REPLACING Steven Gerrard. I love this title. Gareth Roberts gave it to me. This was the sentence: Can Liverpool replace him – do they need to, should they try, should they break the bank or stick with current spending policy etc.
I love this because, firstly, it’s lovely and broad and secondly because I don’t know what Gerrard he’s talking about. Because there are three Gerrards. Possibly four or five, but let’s stick with three. Three ages of Elvis, three ages of Gerrard. Any more ages would feel greedy. So let’s look at them one at a time…
The three Gerrards:
1. The Exuberant Gerrard (98-04)
This is the Gerrard who comes through, celebrates clearing the ball off the line, gets sent off loads – mostly in Derbies – is brilliant in the treble season, is one of the best young players in the world, learns a load from Gary Mac, scores screamers, scores headers, stamps on Gary Naismith, plays right back, right mid and centre mid, gets handed the captaincy when the side is on the wane and then drags them into the Champions League places in 03-04 before Houllier is sacked.
That one. That brilliant one which was what it was to be young and alive. To fight the world and win. God, that Gerrard. Makes me want to fall over drunk loads in Leeds again before going and beating them the next morning 0-2 and then win the treble and that. That Gerrard. I remember everything. Sort of.
There is one thing we don’t remember about this Gerrard. One blank. It is this — he doesn’t score as many goals as you think. For instance, in his God-like 03-04 season, when we remember him dragging us into the Champions League, he only scored four league goals. All season. Four. His best season for return is the Treble season when he gets 10 in 50 in all competitions. In 170 league games under Gerard Houllier he scores 20 league goals. Fewer than one in eight. This is mad.
So do we need to replace this one? Should we try to? Well, how? How do you replace this one? Part of the point about this one is that he comes through the ranks. Gerrard was Gerrard in a few senses before he even kicked a ball for Liverpool. He was talked about. Wait until you see him. Liverpool should be constantly looking for a new Gerrard and should be constantly expecting to fail — Gerrards are so rare. So, so rare. The search is about what youth policy should be, maximising all talent and hoping to find, and maximise, brilliance.
This season two midfielders called Jordan, Rossiter and Williams, have made their debut. We should have seen more of them, but events, dear boy, events. Last season Flanagan came through properly. Wisdom is away on loan. We have a youth set-up which seems (and don’t they all, always?) primed to produce young players who should be steeped in what it means to play for Liverpool. However, can any of them match Gerrard? I’ll tell you now….No. Because it doesn’t happen. There wasn’t a Gerrard before Gerrard. The nearest was probably Terry McDermott. Possibly Peter Reid. Sort of Steve Heighway but he was more of a winger wasn’t he? A Scouse lad coming through. Do note both McDermott and Reid had to go away from Merseyside before succeeding at Liverpool and Everton — curse those youth setups. And both would say Gerrard was a much better player than them.
OK, so Gerrard was one of the finest young talents of his generation. Can we import one of those? We already have. His name is Raheem Sterling. He’s brilliant. We’ve nailed that and well done to everyone involved. He has loads still to do, but he’s incredible and exciting and he’s now worked with senior pros Steven Gerrard (yes!), Glen Johnson and Martin Skrtel (errr), Daniel Agger and Luis Suarez (not here). Those other lads referred to above can come through, but what do they come through into? You see, this Gerrard didn’t just play with Gary McAllister. He played with Robbie Fowler, Sami Hyypia, Jamie Redknapp, Christian Ziege, Nick Barmby, Jari Litmanen. Remember the League Cup final against Birmingham? Everyone was rubbish, everyone except Didi Hamann and Markus Babbel, who showed what winning took.
The Gerrard that ends this period has already had a season as Liverpool captain and is surrounded by experience. Here too, we might already have replaced Gerrard insofar as any club can. Jordan Henderson may not be from Huyton, but he’s an honest lad who understands a football community. He’s hugely talented (though not Gerrard talented) and he’ll do anything for this football club. He hasn’t had the heart-stopping moments of Gerrard, but he’s seen a League Cup won and experienced a title challenge. There is a conversation we’re going to have which, like most of our conversations, is irrelevant but is presumably going on internally at Liverpool as well, where it is very relevant. The question is this: what do we want Jordan Henderson to be? And how are we helping him? Henderson has now played 191 games in Premier League football. He’s scored 17 goals. Almost certainly more mundane goals but only three fewer than Gerrard.
