Toure tips Gerrard to bounce back

Last Updated : 21-Apr-2015 by PA

The former Ivory Coast international said the team was probably more disappointed at not being able to deliver a trophy for fans, who this season had seen their side fail to progress out of the Champions League group stage and lose to Chelsea in the last four of the Capital One Cup.

A 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa at Wembley ended the club's last hope of silverware and meant Gerrard would not be given a perfect send off ahead of his summer move to Los Angeles Galaxy with a cup final appearance on his 35th birthday on what would have been his very last appearance for his boyhood club.

"You feel bad. It is always difficult when you lose a semi-final like that," Toure told Press Association Sport.

"The defeat is the thing. Of course we wanted to do very well for the last game of Stevie for the club but at the end of the day, we wanted to do it for the fans because this club deserves to have a trophy.

"He (Gerrard) is fine. Of course he is sad, like all the dressing room, but he has been in this game for a long time and he knows how to deal with these situations."

Gerrard was able to start the match after an injury to Lucas Leiva in training, which denied Liverpool some much-needed control in midfield.

However, Toure insisted they should have had the ability to cope without their only genuine defensive midfielder.

"Lucas is a great player but we had players who could do the job," he added.

"Collectively we were not very good. Villa really fought and gave everything to win the game."