 RAFAEL Benitez declared his skipper Steven Gerrard as "one of the best players in the world" following Saturday's dramatic FA Cup final penalty shoot-out success. But the Liverpool manager was quick to point out that he's not the sole reason for his team claiming their third trophy in less than a year under his leadership. There's no doubt that Gerrard's awesome shooting ability twice got Liverpool back into the final - and surely only he in his current form could have produced that breathtaking last minute equaliser. However, Benitez, always the gentleman, wasn't going to upset the 13 other players he surrounded his skipper with on the Millennium Stadium turf by implying that he is conducting a one-man band. "Steve plays with qualities that can change games," said Benitez, himself clearly not willing to change his post-match persona as the master of understatement. "But we've played a lot of games without Steve when we've needed to do different things. "I am clear that he is one of the best players in the world, but we have a good team." And underpinning that team are Gerrard's midfield allies, who Benitez believes are the catalyst for the captain to parade his talents in the opposition area. And the Spaniard is aware that if it wasn't for the ball-retaining qualities of Xabi Alonso, who looked to be feeling the effects of his injury on the day, and the superb Mohamed Sissoko, Gerrard wouldn't have the freedom to stack up such an impressive goals tally. "Steve has scored 23 goals but it's really important for a midfielder not just to score goals," added Benitez. "We know sometimes we need to leave him to go forward and to play his own game and that's the reason we have Xabi and Sissoko. "People talk about Gerrard and, okay, you can talk about Steve, but if you didn't have Sissoko working as hard as he is working, maybe the balance of the team would be impossible." | 