What Steven Gerrard did next I don’t think Jordan Henderson can. And that’s fine. Because what Steven Gerrard did next is remarkable and what we might need Henderson to do is a different job in any case. Henderson might not have Hyypia, Hamann and Carragher. But he does have Raheem Sterling, Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho.
2. The Essential Gerrard (04-10)
This Steven Gerrard. My god. This one. Firstly, let’s feel the goals. From August 04–May 10 Steven Gerrard played 292 games in all competitions and scored 104 goals. Better than one in three. He never played centre forward. His poorest return in this period was 06-07 when he scored 11 in 51 (equivalent to his best return in the period prior) and his finest was 08-09 when he scored 24 in 44 games. And now remember everything else he did, the quality of his delivery, his movement, his all-round abiltiy. His will to win. This is the Gerrard.
This period is while Rafa Benitez was Gerrard’s manager. It’s fair to say that Benitez got the best out of Gerrard while simultaneously oddly always looking to return him to centre midfield. Liverpool’s business — and the resulting return of Gerrard to centre mid the summer of 06 — remains some of strangest happenings in the history of the football club. Gerrard had won Player of the Year, scoring 23 in 53 from a free-ish-right-hand-side-ish role. Liverpool then replaced him with Jermaine Pennant, shifted him central and then Gerrard had his poorest return under Benitez.
Had Robbie Keane been any good in 08-09 there is every chance Gerrard doesn’t get the chance to have that magical season. Part of the enigma of Gerrard is that he’s always been a slightly reluctant Roy Of The Rovers. One who seems to take more pleasure out of being consistently involved in games than scoring all the goals (which seems counter intuitive to football and the reality that he scored all the goals). Especially the big ones. That was never greater than the Gerrard of this season.
What is this Gerrard? Match-winner, leader, endless contributions from midfield. Able to strike up relationships all over the pitch. Gerrard-Alonso. Gerrard-Torres. We know those ones. But also worth remembering Gerrard-Kuyt. Gerrard-Fab Aurelio. Gerrard-Finnan. Give Gerrard a switched-on footballer and they’ll get the best out of each other.
Do you replace this one? Er, yes. If you can.
Goals from midfield. Where do you get them from? Match-winning strikes all over the show. Where do you get them from? The closest player I can think of domestically is Yaya Toure — he got 20 in all competitions last season. He’s good. If we can have him, I’ll have him. However time is beginning to become Yaya Toure’s enemy too; he’ll end this season 32. Current Premier League scoring charts have Hazard on eight — a very different and un-buyable player — Eriksen and Chadli on seven and David Silva on six. None of these returns are close to the Essential Gerrard, none of them match this all-round footballer either.
A couple of seasons ago we had a go for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who scored huge numbers of goals from midfield. Ever watched him? I have, though only once or twice as I have things to do. He’s no Gerrard, nowhere near. Doesn’t get anywhere near as involved in games. But he has goals. Dortmund are struggling this year so you never know if we could pull something. We create a lot of chances for someone like him to prosper. We’re getting linked with Shaqiri, a lad who can’t get on for Munich. I think he’d do OK if he came here — remember everyone in this league is rubbish — but a new Gerrard? Yeah, alright. I’m sure lads who do the stats and watch the overseas football can throw another one or two names in the frame, but I’m sceptical. I watched the Essential Gerrard every week between 2004 and 2010. He was astonishing. Not perfect and not brilliant every week, but capable of performances that blow the mind. You only need to look at the testimonials in the last couple of days from players who played with him such as Alonso and Arbeloa.
My hero. My mate. pic.twitter.com/qFmO53EQvl
— Xabi Alonso (@XabiAlonso) January 2, 2015
There’s no cheat here. There’s no magic formula. You can’t even solve the problem by throwing money (we don’t have) at it. Chelsea haven’t replaced Lampard’s goals from midfield. They have all the money in the world and a ton of lads on loan. You find a new way, not look to replicate an old one. We won’t be replacing this Gerrard. That’s the reality. It’s OK though. Because no one else will be cloning him either.
