Under Glenn Hoddle’s management, there was an England player who went in to see Eileen Drewery and emerged to find several team-mates queueing outside her room. “What did she say?” they asked. “That I’ve got a troubled soul,” he responded. “And have you?” “I bloody well have now.”

It felt a bit like that at Steven Gerrard’s press conference yesterday. If he was not concerned about his place before he went in, the Liverpool captain must have been worried sick by the time he left.

When was the last time he played well for his country, we wanted to know. Was he anxious about the prospect of being dropped? Why does he look so troubled in an England shirt? Instead of a massage, he probably went off for a lie-down on a psychologist’s couch.

It is a pretty remarkable state of affairs when we are discussing even the possibility of axeing a player whom Sir Alex Ferguson regards as the most influential in the Premier League, who would walk into any team in the country; a Champions League winner whom most of the England players regard, alongside Wayne Rooney, as one of the team’s two world-class match-winners, even if Frank Lampard’s form is superior.

Yet it appears that the best that Gerrard can hope for is to start on the left flank against Belarus tomorrow. Would even that have been the case had Joe Cole been fit? While Gerrard insisted that he is willing to do any job for his country, there are too many signs that he is a shadow of his brilliant Liverpool self if he is not in his favoured role, through the middle with a colleague deputed to cover his back.

His disappointing international form has often been viewed as a failure of management, but, with Fabio Capello’s early improvements confirming that he did not bluff his way to multiple championships with AC Milan and Real Madrid, the problem for Gerrard is that attention is turning to him and his struggles.

Capello and his cohorts have been surprised, and disappointed, by the introspection of a player so often seen rampaging around for Liverpool. Someone wrote the other day that you could hold a set of pencils in the furrows of Gerrard’s brow, and that fretfulness was only deepened by another poor performance on Saturday against Kazakhstan.

In fairness to Gerrard, at least he was willing to come out and face the music yesterday. For those who despaired as he allowed runners to break off him at Wembley, he offered the theory that he is trying too hard.

“I’ll be honest with you and say I have not always hit my Liverpool form for England,” he said. “It is not through lack of trying. Perhaps I do think about it too much.

“You do say to yourself that you want to take a game by the scruff of the neck, you want to be the main man, you want to make it happen and sometimes it doesn’t. You do get frustrated; it does show in your body language, which is normal. Perhaps I have to relax a bit. Of late I have been putting too much pressure on myself and trying too hard.”

Maybe that is the problem, but, with the jeering of Ashley Cole in mind, Gerrard will have to be careful that his body language is not viewed as sulking. He gave an interview before the victory over Croatia last month remarking that he had played his preferred position for England only five times (he has now won 69 caps). What initially appeared as a bit of a moan looked even worse after England impressed in Zagreb without Gerrard.

Nor was his standing enhanced on Saturday when, with Gareth Barry withdrawn, he was asked to play the holding role, but looked horribly ill at ease. It confirmed, once again, that Gerrard and Lampard are incapable of forming a central partnership and, with the Chelsea man in such sprightly form, that did not reflect well on the Liverpool captain.