Gerrard: Teams will be scared of us

Steven Gerrard cannot wait for the Liverpool's title challenge to start this season, claiming teams we be scared of playing The Reds.

Gerrard was speaking after Liverpool's 3-2 friendly victory over Werder Bremen, which saw Fernando Torres, Ryan Babel, Yossi Benayoun and Andriy Voronin all make impressive debuts.

The scoreline did not reflect the dominance that Rafa Benitez's men enjoyed, with Voronin and Torres looking particularly sharp in attack, and Gerrard believes The Reds finally have the firepower to scare their main rivals.

"When we sign a striker I look at the defensive pairings of United and Chelsea and ask if we've signed a player who is going to cause them all sorts of problems," the England man was quoted as saying in The Daily Mail.

"I did it with Torres and ended up with a smile on my face because I don't think anyone will enjoy playing against him."He's a great talent and it's a massive statement to the rest of the division.

"I've watched what the other teams are doing in the market and they're all strengthening."But all those teams will be looking at us and thinking we are going to be all over them this season."

In the past, Liverpool have been labeled a one-man team such has been the responsibility on Gerrard's shoulders, but now the Anfield club finally appear to have options all over the pitch.

The all-action midfielder has always been realistic about The Reds' chances, most notably when he wrote Liverpool off during their glorious 2005 Champions League triumph, but there is a simmering scent of anticipation in his voice going into the new campaign.

"I'm not going to start making any unnecessary predictions about what's going to happen this season and the last thing any of us need to do is build hopes up too much.

"But without doubt, if we all perform to our level each week, we have the players to push United and Chelsea all the way."

We are looking in great shape, not only going into this season but for the next few years."I thought going away for the summer that we were three or four players away from where we need to be."

Now I think we are in a great place to challenge United and Chelsea and I hope if we get things right from the beginning we can beat them to the big prizes this year."