3. The Elder Gerrard (10-15)
From early 2010 until Brendan Rodgers’s arrival at Anfield, Gerrard had serious problems around injury. I suspect in many of the games in the previous six years Gerrard was playing carrying some form of injury — 100 per cent match fit was probably something of a halcyon dream for him.
It’s important to emphasise that in this period between 2010 and August 2012, Liverpool under Dalglish coped reasonably well without him being available or at his best until Lucas Leiva broke down at Chelsea.
However, what he’ll have been in that period is present. About the place. Being Steven Gerrard. While Jamie Carragher was being Jamie Carragher, Dirk Kuyt Dirk Kuyt so on and so forth until we remember Kenny Dalglish will also have been Kenny Dalglish.
So many players speak of the value of Gerrard behind the scenes. We saw that on the pitch last season, a season where we saw, publicly, the value of his captaincy like never before. We saw him lead this gang of young, exuberant players on the pitch, lead them closer to the league title than Steven Gerrard had got before. He was also good at football. Very good. It felt we got closer to the essence of him away from the pitch, whether it’s dry jokes in interviews, screaming at footballers in huddles, whirling his top round his head or pushing vampiric cameras away from Suarez, you could see what he is and was. A man who carried a city. A man who gets the core of Liverpool Football Club. A good man, one you’d follow anywhere. Everything that had come before made sense into that one season. It was, frankly, the end of something. We might get an epilogue next May — and I hope we do — but there at Craven Cottage is the natural conclusion of this football life.
He wasn’t on his own though. He was another footballer that was energised by Suarez, who was helped by Sturridge. He had a midfield and attack full of options and had Henderson’s support. What we’ve seen this season is that while a Gerrard can help guide this sort of side on the pitch, he can’t carry it. Gerrard’s played with poorer attacking players than any who have set foot onto the Anfield turf wearing Red this season, but his Essential incarnation could carry those lads. This one can’t and the latest evidence of that is only two days old. What goes on off the pitch is, for us, the eternal mystery of football. What happens on the pitch is what we can all see. A thought exercise — how do we speak of the impact Gary McAllister had on Gerrard if Gary Mac Month never happens?
Regardless, can this be replaced? McAllister was brought into Liverpool. These players can be bought into a club but how often does it work both on and off the pitch? Eto’o looks to have had a positive impact on Everton but they are, by any measure, poorer than last season. Lampard’s doing a job for City but his contribution isn’t being overstated –- they were Champions last season without him. Chelsea have brought Drogba back — he’s scored one key goal but hasn’t offered a load else on the pitch. Two seasons ago Liverpool bought Kolo Toure in when Carragher left. It clearly helped, Kolo raced out of the traps and has been good in patches this season, yet he can’t offer it week in, week out. One of the ways Kolo helped was that he was fresh, by the way. He wasn’t tarnished with loads of Liverpool’s sad memories and nearly moments. He came in and said: “These are good. Really good.”
But look at Kolo. And sort of Rickie Lambert, too. There’s the idea knocking round that Liverpool’s transfer policy would mean Liverpool would never bring an older player in. That’s two in two summers. Are either the right player? Lambert clearly not. But that’s a weakness in recruitment not in policy. Do we really want Liverpool buying three or four over 30s?
Buying a Gary Mac is hard. We’ve not done it very well a load of times. Loads have failed. Any transfer strategies, any committees or directors or managers. Not just at Liverpool.
The answer, of course, across all of these things, is to have a sense of what is best for the club and act consistently accordingly. The answer to all things football. The answer, as supporters, is to acknowledge that people get things wrong all the time in football. There is no magic formula. There are no easy answers. There just needs to be the desire, the ambition and the hunt for progress. We need Liverpool to show that. That’s the answer to Robbo’s question. Same as it ever was.
We can be justifiably saddened. Each of these Gerrards was a joy to watch. Each informs the other. I’ll talk of all them forever. We won’t see his like again, because that just doesn’t happen. We haven’t seen Alex Raisbeck’s like. Billy Liddell’s like. Ian St John’s like. Ian Callaghan’s like. Kevin Keegan’s like. Kenny Dalglish’s like. Graeme Souness’s like. Ian Rush’s like. John Barnes’s like. Robbie Fowler’s like. These footballers transcend and enhance a football club but they remind us that in the end Woody Allen is always right. Football clubs are like sharks. They have to keep moving forward or they die.
