SIMON Mignolet almost handled the ball outside his penalty area against Southampton. If you’d suggested such a thing a few weeks ago then you’d have been laughed out of town.
One of the most enjoyable things about being a Liverpool supporter for me is the concept of the ludicrous — those instances and occurrences that are ludicrous in nature but in a positive way; the things that you can’t help but smile about. Mignolet provoked one of those smiles for me against Southampton and it’s showing no signs of fading.
The turnaround in the fortunes of Mignolet go hand-in-hand with the turnaround in the fortunes of the team as a whole. It’s all so ludicrous and I can’t help but smile. He’s coming for balls he wouldn’t have dreamed of just a few short weeks ago. His shot-stopping is still exemplary. He’s shouting the odds at his defenders and they are listening. Martin Skrtel hasn’t snarled at him for ages and when the play is at the other end of the pitch Mignolet is positioned 15 to 20 yards outside his penalty area. It’s almost as if someone has slipped him a few DVDs of Liverpool keepers past with the remit of ‘watch and replicate’. Simon Mignolet is all of a sudden symbolic of the rebirth of the beautifully ludicrous personality of Liverpool FC.
I’m starting to fall for this evolving version of Liverpool FC in a big, big way. It hasn’t been an easy task for it to emerge from the pyro-clouds of last season. This is a new Liverpool that is very much detached from the 2013-14 variation. This is a new Liverpool that isn’t just finding its feet and blinking in the early morning sunlight, it’s a new Liverpool that is beginning to kick over chairs and turn over tables like a trainee Gene Hunt trying to extract a confession from someone that has the word ‘fingers’ for a middle name. This new version of Liverpool is starting to upset people and it’s gloriously ludicrous after what we witnessed earlier this season.
So 12 games to go and we sit 10 points behind second-placed Manchester City. So let’s be ludicrous and aim higher than we probably should. Let’s beat Manchester City on Sunday and draw to within seven points. Let’s make more than one or two teams above us think and worry about us. Let’s make all of them sweat that little bit more.
We weren’t all that great at St Mary’s on Sunday, but it was my favourite three points of the season so far. Philippe Coutinho thundered another jaw-dropper in from distance and Raheem Sterling guided one in that Fraser Forster probably should have kept out. An array of penalties could or couldn’t have been given. Each shout was ‘debateable’ at best. There was a bit of Keystone Kop defending that we weren’t punished for, which seems par for the course when Dejan Lovren is involved. But that’s the same Dejan Lovren who I still believe can be another ‘lost cause’ to be transformed from round peg for square hole to round peg for round hole.
I wrote earlier in the season about my Southampton-supporting mate Doo and how he was angry with Liverpool. How he was sad to see him go, but was ultimately pleased for Rickie Lambert to win his dream move to Anfield, yet was apoplectic about Adam Lallana and Lovren ditching the club he loves for the same destination. Anger doesn’t suit Doo as he’s a great fella, but I can’t blame him for still being a bit ‘uppity’ about the whole thing, especially given how all three of the players we took from Southampton just seem to float around the periphery at Liverpool.
I admire the way Southampton have bounced back from the loss of so many key players from their progression last season, from the loss of their manager to a Tottenham Hotspur side that might well walk out at Wembley for Sunday’s League Cup Final, but also still sit behind them in the league table with just a dozen games to go.
I can’t help but like Ronald Koeman, even if he does look like a man that should be a professional darts player rather than the manager of an English top-flight football club. I’d quite happily see Southampton and ourselves oust Arsenal and Manchester United from the top four places where they currently lie. Essentially I want Doo to like us again, as I feel like we are a football club that is about to dance its way to mid-May in that ‘nothing is impossible’ frame of mind that so nearly won us the title nine months ago.
Football that makes people smile in a mandatory manner really should be liked by everyone. Doo, and you, should embrace the ludicrous.
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda
Interesting to see the side perform as a unit when Gerrard is out – yet again. That can’t be a coincidence.
Oh ffss. The last two games without Gerrard – Besiktas and Southampton – were great results, but not great performances. The Besiktas game we were no better than mediocre for large periods. Yesterday we showed great grit, determination and battling qualities (and in the last 20 or so excellent game management) but we were second best for most of the game. They must have felt a bit like we did after the United result. More weeks than not, if you play like that against another top 6 side you’re going to lose.
This isn’t to rag on anyone who played in those games – like I say there were things to admire – but the implication in your comment that in these games we had a midfield that it would be a travesty to disrupt by including Gerrard in a future game is, frankly, bollocks.
Did you give him 10 on Gibbo’s post, Brownie? :-)
11.
Gerrard hides from the ball, loses his man, and doesn’t like being closed down. He is spent as a player. Get over it.
