Danny Murphy was called "a pale shadow" of Steven Gerrard this month. Naturally enough, the Liverpool midfielder is considered a more substantial player by others, not least by Gerard Houllier.

The Liverpool manager attempted some redress for recent criticism yesterday by comparing Murphy to one of the immortals and claiming due credit for the midfielder's World Cup call-up.

In Houllier's estimation, Murphy's selection in place of Gerrard should not be seen as an anticlimax. Quite the contrary.

"If I had to compare Danny Murphy to any player I have seen or worked with," Houllier said, "then it would be Michel Platini."

Murphy did not make Sven-Goran Eriksson's original England 23; Platini would make many people's all-time World Cup XI. But Houllier, at least, is prepared to mention the Liverpool midfielder in the same breath.

"He reminds me so much of Platini because of how brilliantly Danny can read the game," he said. "Michel was not only fantastic because of his skill and his will to win, but because he was a great thinker of the game. I worked with him so I know, and like Platini Danny is bright footballer.

"It is not just that Danny can play in different positions for me but it is that he adapts automatically to the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition.

"Danny is someone who has shown only 60 per cent of what he can do. He is gifted, certainly more gifted than he thinks himself.

"When I came to the club I thought 'this boy has some skill', but he did not seem to produce enough. So I told him that he was not doing the right things to look after himself. I made it clear that if he had a different attitude to his job then he would develop as a player because he had the skill. Now look at him."

Though Michael Owen has never been the target of the Kop's most eloquent expressions of disgust, as Murphy was early in the season, he "has followed the same path", Houllier contended. "He has worked, I have worked and he has improved.

"I said to him that if he wanted to be a top player he absolutely had to be able to use his left foot. Also I told him that he had to work on his volleying, for which I gave him a couple of tips, and his heading."

Just Fontaine, France's World Cup record goalscorer and former manager, is scathing about Houllier in an interview with FourTwo magazine this month, claiming that the Liverpool manager was too willing to take the credit and too eager to pass on the blame.

It is true that Houllier has proved a little touchy on the matter of his reputation, not least when he was passed over as manager of the year last season. But on the matter of Murphy's development, he has received due credit.

"Gerard Houllier created the right attitude in my head," Murphy said after his call-up on Sunday.

"He gets the best from his players."