From the news that Rafael BenÍtez will be given unprecedented support in the transfer window this summer and the renewed sense of commitment from the manager in the face of overtures from Real Madrid, to the morale boosting 4-1 victory against Arsenal in the Barclays Premiership last weekend and yet more triumphant scenes in Europe, Liverpool are in buoyant mood.
It is a euphoria that appears to have galvanised Gerrard and as the team made their way from the Philips Stadion on Tuesday evening, having gained a firm foothold in the Champions League last four with an emphatic 3-0 quarter-final, first-leg win over PSV Eindhoven, it felt as though it was not just Liverpool but also their captain who is starting to rediscover form at the right time.
"I think in general I am training better and hopefully I am peaking at the right time because there are some really big games around the corner," Gerrard said. "I think we were a little bit inconsistent when we played PSV [in the Champions League group stage] earlier in the season. We had a lot of big players who were maybe not on top form, but if you look around our team now, all the big names are performing really well — Jamie Carragher, José Reina, Xabi Alonso — so it is good to see.
"We are getting that same feeling we had in 2005 [when Liverpool lifted the European Cup], but I am also telling myself to slow down and realise that we have a lot more work before we can think about [the final in] Athens."
Gerrard's performances have, in many ways, mirrored those of his team this season. Magical one minute, mediocre the next, it is an inconsistency that threatened to undermine all concerned when Liverpool were dumped out of the FA and Carling cups by Arsenal in the space of four miserable days in January.
There have been many explanations offered for the slump in fortunes of a player who plundered 23 goals from midfield last season, from the great debate about his best position — which shows no signs of abating — to an uneasy relationship with BenÍtez and reports of unrest in his personal life. But the one that is often overlooked is the one that Gerrard himself put forward yesterday to explain the maligning of one of the outstanding talents in English football — plain old tiredness.
Perhaps it was those superhuman efforts in the Champions League final in 2005, when he dragged Liverpool back from the depths against AC Milan in a game that seemed as good as over at half-time, and the FA Cup Final against West Ham United last season, that have led people to believe that Gerrard can run for ever.
Even the fittest competitors need a rest once in a while, but that was not a luxury afforded to Gerrard over the summer when, with England in the World Cup finals, he completed a full year of almost nonstop football and was then thrust almost straight back into action for his club upon his return from Germany.
It is a factor that has told in a lot of his football this season, but while he did not scale the heights against PSV, he put Liverpool on course for a comfortable victory with his fifteenth goal in the Champions League, a neatly taken header that enabled him to surpass Ian Rush as Liverpool's top scorer in the competition.
Coming so soon after his two goals for England in the 3-0 win over Andorra last week, it was another massive boost to his confidence and as he reflected on a job well done — one that, barring a calamity in the return leg on Wednesday, has ensured a meeting with Valencia or Chelsea in the last four — Gerrard seemed to sense that things were finally looking up for his club and himself.
"We did a really good job against PSV and we have one foot in the last four," he said. "We have to be professional about the second leg and we know that we'll have two really tough games whoever we play in the semi-final.
"When we played Barcelona [in the previous round] everyone was doubting us, but we showed what we are capable of. It was the reverse now. Everyone was expecting us to beat PSV and I suppose there was a lot more pressure on us. That is the pleasing aspect — that we can perform when the pressure is on us as well as being the underdogs.
"I was really frustrated at the start of the season. I didn't have much energy and I didn't feel the way I like to going into games. I felt lethargic and really tired from only a little rest after a World Cup that was draining, not just physically but mentally, too. When I got towards Christmas I could feel bits and bobs of my game coming back and I feel sharp at the moment."