READ: STEVEN GERRARD: YOU KNOW YOU’LL OFTEN STOP AND THINK ABOUT HIM
READ: STEVEN GERRARD: EXPERIENCE LOST
READ: STEVEN GERRARD: TA-RA TO THE TALISMAN
LISTEN: PODCAST – THE HUYTON HAMMER
Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda
excellent read. my view on steven is that he is leaving too early. the club still need him. money isnt a factor according to him and imo its better to miss occasional games at anfield and still be able to help your boyhood club win trophies than play every week in a country that doesnt even like football. he can still do a job for lfc for another 2/3 seasons as club capt and then he can retire to california or wherever and take it easy in his beachfront pad. he may have second thoughts. im hoping so.
No second thoughts mate. Listen to his interview today. He’s putting himself and his family first now. I think the future’s exciting for him. Best thing for him imo. When he returns to Liverpool after his time in the U.S we won’t see a man looking like he’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. He’ll have long hair, he’ll be tanned with a wet suit on, surfboard under his arm, spliff in mouth and looking 10 years younger.
Agree with that Robin. It’s never looked like much fun being Steven Gerrard. He deserves a bit of R&R.
People who’ve never lived in Los Angeles have such an odd, totally false idea of what life is like there.
Well, I’ve seen Point Break!
I think I’d like to go for a pint with that Steven Gerrard ;)
He probably IS leaving too early. Lampard is an example of a player who still offers something but needed sensible management ( not sentimental management) to realise it. Gerrard has said he couldn’t face the prospect of not playing every game and it is easy to understand that, but a spell as an attacking impact sub relieved of the captaincy (which I always thought was an anomalous appointment because he is essentially an introvert but had Carra to do the megaphone geeing up for him) could have seen a golden twilight for him. But he has not and would not be used properly by Rodgers – like, who IS???? – and under him it would be more of the saddening same.
I agree that he’s been ill-served by Rodgers, Kevin, but what could he do? The skipper wants to start every game.
More inane Rodgers bashing. I’ve seen plenty of so-called Liverpool fans (mostly on other sites) declaring that Rodgers ‘doesn’t have the balls’ to drop Gerrard or to tell Gerrard to his face that he isn’t up to being a regular starter anymore. Rodgers has demonstrated that he does indeed have the balls to do just that; with the result that Gerrard himself has declined to accept that and elected to move on.
It is plain that if Rodgers started Gerrard every game, he would be criticised; if he started him every alternate game he would be criticised; if he bought him on as a sub in a DM role, he would be criticised; if he bought him on as an ‘impact’ sub in the No 10 role, he would be criticised.
The primary reason for not using Gerrard as an ‘impact sub’ is that he just doesn’t have the athleticism to make the sort of impact required – that and the fact that Gerrard himself has said he isn’t prepared to accept that role.
Rodgers has done the right thing by the club: Gerrard’s retirement/departure was always going to be a no-win situation for him. He has praised the man to the skies, held him up as a club icon, but made the decision that is in the best interests of the club and the player. I love Gerrard as much as the next LFC supporter, but blind Freddy can see that the man is running on empty and has been for some time. Rodgers has given him far more playing time in the last 12 months than many others would have; he also gave him the opportunity to fill the ‘Pirlo’ role and thus extend his career – an opportunity that Gerrard has been, sadly, incapable of taking.
You’ve seen fit to use Gerrard’s decision as a club to beat Rodgers with, so I’m really keen – and genuinely interested – to hear from you what you would do differently.
As Liverpool manager, how would YOU use Gerrard “properly” given that SG himself has said that he isn’t prepared to accept a reduced role??
Well said, Jason. Spot on.
I’m gonna say that I am shattered that he is leaving..I love this man..but it quite simply is the best thing for him and the club. He gets a chance to earn a boatload of cash while he can still play, and he leaves a fantastic legacy, untarnished by a season or two of fading.
As for how we replace him, my question is, what are we replacing? Is it a deep lying central midfielder, a number 10, a right-winger, there are not just 3 Gerrards from a chronological point of view, there are many more from a playing point of view. But, I think instead what we really need to replace is his ability to DO something (and I’m not going to go on abut how he carried the club and scored important goals, that’s all been done to death in the media in the last few days) and when I say DO something, I mean win that stretched challenge that keeps possession and momentum in a move…then pick the right pass, and send it 10/10 accuracy and strength to the other side of the field and get the crowd on their feet. Show the grace he never got credit for when shielding a ball, or winning possession up the pitch to preserve momentum if we were chasing a game.
