'My players are angry about last season. They've got this desire and it's infectious'

Gerard Houllier Interview: Liverpool's manager is healthier and hungrier. Andrew Longmore hears how greater versatility can capture the title

Gérard Houllier is in rude health, tanned and fit and trying vainly to grasp once more that sense of perspective which one Saturday afternoon last October brought Bill Shankly's old adage about football, life and death into terrifying relief. You can see, though, that the onus will be on those around him to ram home the message. Houllier asks his players for full percentage every day and would not dream of demanding less of himself.

He intentionally stayed away from the World Cup, but suffered withdrawal symptoms at his home in France. "I watched every single game," he laughs, pausing for emphasis. "Every single game, making a few notes. With my feet up, perhaps. But it was frustrating at first because I was saying to myself, 'What am I doing here? I should be there'. It was the first major tournament I'd missed for a long time."

Now it is back to business. Starting at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff today with the Community Shield and a first test of Arsenal's post-Double mood; then, for real, against Aston Villa as Liverpool pursue the trophy which will define their season and, in the end, Houllier's stewardship at Anfield. A natural progression to second place last season means, as Houllier readily acknowledges, that there is still room for improvement. The trouble is that, under football's new law of gravity, rising expectation only heightens the distance of the fall. Houllier will not be drawn into that vortex just now, but with a squad augmented by the arrival of the mercurial El Hadji Diouf from Lens, his Senegalese team-mate Salif Diao and Bruno Cheyrou from Lille, all strong, creative players, Liverpool have addressed the creative sterility which cost them dear in the closing stages of last season.

At the time, Houllier said he needed more width in his attack. Now he has it, not by importing wingers – an obsolete species, according to the Frenchman – but by bringing in versatile, intelligent athletes who can exploit the spaces out wide as well as scoring goals. Cheyrou can operate on the left as well as behind the front strikers and, as World Cup watchers will know, Diouf has a winger's ability to beat a defender in a tight space and deliver a telling cross. Michael Owen will expect nothing less, but not the least of the selection dilemmas facing Houllier will be how best to accommodate the varied skills of Emile Heskey, Diouf, Owen and the gifted Milan Barros, the young Czech Republic international who, says Houllier, has returned to Anfield slighter, sharper and speaking half-decent English in readiness for his first full season in the Premiership.

But it is the right mentality, the hunger, which Houllier's opposite number at Old Trafford searches for in the lee of a new season and which Houllier has already spotted in his own squad. "I feel my players are angry about last season," said Houllier late last week. "They've got this desire and this eagerness to do well and it's infectious. It carries through to me. We wanted to win the title last season and we were very near. We got 80 points, the same number as Manchester United the year before. But you have to take your hat off to Arsenal. 87 points, unbeaten away from home, scoring in every game. You cannot plan or programme what the others do.

"My team have got more experience, more maturity, but they're still young. The average age of the side I put out against Real Madrid last week was under 25. But you can't say, 'We will win tomorrow or the day after tomorrow'. You have to prepare for success. The players seem to be eager to keep the momentum going, the dynamic wave. They are as hungry as before and want to do even better."

While United have captured the attention with the £30m signing of Rio Ferdinand, Liverpool's expenditure has been more diverse. Diouf cost £10m, Diao £5m and Cheyrou £4m and Alou Diarra arrived on a free transfer, yet all fit the template of a Liverpool player so assiduously laid down by Houllier since his arrival five years ago. Young, fit, passionate and, in contrast perhaps to Nicolas Anelka and Lee Bowyer, one off-loaded to Manchester City after protracted negotiations, the other returned unwanted to Leeds United, available only in red.

Houllier was particularly impressed that Diouf virtually offered himself to the club. "Boss," he told Houllier, "sign me. You'll never regret it." The only question, in Houllier's mind, is not whether the Senegalese striker will adjust to the pace of the Premiership and the robust camaraderie of an industrial dressing room, but how quickly. Unlike Diao, Diouf speaks barely a word of English. "But he's got good technique, he's strong and powerful," says Houllier. Above all, adds Houllier, he is a Liverpool player, a description which has recovered its meaning under Houllier. "He fears nothing. If he played in a Brazilian shirt and had a Brazilian passport, everyone would be praising him a lot more." Diao, Houllier reminds us, is sometimes compared to Patrick Vieira, as authoritative a reference as any manager could want.

Yet the core of Liverpool's challenge will be framed in familiar faces. In the solidity of Sami Hyypia and Stéphane Henchoz in the centre of defence, in the character of Jamie Carragher, fully recovered from the injury which kept him out of England's World Cup squad, and in the driving presence of Steven Gerrard, who, perhaps for the first time, will start a season without being haunted by the spectre of injury. England missed Gerrard most of all in the Far East and Liverpool missed his goals last season, a miserly four in the Premiership, a poor return for such a gifted striker of the ball. It can be taken as read that Gerrard is reminded almost daily of that inadequacy and that, released from his duties as a defensive midfielder and free from nagging doubts about his fitness, he will relish setting the record straight.