‘Hides from the ball’? I thought he was an ego-maniac?
You sound like same blokes who thought Geoff Thomas merited an England place more than Matt Le Tissier. Or as I like to call them, ‘everything that is wrong with English football’.
What’s new is balance. This is the first balanced team Rodgers has produced: we attack and defend as a team. Last season was remarkable but never felt sustainable: Suarez was a genius and a lunatic in equal measure. This is a far more mature team based around intensity, flexibility and commitment.
Good point that mate! I still can’t help comparing us to last season all the time but I’d not actually considered this team is even better. I can definitely see where you’re coming from. Suppose if we can add just one 20 goal a season man to the squad at least, then I’d definitely agree. You’re right though, last season was unsustainable to a degree. I was just reflecting on it then, completely mental at times. I think Lucas will choose to go in the summer.
Like last years performance I’m massively satisfied with the endeavour, application and heart that the team displayed.
Credit to the Saints for the way they pressurised us in terrible conditions. Even more to us for handling it all so professionally
Just saw that Clemence stat. 314 clean sheets? That’s unfeckin’ real.
Not to me its not. I had the great man’s book on goalkeeping and met him on Christmas Day 1978. He signed my copy of the Beano Annual!
I hate to admit that for a while I was one of those who wanted to see Shilton picked for England. I quickly concluded that was a mistake but too late for Clem.
Scab! Traitor! etc.
I reckon Clem would have made the punch against Maradona in 1986.
Although, I reckon my Granny would have made that punch.
Funny isn’t it! When you think of Shilton you think of the 86 World Cup. When I think about him I immediately think of him banging Tina down the lanes. A great career yet to small minded people like me that’s his legacy.
Didn’t the Kop famously serenade Shilton with “Who Were You With Last Night?” after the dalliance with the delectable Tina?
Haha, they had loads for him. One of the first songs I remember as a kid was about Shilton. Too childish and unfunny to reproduce here but finished with ‘all over Tina’s bum’. To this day if I hear the name Peter Shilton I think of Tina. Funny how the mind works.
Yes, the best three points of the season. Genuinely the most important and our biggest win to date.
We were gritty, determined, committed and lucky – the four things required to win at this Southampton team, in those conditions, during this run of games. Our quality wasn’t great but given our energy levels are nowhere near max it was never going to be. It won’t be for a while. Two shots on target til the 80th minute is awful, but two goals isn’t.
It is worrying we are one injury to Allen (injury prone) away from Emre replacing him at centre mid and playing Johnson, Skrtel, Lovren and Moreno in front of Mignolet again. We saw how that went. In any formation that has disaster written all over it. This is why you rotate. The massive improvement of Mignolet and Skrtel (both been superb lately) has gone hand in hand with the removal of Pebbles and John Glenson. You’d have to expect a similarly quick regression should numbers 6 and 2 find their way on to the team sheet in the near future.
Yesterday’s performance wasn’t great. Nothing new there. But we have a lot of lads with serious balls. Some don’t, but the ones that do are making up the difference. Henderson, Allen, Can. Those three in particular never shirk responsibility, even when not in flying form. Some do.
Im specifically looking at Lallana here. He was a joke. Didn’t want to know. Neither did Lazar but he’s still a baby from the continent who may still adjust, so you can be more forgiving (only slightly – he’s going to have to man up sooner rather than later). Lallana has no excuse. £25m.
Lovren is a shambles waiting to happen, a ticking timebomb about to blow. He came in for a start for the first time since the manager shamefully persisted with him 19 ties in a row and he immediately made what looked a solid unit look a lot less solid.
Rodgers spent £20m on him to replace Sakho and play left centre back in a 2. Now we’ve moved to a 3 and the infinitely superior Sakho was injured, the manager decided to swap Emre, superb at right centre back, to left centre back and play Lovren on the right. The manager clearly felt Lovren would cost us coming up against Ward-Prowse (who drifts right) and an over-lapping Clyne as well as AN Other (Djuricic as it turned out).
But if that’s the case why play Markovic? Why not keep Lovren at LCB where he’d be most comfortable and give him a bit more protection in order to limit any calamity the Croat might cause? Moreno could play at Southampton and at Besiktas, then bring in Lazar vs City and Burnley. Or if you have to play Markovic as he can’t play in Turkey, put him on the right and Ibe on the left, who offers greater strength and athleticism on the defensive side of things. Jesus Brendan, it isn’t rocket science. Oh, and if you’ve spent £20m on a LCB who you don’t trust to play LCB at Southamption, you’ve made a cataclysmic error. Get rid.
