Former Liverpool winger Albert Riera is proud to have played with Steven Gerrard.

Riera spent two seasons as a teammate of the now Rangers manager after joining Rafael Benitez's men from Espanyol in the summer of 2008.

He told LFCTV: "At that time when I was with him, when he was talking you had to listen to him. When he was talking it's because it was something important.

"He's a guy that I really appreciate how he was as a captain and as a guy in the dressing room. Then the rest as a player, we don't need to talk about him.

"When I came I wasn't speaking English, very little. There were three or four players from Argentina and Brazil who were not really talking much English, and he was there with us and he really helped. He maybe didn't need to say anything.

"He was the captain, he was the legend and he knows that he's going to play every Saturday, it doesn't matter what he is doing.

"I always remember the first training [session] and he was full [on] until the end – tackling, talking, moving.

"I was thinking, 'If Steven is training 100 per cent every single day, what do I have to do? Of course, I also have to train 120 per cent.'"