Liverpool great Steven Gerrard could return to the club in a coaching capacity as early as this year, he revealed in a British newspaper interview published Saturday. Gerrard, 35, left Liverpool for the Los Angeles Galaxy last year, but he has been training on Merseyside during the Major League Soccer close season and is now eyeing a role on Jurgen Klopp's coaching staff. "I'm not 100 percent sure, but I think it will probably be my last year as a player," the former Liverpool and England captain told the Daily Telegraph. "I have had a chat with Klopp. I haven't had an offer as such, but the club have let me know they are keen for me to come back. But there hasn't been a conversation where they have said: ‘We want you to do this, we want you to do that.' "They have welcomed me back in. I am always going to be biased toward Liverpool and the FA (Football Association) and basically when I am back home I am going to carry on with my punditry work and try and move around clubs and gain more experience, going to watch managers and learning more. "I am basically available from November, December 2016. Everyone in the football world will know I am available and hopefully I will be 75 percent into my coaching badges." Home-grown hero Gerrard, who made 710 appearances and scored 186 goals during a stellar Liverpool career, also expressed regret that he had not started working toward his coaching qualifications sooner. "I have regrets I didn't start my coaching badges at 21-22," he said. "All that time wasted in hotels as an England player when I've been bored and was watching ‘The Office' and ‘The Sopranos'. I wish I'd done my CBA (coaching) license then, so I'd be doing my (UEFA) Pro License now." Hiddink wants more from players Guus Hiddink has challenged his Chelsea flops to rediscover the winning formula as they start the new year with a tricky trip to Crystal Palace Sunday. Hiddink's side has drawn against Watford and Manchester United since the Dutchman returned for his second spell as Chelsea interim manager following Jose Mourinho's sacking. That those two workmanlike performances were regarded as cause for encouragement shows just how far the champions had fallen during the miserable final days of Mourinho's troubled reign. In a reversal of fortune that would have seemed remarkable at the end of last season when Chelsea was hoisting the Premier League trophy after beating Palace, Alan Pardew's fifth placed Eagles are now 11 points above the 14th-placed Blues. Chelsea is only three points above the relegation zone and its struggles have been so prolonged that the club's hierarchy is reportedly concerned about the lack of wage-reducing relegation clauses in its highly-paid players' contracts. Hiddink knows Chelsea needs to improve quickly to avoid a nerve-wracking fight against relegation, while a winning run to start 2016 would also lay a strong foundation for salvaging the season with success in the Champions League and FA Cup. "We have started gathering some points. It (the draw with United) was the third consecutive game we didn't lose but that's not enough," Hiddink said. "You see how it is, all the big teams are losing points as well. We must come now in to a winning period of games, that's important." In contrast to Chelsea's woes, Palace, so long one of London's lesser lights, now harbor genuine hopes of securing one of the few European berths in their history. Pardew's men are unbeaten in their last six matches and are unlikely to have any inferiority complex against Chelsea, having defeated them twice in their last four meetings, including a 2-1 success at Stamford Bridge earlier this season. — Agencies
