teams and we haven’t shown that this year.



"In certain matches we’ve created and chances and haven’t finished them off. That’s why we are where we are in the league. We need to be mentally stronger.



"But we’ve got the players and we can certainly improve next season. Back in August the target was top four and two good cup runs. We have delivered two of them.



"The plan now is to get some wins under our belt in the league and go into the cup final in good form."



As for their 2-1 semi-final win over Mersey rivals Everton, Gerrard was delighted with the manner in which the Reds recovered from going one down in the first half.



"There was a lot of pressure on the team with us playing against our big rivals," he said.



"It was disappointing to go a goal down but we all stuck together. We showed what character and what bottle this squad has got to respond and get the win.



"We all rallied around and proved we are a good team. We could have won even more comfortably with the chances we created in the second half."



Goals from expensively-assembled strike partnership Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez sealed the win for Liverpool, and their captain enthused about the duo's quality.



"They were two good performances from them and they showed what they are all about," he said.



"We have got every faith in them as a partnership. They showed again that if they are playing together they will deliver.



"We’re all happy for Andy to get the winner. He’s a good player and it just goes to show that a lot of the stuff that’s written about him is nonsense."