And finally, thank fuck Gerrard is injured. We don’t grind out results like this with him in the team. No doubt I’ll be disappointed when he returns and goes straight back into the first 11 but I’m enjoying seeing our centre mids, even when not on top form, do the necessities like covering the ground and putting a foot in. Allen may have given a pen away yesterday but if he’s not on the pitch and Steven is, that’s a free shot and a goal.
Go back and look at that chance again if you can. When the long ball is played up by the CB, Allen is in the centre circle, almost bang on the halfway line. Djuricic has 6/7 yards on Allen. Before the ball is flicked on, Allen has read it and is sprinting. Its 3 yards when Pelle heads it. By the time Djuricic chests it and it bounces in front of him, it’s 0 yards. Not only did he read it but he had the legs to snuff it out, illegally or no. That sort of thing from Allen is forgotten about far too often. Same with Henderson when he does such things. Too often we’ve lost goals like this with Gerrard in the team, standing there scratching his bollocks. Kane’s goal at Anfield a short time ago is one off the top of my head, mainly because it was Steven’s last game.
At this stage it is almost impossible to understate just how much better we are with Allen or Lucas in place of the captain. I’m just glad so many are now seeing it, even if some are still stuck in a timewarp.
Your posts remind of ‘The World According to Garp’.
That is all.
Says the person who has been wrong on just about everything since October.
I’ve stopped reading anything you have to say because it goes from embarrassingly wrong to hilariously wrong and back again. If I was as incorrect and so far off the mark as you on so much, so often, I’d stop posting.
I can’t remember the last time you made a salient point. Let’s compare that to me who has been saying injuries are coming due to no rotation and bang, Lucas, Gerrard and Sakho out within weeks. Or when I said from the start Lovren was a mess. Or when I said Lucas needed to play at DM. Or when I said Gerrard needed removing from DM and then the first team. You know I said all these things because you disagreed with them all. If you want I’ll even dig out the posts.
On Gerrard, you are like a 9 year old boy who has a hero and won’t have a bad word said about him, regardless of how blatant it is. The transfer requests, deliberate loose talk to the media, lack of effort at certain points in his career etc never happened for you. You’ve blocked them out so you can continue your obsession and praise of all things Stevie G. Some of us have the wit to say what an amazing player he was but is no longer, whilst also not allowing his past efforts to stop us questioning some of his behaviours.
When the rest of UK football fans slag off Liverpool fans for their ridiculous delusions, positivity, bias and myopia, it’s the likes of you they have in mind, not the likes of me.
Now off you pop back to your shrine of the 35 year old Gerrard and your thoughts about how good he still is and how its simply a coincidence we get better performances and results when he’s nowhere near the team. I bet you can’t wait til he scores against the San Jose Earthquakes to say “I told you so.”
And that is all.
“If I was as incorrect and so far off the mark as you on so much, so often, I’d stop posting.”
There’s a lot that’s funny in your commentary, Chris, but the idea you’d ever give up wanting to share your “opinions” is the high watermark in your latest box of delights. You’d send your posts in by carrier pigeon if you had to.
Jose Mourinho just called and asked if you’d take training tomorrow. He knows that you have famously predicted that some players get injured playing football, and this is insider nous he cannot do without. I told him that Tuesday morning is when you normally help Ronaldo practise his free-kicks, but if you could drop by after that would be appreciated.
Think it’s a bit harsh to say Lallana and Markovic didn’t want to know. Both were poor but they both worked very hard. Just lacked quality.
Chris Mc. Great analysis of Southampton once again. Agree with almost everything you said.
I’d rather read Brownies posts over yours though as he doesn’t sound like the world according to Garp. That is all you arrogant cunt.
These articles invite opinions, and people being what they are, opinions will differ. Putting aside the nastiness that seeps out, both Brownie and Chris Mc are entitled to their opinions. My opinion is that, unless he produces some superhuman stuff in the remaining games, this season is probably doing irreparable damage to Steven Gerrard’s image as one of LFCs greatest ever players.
I genuinely don’t understand this mentality. Worst case scenario is Gerrard plays in a proportion of the reaming games and is absolutely abysmal. It would be a sad way to finish a career, but why would that or should that detract from what he’s done for LFC for the preceding 16 years? He *is* one of LFC’s greatest ever players. That’s an opinion that is as close to ‘a fact’ as it is likely to get and about the only people you could find to dispute that is the minority anti-Gerrard clique within the LFC supporter base itself (some of whom comment here). If people are prepared to rewrite history in their own heads on the basis they don’t like Gerrard or what he’s offered in 2014-15, there’s precious little I or anyone else can do to prevent that but they are still wrong.
