VIDEO: Captain calls for composure
Thursday, 02 September, 2010
Steven Gerrard hopes to see players perform under pressure.
Click here to watch the Steven Gerrard press conference.
Steven Gerrard wants England to produce a performance for the supporters when Fabio Capello's side take on Bulgaria at Wembley on Friday night.
The midfielder says he "thrives" on the responsibility of being Three Lions captain and is determined to get the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign off to the perfect start by beating Bulgaria and then winning in Switzerland.
Gerrard said: "Hopefully the crowd can get behind us tomorrow and we can look forward to a good positive result. I think it's very important to show the supporters and make a statement.
"I'm really enjoying being captain. I have captained Liverpool for many years and I thrive on the responsibility. My performances for England of late have been good and I'm really happy with my form.
"It always helps and the players and manager realise we're under pressure at the moment. It will really help if we put on a good positive performance and get the maximum points. Then we can take the confidence from that and go into the Switzerland game on Tuesday.
"We qualified really well for the World Cup playing good attacking football and if we can perform at that level I'm sure we'll get out of this group in similar fashion.
"The difficult thing is there's slightly more pressure on us this time round. We have to cope with that, we've certainly got the exciting players in the squad to get off to a winning start tomorrow.
"I think after the team and squad hasn't performed in South Africa there have been changes made. It's a fantastic opportunity to stake a claim, perform well and give the manager something to think about."