"Stevie can be a player like [Michael] Ballack of Germany," explains Houllier. "Maybe not quite as offensive. That's what I said to him: 'You don't start your career saying I can play only this position'. His game will develop if he accepts more responsibility in a game, whether defensive or offensive. I don't like players who think they can only do one job. They are nearly dead because in the modern game you have to be able to do different jobs. Stevie can do different jobs. He has widened the scope of his game, he can do defensive duties and he can score. Remember that goal against Germany." But in the colours of England, not Liverpool.

In full flow, Houllier talks of his players with the loyalty and passion of a father. In the prelude to the final months of last season, when he should have been thanking his maker and rearranging his priorities in life, Houllier was sitting at a table during his first post-operation interview, thumping his fist into his hand to simulate his side's unbreakable spirit. From a man who had just cheated death, the gesture had a particular force. "By hell," he said – and, for the first time anyone could remember, a swearword slipped from his lips – "they've got something about them. I ****ing mean it." The restoration of pride has been central to his work at Anfield.

Houllier is 55 and, though he has been coach of the French team and one of the architects of the French football renaissance, is now occupying the job which will mark his career. Winning three trophies in one season – five in a year, including the Community Shield and the Super Cup – would have been a crowning glory at most clubs, but proved only to many Merseysiders and to Houllier himself that the club was refinding its soul after the wilderness years. The title was the real prize and success also came at a price.

After the treble, Houllier felt drained and empty. That summer, instead of recharging his batteries, he travelled to Japan for the Confederations Cup, returning straight to his desk at Melwood to address the inevitable demands for an encore. He sees now where the dangers lay and promises that this season he will take international weeks off, snatch little breaks where he can, anything to massage the obsession. "Some people said I should forget football," Houllier said on his return to work last spring. "I replied that I may as well stop breathing."

The confusion with Houllier, like Arsène Wenger, is that his will to succeed is obscured by the easy charm of a French academic. His relationships with the press, local and national, are sometimes strained. Criticism will be taken on board and addressed, if regarded as fair, and witheringly rebuffed if not. No less than Alex Ferguson, Houllier wants to know every word that is written about him or his club and those who cross him will not be easily forgiven. Yet few managers who have reached the top of such a competitive and volatile profession have retained almost universal popularity among their peers and in the press room.

One of his first "get well" cards last year came from Old Trafford, one of his first visitors was David O'Leary. Houllier will never be drawn into criticism of a fellow manager, publicly or privately, rarely blames his players for defeat, while any attempt to lure him into an attack on a referee will be met with a half-smile and a raised eyebrow. In the midst of an emotional Premiership Saturday, Houllier rarely loses his sense of dignity, though his players will testify to the scouring effect of a rare loss of temper.

There is something of Shankly in the emotional ties now established between Houllier and his adopted city, a relationship dimly begun one rainy European night when Liverpool humbled some lesser side and a young French schoolteacher, with a love of football and an inquisitive mind, watched in awe from the Kop. What impressed Houllier then was Liverpool's utter refusal to back off, even when the scoreline had gone beyond the point of humiliation. To Houllier, that spirit epitomised Shankly's club. Much of his work over the past five years, from the ruthless eradication of the Spice Boy culture to his policy of importing players from Scandinavia and northern Europe rather than France, Italy or South America, has been shaped by the image.

Other influences are discernible in Houllier's style. France's failure to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, after conceding a last-minute goal against Bulgaria in the final qualifying match, seared Houllier forever, gave him a taste of ridicule and failure which served only to foster his ambition. His footballing education, served initially at Le Touquet, then with Lens and Paris St-Germain, was unconventionally provincial, like that of Aimé Jacquet, Guy Roux and Roger Lemerre. Houllier could not dazzle players with the glint of his medals. His authority came not from what he had done but from what he knew. But in France he helped establish a future, just as he has at Liverpool's new training complex at Melwood, which already stands as a monument to his gift for detail.

Houllier was awarded the Legion d'Honneur by his country last year. But his real reward came from the reaction of his constituents. "I belong to a special club and I'm working with special people," he said. "When you care about something, you want to be involved." Every day is a battle, Houllier says now. "You learn to look after yourself and you learn that the most important person in life is yourself. I sacrificed the World Cup and came back here refreshed and ready for the hard slog, but I will take time off in the season." But he was telling himself the news.

Biography: Gérard Houllier

Born: 3 September 1947 in Therouanne.

As a player: 1973-76: Le Touquet.

Coaching record: 1976-1982: French Third Division team Noeux Les Mines – two successive promotions. 1982-85: Lens – promotion. 1985-1988: Paris SG, won league in 1986. 1988: Technical Director of French team. 1992: France coach, resigned in 1993, but remained as technical director. 1996: Head coach of France U18. 1997: Head coach of France U20. 1998: Leaves the French federation, named joint team manager of Liverpool. In November is named as sole manager.

Liverpool honours: Worthington Cup, FA Cup, Uefa Cup, Charity Shield, Super Cup.

Also: 2002: France's Legion d'Honneur.