Steven Gerrard
Liverpool's Gerrard celebrates with teammates after scoring against Everton during their English Premier League match in Liverpool. REUTERS

Steven Gerrard played down the importance of his hat-trick in Liverpool's 3-0 win over Everton on Tuesday night and implored his team-mates to produce similar performances on a more consistent basis.

Liverpool came into Tuesday's game on the back of three successive defeats that seriously dented their Champions League ambitions and Gerrard admitted that he has been left exasperated by the team's erratic form this season.

"It's been frustrating, the inconsistency we've been showing in the league, very frustrating. We played very well [against] Arsenal and got nothing, then we never turned up at Sunderland [on Saturday, going down 1-0]," the Liverpool captain is quoted in the Guardian.

"We're going from one extreme to another at the moment. We need to find a level of consistency where we go on a winning streak, rather than win one and lose one, because otherwise we find ourselves in a position in the league that we don't want."

Gerrard opened the scoring in the first half with an exquisite lob over the Everton defence after Tim Howard had saved from Martin Kelly. The Liverpool midfielder then netted twice in the second half to complete his hat-trick, with Luis Suarez the provider on both occasions.

"To beat Everton is always special, so to get three goals is that little bit extra," Gerrard told the official Liverpool Web site.

"But I have to give my teammates a special mention, especially Luis Suarez - he put two on a plate for me. It was a great team performance and a clean sheet - everything we wanted from the game, we got."

Having won just once in the league during 2012, Gerrard's hat-trick - the first by a Liverpool player in this fixture since Ian Rush 30 years ago - will ease the pressure on Kenny Dalglish who called on his team to heed their captain's wake-up call ahead of Sunday's FA Cup tie against Stoke.

"The season's not finished because we won the game," Dalglish said. "We've got to carry on and do the best we can to win more games and if we do that - compete like that - I'm sure we will but then they have done in many games here this season.

"It was a fantastic performance. I think the result reflected the performance and for us we're delighted that at last we've got the reward for a great performance, one of the many we've had here but we got the real reward for the effort they've put in tonight."