That is the guy we need to replace, the one who goes into an iffy situation that has you closing one eye, and comes out the other side with the ball when it’s last 5. The one who for 15 years has had us draw in breath when we seen him come onto a ball anywhere up to 40 yards out, because we *know* the keeper is going to have to make a save to stop this.
I’m gonna get slaughtered for this, but honestly, the only person I have seen in the last 20 years better than Gerrard in a similar position was Zizu, because he had the same kind of magic, effortless grace and power.
So you’re right, we will never replace him, like we never replaced all of those legends down through the years, we just created new ones. but oh MY God, what memories we will have of this one, what beautiful, golden glorious memories we will have.
ferd
You can’t replace Gerrard, you just can’t! He was more than just a player!! He was our heartbeat! He was who every player on the pitch, be that team mate or opponent looked at.
If I was gonna choose a midfielder to come in and try to fill that hole at the min it’s Pogba. He has power, pace, great feet, goals and that swagger about him. Chances of getting him?? Zilch…..
My major worry now is that we can’t attract quality players to the club. Looks who’s left us in recent yrs in the search of bigger and better things….Alonso, Masch, Torres, Suarez etc. Before them I can probably count on one hand who left us in search of bigger and better things right down the year. We used to be that bigger and better thing….not any more!!
Whos the superstar at the club that players think, “I’d love the chance to play with him”? Every year we seem to be losing that glistening quality that attracts players. Whether that be superstar players at the club, top notch manager that excites players, CL football, challenging for titles. Make no mistake, and I’m not just saying this because of the Gerrard situation, but we are on a tightrope at the min and if we fall the wrong way we will slip to mediocrity for years to come.
Ask yourself, what’s here for Sterling to convince him to stay long term that he can’t get at other clubs and probably better paid too????
Actually Michael, I might agree with you, except I remember where we were between 1995 and 2004. No CL for most of it, and pretty few world class players for the majority of it. Alonso, Masch, Torres, Reina, all came because of a manager, (not doing the manager argument please) so there’s an argument that things might not be as doom and gloom as it first appears.
Last year should have renewed any LFC fan’s faith in the recuperative powers of the club…sure we finished 2nd, but in all seriousness, apart from Neil above, nobody would have given us a snowball’s chance of 2nd. Place that into 2011 perspective, when we were still looking back at 08/09.
US and Australian tours confirm we are still one of the top echelon (and close to the top from a worldwide perspective)
Last season should have been a shot in the arm for every fan…. the reality is, we have been in worse shape than we are now, and come back to surprise everyone.
ferd
You’ve proved my point Ferdia
Between 1995 and 2004 we won plenty of Cups including the UEFA Cup and had the likes of Owen, Carra, Fowler, Gerrard, Hypia etc playing for us. We also had well known managers such as Houllier and then Benitez to attract players from abroad.
Those players came because we had CL football AND a quality manager they looked up to AND we had Gerrard in his pomp.
We no longer have any of those things and it doesn’t look to change in the foreseeable future!
What player at the club do we have that others are gonna think “I’d love to play alongside him there!”
Last season was great but since then we fucked up a transfer window, have been playing horribly, are already out of the CL, don’t look like qualifying for next yrs, Suarez has left and Gerrard has announced he’s leaving.
This isn’t an arguement against Rodgers, I’m with him until at least the end of the season but facts are facts….Rodgers has won nothing in his career so it’s hardly a factor to attract potential players.
My overall point being, year on year recently we are losing our attractiveness to players because of the way we have been run and the way we are performing. If it continues not only are we not gonna be able to attract top quality but the likes of Sterling etc will find it quite easy to move on.
We will become that stepping stone onto bigger and better things for players instead of being that bigger and better thing. This is currently the road we are on and have been for several years now. We need to turn back before it’s too late!
Sturridge, Sterling, and Coutinho (potentially Lallana and, later, Markovic).
As for Rodgers, he brought the club into the CL. That is arguably a bigger attraction to European players than trophies, which are more for fans.
