Steven Gerrard has delivered a withering assessment of Liverpool’s troubled season on and off the pitch, expressing sadness at the “damaging” rifts at boardroom level and saying that not even lifting the European Cup again would make up for the team’s failure to mount a challenge for the Barclays Premier League title.

For much of this season Gerrard has attempted to gloss over his dissatisfaction at yet another disappointing campaign for Liverpool, but in an interview with the club’s official magazine he has laid bare his frustrations in a manner reminiscent of Roy Keane’s infamous outbursts on MUTV.

Unlike the former Manchester United captain, Gerrard did not name names, but his outspoken comments appeared to be directed at just about everyone at Liverpool — whether in the dressing-room, the manager’s office or in the United States, where the two owners, who are barely on speaking terms, preside over an increasingly fractured club.

The rift between Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, the American co-chairmen, their falling-out with Rafael Benítez, the manager, and the renewed takeover bid by Dubai International Capital (DIC) have overshadowed Liverpool’s problems on the pitch. But with the team occupying a distant fifth place in the league table, 17 points behind Arsenal, who are top, and even three points behind Everton, with whom they face a fierce battle to secure fourth spot and a place in next season’s Champions League, Gerrard says he and his team-mates cannot hide from the reality of the situation.

“In the position we find ourselves now, fourth place is the least that is acceptable,” Gerrard said. “We need to improve dramatically and, even if we do finish fourth, it doesn’t mean we’ve had a good season. We have bigger ambitions than that. The only way we can fulfil those ambitions is in the Champions League [where Liverpool have a 2-0 lead going into the away leg of their tie against Inter Milan in the first knockout round] and I am not going to pretend that even winning that trophy — and we are a long way away from it at the moment — will make up for the disappointment of the league campaign.

“I’m gutted every time I look at the table and see the gap between us and Arsenal at the top and even the gap between us and second and third. We believed we had the players to challenge for the title and we wanted that one more than any other trophy available to us. I still believe we have the squad to be a hell of a lot more competitive than we are. We can’t keep talking about next season. Sooner or later we have to make one season the season we make it happen.”

Liverpool have generated too many headlines about matters off the pitch, initially through Benítez’s falling-out with the owners and then through the rift between Hicks and Gillett, which has opened the door for DIC to buy into the club. “It hasn’t been a good situation for anybody,” Gerrard said. “It’s sad so much of the club’s business has been conducted in public. It has been a damaging situation for every person involved with the club.”