Benitez hails Gerrard

Rafa Benitez today paid Steven Gerrard a glowing tribute as the Liverpool captain aims to help England wrap up their World Cup qualifying campaign in style.

Gerrard will be in action tonight in Dnipropetrovsk, as Fabio Capello's side bid to extend their winning sequence in Group 6 against Ukraine to nine games.

The Reds' midfielder has played a key role in helping England secure a trip to South Africa and scored twice in the 5-1 drubbing of Croatia last month that sealed top spot.

But Gerrard, though, is not the type of player who dwells on past achievements and Benitez has given an insight into why his skipper has blossomed into such a huge talent.

He has revealed that Gerrard is constantly looking for advice on how to polish his game and an incident earlier this week before he joined up with the England squad showed that.

"Gerrard is a player who is always asking how he can improve," said Benitez. "He never stops wanting to learn.

"Before he left to join the English national side, he picked up a DVD prepared by the person in charge of match analysis at the club.

"It's a DVD of his strong points and his weaknesses, of his qualities and his faults, so he can make use of these few days and watch it before playing with the national side.

"When he left for the team base in London, he went straight to Melwood to get the DVD before leaving because he was very interested in the idea of analysing his match and trying to correct his mistakes.

"We spoke on the phone on Wednesday, because he was in a hurry for us to talk about its benefits.

"He's someone who always wants to get better, it's a fundamental part of him and it's a huge bonus for a manager."

Benitez will, of course, be keeping a close eye on how Gerrard and Glen Johnson fare during a weekend that has potential to cause him numerous headaches.

With so many of his squad in action for their various countries, Benitez fears receiving a phone call telling him that someone, somewhere has pulled up lame.

That said, he is delighted that full-back Emiliano Insua's promising form could be rewarded when Argentina - whose World Cup dreams are hanging in the balance - play Peru this evening.

"It (the call up) is very good news for him and for us," Benitez said. "He is a young player who is doing well for us.

"When you talk about young players, the idea is to try and promote them. He is playing games for us and it is fantastic for him and hopefully it will be good for his country too."

The views expressed in this story do not necessarily reflect the views of Liverpool Football Club.