If we continue the form we saw at Swansea (plus Sturridge), there’s every possibility that we return. And we do it playing the most exciting football on the planet, just like last season. We go again.
Walter not one of those players you mentioned are a big draw for people to come here.
Not sure if you’ve noticed either but we bombed out of the CL this year in an embarrassing fashion and are the biggest outsider to get back in.
Nothing really to crow about there.
Gerrard is the Garry Mac. Lets see what happens.
After this dark cloud disperses, the air should have been ionised. Everyone now knows where they stand. Plenty of time to still appreciate Steven.
I like this article because it doesn’t just say we need to / or how can we replace Gerrard.
Life’s not that simple and simply doesn’t work in that way. You rightly point out all the unique players we’ve had at the club, each one different and none a replacement on the last. Life’s as much down to chance as it is structure. As one life finishes another one starts. Something will materialise out of the blue.
It’s my opinion that Liverpool shouldn’t be asking how we can replace Steven Gerrard but simply what do we need to do to progress. If that means we need more goals from midfield, more experience or a leader then so be it but there’s a subtle difference.
I’m not too worried about the future. I always knew this day would come and sooner rather than later. Same as I did with Suarez, Torres and Alonso (appreciate Gerrard has been a hundred times greater for this club than any of those but we have to take a snap shot of today and see what we’re losing in May, not what we’re losing from his career). The club won’t die. Personally, I don’t allow myself to get too down about things completely out of my control or anyone else’s control. This is how it is. We deal with it.
Look, thoughts pop into my head that I sometimes write on here before I’ve evaluated them in my head and here’s another I’ve just had. You mention, lately, about not doing things the orthodox / recognised way and use last season as an example of how it nearly worked for us (as in just score goals). Well, what do we really know about football. It’s relatively new and has evolved over it’s 150 years quite substantially. The answers are there to be found in the future rather than from the past. Who’s to say teams need leaders and experience. We think that now but in the future they may laugh at those values we thought created balance in a team. Imagine a team of Sturridge, Coutinho, Sterling, Lallana, Henderson and Allen. No experience amongst them, no leaders amongst them, just a mix of efficiency and flair.
Maybe the reason England are shit at football is because we think we know it all. Maybe the Germans are closer to the truth with their ‘cogs in a machine’ mentality. Maybe in the future people will look back at Liverpool as the ‘termite hill mentality’. Everyone going quietly and efficiently about their business, getting it done with no fuss and gathering cups in May. But as I said, I’m sure if I’d have evaluated this before writing it I’d have come to the conclusion I’m talking shit.
P.s Can’t wait to watch Akinfenwa against those little silky players of ours.
Neil you’ve summed it up perfectly and saved my poor brain from trying to organize all the somersaulting memories, I’ve been on struggle street trying to quantify what we’re losing and if it’s OK cause the time is right etc. the ultimate upshot is that LFC more than most clubs is bigger than one man, but I think conversely part of the reason we are still bigger than any one man and enjoy a massive diverse international fan base is because of a few big men that have lifted the club and resonated with its heartbeat to make it more than just any club and the latest was Stevie (not Luis – loved watching him but would never waste money on his shirt which he did brilliant things in but didn’t cherish). Let’s look forward to the second half of our season and support Stevie – this early honorable and admirable announcement is like another of his many assists or momentum changing tackles or a nerveless pen, it will galvanize and spur the team on especially in the cups. He’ll have the weight lifted from his shoulders and Rodgers the cloud lifted from his decisions and I think both of them ergo the team will be better (especially if we bring in a quality keeper!). G will be conscious of leaving a legacy and instilling the LFC values into the team and will have 6 months to really groom Henderson who isn’t a bad deputy but I 100% agree he nor anyone could replace Gerrard and we’ve been very lucky for a very long time to have him.
Seeing how the third, elder Gerrard is the one that will actually need replacing in this current Liverpool side, I’m gonna go ahead and throw Xabi Alonso out there.
Elder statesmen who’s won loads, is of undeniable quality and knows the club better than most. He can play in that pivot in front of defense and — as you know, Neil — is not the sort of out-and-out defensive midfielder that the manager has never purchased. To the contrary, he’s the on-the-deck quarterback that you could see fitting right into a side w/ Henderson and Coutinho alongside him and Sterling, Sturridge and Lallana ahead and dictating the play — much like Gerrard in the second half of last season.
