Gerard Houllier, the Liverpool manager, yesterday launched an outspoken attack on Steven Gerrard after the club's departure from the Champions League. He implied that conceit was impairing the midfielder's performance. The failings were a key factor in the 3-3 draw with Basel that means Liverpool will now forgo some £10 million of expected income from the tournament.

Houllier, who has counselled Gerrard, was asked if the player was a listener. "Put it this way, he must be a good reader," the Frenchman said in an acid reference to Gerrard's supposed absorption with flattering headlines. The criticism was remarkable as a breach of the omerta that usually applies when a manager's deepest opinions are sought.

Houllier has taken the calculated risk of alienating the player in the hope that the jolt of candour will instead galvanise a 22-year-old who has always been an icon rather than a rogue.

"It's an exciting period for him because I think he will overcome this," Houllier said to soften the castigation. "Once he gets through it he will go on to become bigger and stronger, but we are missing the good Steven Gerrard at the moment. The whole staff is working on the problem and we are here to help him.

"You saw what happened against Tottenham when I took him off. We started to play better. I hope he doesn't believe everything that's written in the press. An athlete must think all the time that he must improve. Once you think you are an accomplished player, you go down. And at the level we are at you go down far quicker.

"Stevie was not at the races against Basel. Once a player starts to believe everything that is written about him and thinks 'I am king of the world' then there is difficulty and danger."

The focus on the player also arises from a manager's vexation with his own malfunctioning plans. Dietmar Hamann had as poor a night as Gerrard in failing to curb Hakan Yakin while Basel established their 3-0 lead.

In addition, the defence was, to employ Houllier's term, "appalling". Although his initial team selection was made with the commendable intention of being bold, he sacrificed more stability than he could afford against a lively Basel.

The comeback was compulsive viewing, but eyes now turn to the unadorned facts. Liverpool have won four of their last 14 games in the Champions League, proving they are still far from maturity. They do not yet have the consistent knack of negotiating their way through a match of this type.

In Group B they, like Basel, could beat only a disintegrating Spartak Moscow. In Switzerland on Tuesday they were handicapped by the weak resistance that brought a 4-2 defeat at Bayer Leverkusen last season. It is right to recognise the improvement under Houllier, but he is the first to identify the progress still required.

At present, his "young team" do not display the knack of bringing all the necessary attributes together on a given night. When it comes to piecing together a performance, they can, at their worst, resemble a befuddled man confronted by self-assembly furniture. Houllier, though, is sure that they will gradually come to make sense of the instructions.

In the meantime, Liverpool have to cope with their loss of revenue. Houllier may now have do without the level of funding, £22.3 million, that brought in El Hadji Diouf, Salif Diao, Bruno Cheyrou and Milan Baros over the past 11 months.