Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has urged club owners to provide more financial support to the team in order to be able to compete in the Premiership title race. The midfield marvel is unhappy with the team's underachieving in the league, despite their continental success in recent years. However, Gerrard demanded more effort from American duo Tom Hicks and George Gillet, and backed manager Rafa Benitez, who spent around $130M in new signings during last season. "Every year seems to be following the same routine," the England ace told the News of the World. "The manager asks for more support in the transfer market in January, while we're all saying to ourselves this should have happened the previous summer. "The time to act is now, not in January when we're already too far behind. "The manager knows where we need to strengthen and the players and fans have faith in Rafa - but he needs the backing to act on his plans. "When the American owners came to Liverpool they told the players and fans they wanted the same as us. "We all believed them when they made that promise and it's been repeated again since, so we're all desperate to see it happen." The Reds finished the season empty-handed as they finished fourth in the league, and got knocked out of the Champions League's semi-finals by Chelsea. League Failure Gerrard has previously won the UEFA Champions League, FA and Carling Cup titles with Liverpool, and the 28-year-old is desperate to win the Premiership. "I've won every major honor at Liverpool except one. It hurts more and more not only to have never won the league, but to have never really gone close," he added. "It would be bad enough if we only narrowly missed out on the title, but we've never got to March or April recently and thought we were in contention. "That's what we want more than anything at Anfield, but we'll only achieve that when everyone is working together for the same goal."
