After today's 2-2 draw with Aston Villa - yet another failure to win at home by Liverpool - Gerrard admitted the club's off-field crisis was not helping the side's problems.

There has been renewed speculation that the Dubai Investment Corporation want to buy the club from co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks and manager Rafael Benitez's future remains uncertain.

Gerrard told Setanta Sports: "It is not just this week, it has been going on for some time and it is certainly not helping the players.

"I have got to be careful what I say about the situation but it is certainly not helping the team.

"We know what is going on, but as players you have got a job to do on the pitch.

"You try to put what is going on off the pitch to the back of your mind - but sometimes it is impossible, when it is every day."

Benitez, who has been suffering from a severe bout of flu, stopped short of agreeing with his captain, but did say: "It would be easy for me to say, yes, the problems are affecting the team. Maybe they are, maybe they are not.

"We should have won the match. We failed to score the second goal when we were on top and we were the better side. That is the recurring problem, that is the real reason.

"If we had scored a second, we would be talking now about a great game and result. I have heard what Steven has said, but I would rather not go that way."

Liverpool needed a late Peter Crouch equaliser to earn a point from a Barclays Premier League match they had dominated.

The Reds had led in the first half through Yossi Benayoun's goal, but the failure to defend two set-pieces in the space of three minutes allowed Marlon Harewood to equalise before Fabio Aurelio deflected Olof Mellberg's shot into his own net.

Only substitute Crouch's last-ditch effort stopped Villa claiming victory in a match important to the race for fourth spot.

Villa boss Martin O'Neill hailed his side's recovery.

He said: "In the first half we did not play the way we know we can. Maybe it was the Anfield atmosphere, but I told them at the break they needed to show self-belief.

"It took time to get there, but we started to turn the tide. Marlon Harewood made a big impression when he came on and I am just disappointed we did not see it through to the end and a victory.

"I suppose 2-2 was a fair result in the end. But it was a great effort from my team."