Peter Crouch told Off The Ball about the toughest period of his career, and how Liverpool players can try to learn from his experience.

Crouch was at the club for the period he found most personally-challenging of his time in the game.

Peter Crouch

"Football wise, that was the most difficult period of my career," Crouch says of the summer 2005 move from Southampton.

"I had gone to a huge club just off the back of Istanbul, I've just been signed and they have got a striker that can't score! It was really, really difficult.

"I was doing everything Rafa said, I was playing a different role. He was happy with me and he kept saying that to me. It was amazing that when I did start scoring, the reason was that I went back to what I was doing at Southampton.

"Everyone was really pleased, everyone apart from Rafa - because I was doing more my own thing than his thing.

"I had to become more selfish and I became more selfish."

Crouch said that his team-mates did not turn against him in any sense at a point when the goals evaded him.

"It wasn't like that for one second. Being at Liverpool was exactly the right place - it became me, the players, the staff, the fans against everyone else that was trying to ridicule me.

"That is just the mentality that you get at Liverpool, as a city really. If someone is having a go at one of their own, then everyone battens down the hatches and defends that person.

"Everyone in the stadium could see that I was doing really well, working hard and - hopefully - a good lad.

"It never felt for one second that the fans ever got on my back. When I did score, I think you can see in the game at Wigan, it was like the camera was shaking. The whole team was with me celebrating when I scored, and the fans were going crazy.

"There are not many clubs, especially top clubs, that would have stuck with someone like they did with me."

Jack Bauer

Crouch said that it was difficult to block out the noise.

"I tried my best to ignore it, but it was hard. I remember they had one of the pullouts in the newspapers that because I hadn't scored in 24 hours, they had me as Jack Bauer!

"I think it might have been the day that I scored that I was front page of this pullout. Every time I turned on the TV, Sky Sports News were showing misses, it was horrendous. My mum and dad stopped buying newspapers.

"It was huge news because it was Liverpool, and I was playing for England as well. But I had good people around me to get me through, and afer that the floodgates opened and I started scoring."

Liverpool

Liverpool themselves will be hoping for a similar change in fortunes, after losing six home games on the bounce in the Premier League.

Crouch says that the a number of factors have conspired against the Reds, and that he stands open to some personal embarrassment if the run continues.

“It is really, really strange. It only takes one game - if you have had a bad game then you are thinking about that. It only takes one game to miss a chance, even if you have gone on a run where you have scored six or seven goals, it only takes one miss where you start thinking about it and that can lead to more lack of confidence.

"That is what has happened [at Liverpool]. It is really hard to put your finger on. I made bets when they lost the first couple of games at home, with Man United fans. Some big bets that I'm not looking forward to paying - not financial, but quite embarrassing for me..!"

We dread to think...

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