The Liverpool captain covered every blade of grass in both defence and attack to ensure the Reds gained all three points against Manchester City but, with midfield reinforcements arriving in Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia, his new manager wants to calm his energetic star.
Benitez said: "Steven Gerrard is a very important player for us and for me it's important he plays well and scores a lot of goals around a good team.
"If you only have one player it is not enough and we need a good team around Gerrard. I have given Steven the freedom to attack as well as defend and we want to control his movement at times because he runs a lot, and we need to get him into the right areas."