Basically, he’s as close to this present iteration of Gerrard and his role in this present Liverpool side as any player in European football currently. And w/ Schweinsteiger back to full fitness, Javi Martinez returning next season, Khedira very possibly on his way to Munich and Guardiola’s preference in playing Alaba and Lahn in midfield, there’s a very very real chance that he’ll be available this summer, I think.
Yohan Cabaye in January, on loan if needs be; Alex Song in the summer.
Good piece, Neil. I’ve never really understood the oft stated notion that we can replace Steven Gerrard, how could we? He’s an absurdly gifted, once in a generation player. The more interesting and important question is ‘why should we?’ Box to box midfielders are a bit of a dying breed in modern football; it’s so fast and so physical that it just takes too much out of players (hence the 2010-15 Gerrard). What we need is 11 good players on the pitch all knowing what they’re supposed to be doing, all contributing, all tactically aware. We need game management on the pitch, something we’ve been lacking under Rodgers. And we need our manager to find a system that will work both domestically and on the European stage. I like the box midfield, but if it’s going to work you need two athletic, defensively minded midfielders, goals from the advanced midfielders and a high line. It’s a risky strategy, we’ve seen how City have struggled in Europe, but one that could work for us. We’ll never replace Steven, there’s no point trying. We should buy and bring through players for specific roles in the team so that we become greater than the sum of our parts.
Re the above: the salutary example, the obvious model, is post-Robson United. They didn’t do too badly now, did they.
Greats are very rarely replaced; Dalglish for Keegan was a freak, the type of signing that only Bob could pull off, we were unable to adequately replace Hansen, Lawrenson (though Gillespie was unlucky with injuries) or Souness. It took three players and a change of playing style to replace Kenny and Ian Rush. We still haven’t replaced Masch and Alonso.
Utd spent money on their team and paid the wages to bring them. We refuse to do that.
*sobs uncontrollably*
There’ll never be another Gerrard, and there’ll never be another Suarez. But then, we thought we’d never replace Torres! And I remember when Keegan decamped, and we were all distraught. Then Kenny walked in…
You’ll never get the same, but a passable different may be just around the corner…if the club can attract/hold him. But someone needs to take his head out of his own arse first…
Quite right Kevin. It’s not as though we’re replacing prime Gerrard, there are better defensive CMs out there. Brendan made his pitch today; let’s see how it plays out.
Are you two some sort of ‘Stick It To Rodgers’ Double Act?
You are correct, though. Somebody really does need to take his head out of his own arse – or even someone else’s arse, eh Paul?
I was agreeing with Kevin’s point about Gerrard,. I’m not one of the anti-Brendans, though I do think he’s made a lot of mistakes this year.
Incredible until the “Woody Allen is always right” line! :)
The young Gerrard clearly benefited growing up amongst mostly good, if not great players and managers. That is a crucial key point in his flourishing into a great player he was then. Gerrard at his peak could have easily been an important player in the big teams like Real Madrid or Barcelona.
Imagine if he were to have started his professional career and walked into this current team and manager +/- 25 years ago.
For completely selfish reasons, this news is a double barrel of depressing for me. I’m an American Liverpool supporter, fell in love with the club in 1999 and it’s been everything to me. In 2011, I moved to San Jose, California, and have lightly adopted the local MLS club as my “side club”, so I had something to cheer for in person. The rumor that Gerrard is going to the Galaxy–San Jose’s chief rival–is a double punch to the gut. The thought that I might have to actually ROOT AGAINST Gerrard or wear a (Liverpool) Gerrard shirt to a game and potentially be seen to be rooting for the enemy (ah, one of those sellouts that cheers for the big name internationally known club and players, not for their local one! The worst!)….I can’t even handle the news.
It makes perfect sense from his perspective and I hope he does well, I’ll even be secretly happy if he lifts a league title here (hell, the Galaxy do it every other year, what’s one more?) for his own sake, but this is just a horrible bummer for me. I’ll finally have the opportunity to see Steven Gerrard in person and I’ll have to sit down, deflated, when he scores against us. That’s not how I’d like to experience my only experience of a Liverpool legend.
Nothing to add, no argument to enter into. A perfect Steven Gerrard article.