Jay Spearing accepts that he faces a battle to hold down a regular role at Liverpool, but insists he is up to the challenge.
Reds midfielder determined to be an Anfield regular
Jay Spearing accepts that he faces a battle to hold down a regular role at Liverpool, but insists he is up to the challenge.
The combative midfielder has been a regular in Kenny Dalglish's first-team plans since the Scot returned to the Anfield hot-seat in January.
He has started 16 games in 2011, with his energetic displays helping him to earn a new deal at the end of last season.
Spearing has been awarded just the one start this term, and saw that occasion marred by a red card in Liverpool's 1-0 defeat at Fulham.
The 23-year-old remains as determined as ever, though, to catch Dalglish's eye and believes he is capable of keeping some of the Reds' more illustrious names on the sidelines.
"Kenny has given me a lot of confidence and has shown the faith that young local lads like me need to get a chance," Spearing told
LFC Magazine.
Dream
"But half of it has to do with myself as well, the effort I put in day in, day out. There's a lot of stuff in training that not a lot of people see.
"The club that I'm at, it's massive worldwide and the owners have come in and shown that they're going to back the manager. Being at a club the size of this, it is always going to attract big, big players.
"It has always been my dream to play week in, week out. So it's up to me to prove to the manager on a daily basis that when the transfer window does open and he has money at his disposal that he can look at a position like mine and think, 'There's no need to sign anyone there - we're pretty strong'.
"It's the way I've been brought up because you don't get much from life without hard work. My dad said to me that I had to take each day as it comes and prove every single day that I was better than the last one.
"The only way I was going to get games was by working harder than anybody else in training, not necessarily showing that I was better than anybody else but prove that I could compete and not be overawed, to show them I'm up for the fight."
