The centre-back is in no doubt that the current England skipper will finish his career at Anfield and sign the new contract set to be offered to him by manager Brendan Rodgers

Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher is certain Steven Gerrard will follow his lead and sign a new contract to keep him at the club for the rest of his career.

Reds boss Brendan Rodgers declared that he was ready to offer his captain a new contract on Sunday, before Gerrard scored the match-winning goal against Aston Villa and made a brilliant goal-line clearance.

The 32-year-old’s outstanding display against the Villans illustrated his continued importance to the Merseyside club, and Carragher is confident the Liverpool skipper’s performances this year will be rewarded with a new deal.

“I’m sure Stevie will sign a contract and finish his career at Liverpool the way I’ve done,” Carragher told reporters.

“There is no doubt about that. I’m sure he’ll sit down and sort it out in the next couple of months.

“Steve will be finishing his career at Liverpool. He is ‘captain fantastic’ every week. It’s not just against Villa. He’s been doing it for years, scoring at one end, saving at the other.”

And the defender pointed to his captain’s inspirational qualities, helping the Reds come from behind to win a Premier League game for the first time this season.

“It is something that has been questioned about us over the last few years, going behind in games and coming back,” Carragher continued.

“Following on from the defeat at Southampton, we spoke beforehand about putting on a performance. Winning that game now makes Southampton look like a blip because we were on a good run.”

The Champions League winner insisted that his side remain focussed only on the next game, admitting that the Merseyside club are not sure where they will need to finish to ensure European qualification.

“I don’t really look too far ahead and to be honest if you asked most of the lads, they wouldn’t even know what position would get us into Europe,” the 35-year-old added.

“Sometimes it is fifth spot, sometimes sixth, seventh. We’ll just try and carry on and win games and see where it takes us.”

The January signing provided a superb pass from which the midfielder was able to draw the Reds level before Steven Gerrard sealed the points from the penalty spot

Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson has heaped praise on January signing Philippe Coutinho after the Brazilian set up the Reds’ equaliser in Sunday’s 2-1 victory over Aston Villa.

Coutinho threaded a superb pass through to allow Henderson to cancel out Christian Benteke’s opener before Steven Gerrard converted a penalty to seal the points.

The €7.7 million January signing from Inter is only 20 but has quickly become a fixture in Brendan Rodgers’ starting line-up, and Henderson was full of praise for his “outstanding” young team-mate.

“It was a great start to the second half for us and it was a great ball from Philippe, and thankfully I managed to slot it in, so I’m over the moon,” Henderson told the club’s official website.

“It was all about the ball from Philippe which was outstanding and I thank him for that one.

“Philippe is brilliant and I think everyone can see that. He’s a real talent and he’s young as well. He has been outstanding since he came into the team and hopefully he can keep that going.”

Benteke put struggling Villa ahead in the first half but the Reds turned the game on its head after the break to earn the victory.

“We were really pleased with our second-half performance,” Henderson added. “I thought we came out and played some good stuff, defended very well, so overall we are delighted with the three points.

“The manager told us at half-time to up our game a little bit more. We were doing okay and probably were the better team in the first half, just, but in the second we took that on board, got forward more and got the two goals.

“[Luis] Suarez did brilliantly to win the penalty for us and we all know Stevie is brilliant at penalties.”

In addition to hitting the target himself, Gerrard preserved Liverpool’s lead by brilliantly heading a Benteke effort off the line.

“It was unbelievable,” Henderson said. “Stevie was outstanding again for us and he’s been doing that for many years now so it’s not a surprise to anyone.”

The former Sunderland midfielder was in Rodgers’ XI for the first time since the Europa League tie against Zenit St Petersburg last month and hoped he had taken his chance to impress.

“It’s nice to play football,” he admitted. “The team has been playing brilliantly of late.

“I haven’t played as much as I would have liked but I got the chance here and thankfully we won. Hopefully we can win more games now.”