London - A club like Liverpool shouldn't be facing a make-or-break week in November, but if things go against them on Tuesday they will be left with just the FA Cup to play for.
A run of one win in 10 games has seen them slip to seventh in the league, 13 points behind leaders Chelsea, and exit the Carling Cup.
And if they fail to beat Debrecen in Hungary, or Fiorentina beat Lyon, who have already qualified, they will be out of the Champions League as well.
"The mood in the camp is really good, although we know our position in the table isn't good enough," Gerrard said after Saturday's 2-2 draw against Manchester City.
"But we have faith in our ability. We know we can put things right."
After finishing second in the league last season, four points behind champions Manchester United, it seemed Liverpool might be on the verge of ending their 19-year run without league trophy.
What was needed, it was said, was to convert home draws into victories.
Yet this season they have already lost three more league games than they did in the whole of the last campaign.
Part of that can be attributed to ill-fortune. Their defeat at Sunderland was caused by a goal that deflected in off a beach-ball, while they have suffered terribly with injuries.
Saturday added two further casualties, as centre-back Daniel Agger suffered a serious blow to the head and winger Ryan Babel damaged his ankle.
Yossi Benayoun, Fabio Aurelio, Albert Riera and Glen Johnson have all sustained strains or knocks in recent weeks to disrupt their seasons.
More serious, though, has been the injury to Gerrard, who will need a pain-killing injection in his groin before playing on Tuesday.
"It's been a frustrating few weeks because as soon as I was fit we had the international break," he said.
"I've been desperate to play and can't wait to really get going properly again."
And most serious of all has been the hernia suffered by striker Fernando Torres, without whom Liverpool lack attacking presence.
Once again, it has been made painfully obvious that Liverpool are reliant on two players, and if either Gerrard or Torres are missing, they are a significantly diminished force.
Manager Rafa Benitez will argue, with some justification, that he has been restricted in the transfer market, while there was little he could do to prevent midfielder Xabi Alonso joining Real Madrid in the summer.
The midfielder has been missed, and while it has been obvious for several months that he was keen on a return to Spain, he may have been more inclined to stay had Benitez's wheeler-dealing not led him to try to offload his fellow-Spaniard to Juventus the previous summer.
And restricted as Benitez may have been, it does not alter the lack of quality of many he has brought in, most notably Andrea Dossena, Andriy Voronin, Ryan Babel and Sotiros Kyrgiakos.
The result is that Liverpool have been left with a patchy squad, which a run of bad luck has exposed.
And so on Tuesday, as other top sides are just beginning to click into gear, Liverpool face an anxious evening.
With only a third of the season gone, that really is far too soon.
DPA