That said, I think your comment is a good summation of the Gerrard issue. I note how Gerrard needs to produce “superhuman” performances to have any chance of redemption. Good or even very good performances are enough for a Joe Allen, a Henderson, a Coutinho, a Lallana, a Markovic, etc., but where Gerrard’s concerned nothing less than “superhuman” will do. Which goes to the essence of what I believe is the mis-analysis of Gerrard’s performances. He is still being judged against what we have seen before rather than what he offers today. How else do you explain Gerrard being the target of criticism after a cup game where he scores the only two goals in a team performance that was mediocre at best? Or when people decry his goals contributions because they’re mostly pens and free-kicks when the goals contribution from the rest of his midfield colleagues is abysmal? Have you seen any other player criticized so often after games where he didn’t even play? Joe Allen gives away a nailed on pen but it would have been so much worse if Gerrard had been on the pitch because of X, Y and Z. Why when anyone plays well alongside Gerrard is the credit due to that player but when they play badly alongside Gerrard it’s Gerrard’s fault? That player may have played similarly in the game before when Gerrard did not play, but let’s not talk about that. Why is our best win of the season 2-0 away at Southampton when we were second best for most of the game, and not the 3-0 away at Spurs where we were dominant? I think I know why.
Am I obsessed? Probably, but I’m not the only one.
‘He *is* one of LFC’s greatest ever players. That’s an opinion that is as close to ‘a fact’ as it is likely to get and about the only people you could find to dispute that is the minority anti-Gerrard clique within the LFC supporter base itself (some of whom comment here).’
Not sure that’s true Brownie. Kevin regularly states that peak Gerrard was the best player he’s seen in a red shirt. I don’t think he’s our greatest player, I don’t even think he’s our greatest midfielder (that’d be Souness for my money), but I wouldn’t dispute that he’s been a great player. I’m not sure anyone would. There’s a world of difference between arguing that he doesn’t merit a place in the current side and refusing to acknowledge his qualities as a player at his peak. But I agree, with your main point: I don’t think he merits a place because his game no longer fits our style of play, it’s nothing to do with tainting his legendary status for me. The superhuman point is just guff though Brownie, we just need more pace and defensive nous than he’s currently able to offer in that role. No-one thinks Joe Allen’s a better player, just that he’s more effective in that role in this team: he runs about a lot more. We need that. When you step back a bit, away from all the pro/anti narratives, it really is that simple.
The zealots get upset, they think Gerrard today is the same player Rafa had. Gerrard is a club legend, but he isn’t a fraction of the player he was. But many kids cannot accept it, they probably didn’t even see him start his career when he was Mr hot-n-cold, vacillating from a passenger to Roy of the Rovers.
Paisley would have sold him years ago.
Agreed, nice man Bob but ruthless. Always knew when to move a player on. Having said that, he was working in a different era with far richer resources. Whilst there’s an argument to be had about Gerrard being past his best for some time, we’d do well to remember those playing alongside him: he could play on one leg with shingles and still have more quality than the likes of Charlie Adam and Christian Poulsen.
You hint at this yourself, but you can be a bit more phlegmatic about moving on club icons when you can take your pick of the game’s elite as replacements (which Bob had the luxury of doing given LFFC’s status in the last 70s/early 80s). If we could have swapped Gerrard for Pirlo in 2012 Paul may have a point, but we couldn’t so he doesn’t.
“they think Gerrard today is the same player Rafa had”
So even when the ‘zealots’ concede that he isn’t the same player in every post they write, you will maintain this is what they think regardless? How does that work?
The problem is the exact opposite. It’s detractors such as you who can’t forget what he once was and therefore constantly grade him against his other. younger self rather than his contemporaries. He will always come up short when compared with Gerrard of the mid-2000s, but the point is so does everyone else.
“Paisley would have sold him years ago.”
In yer dreams.
Brownie (aged 45, a mere ‘kid’).
He would Brownie. He always knew when to move a player on. Moved Jimmy Case on in his twenties. Ray Kennedy, Cally, Tommy Smith, Emlyn, David Johnson: all moved on or dropped without sentiment. Gerrard’s decline is obvious to anyone, most of us couldn’t see the drop off in Kennedy or Case’s form. Johnson had the best season of his career before being dropped. But Bob was ruthless, an ex-physio he could spot injuries a mile off.
I’ll caveat the above with the my previous argument, though: he’d have sold him had he got Ronnie Whelan waiting in the wings. I can’t say the same about Adam or Poulsen.
The only players in your list even close to Gerrard are Ray Kennedy and Cally. Kennedy was moved on at least one or two seasons too soon (a rare Paisley mistake, imo, although I accept it’s probably a close call). Ronnie Whelan crica 1982 was not better than Kennedy for my money.
Cally was 36 when he left Liverpool, the same age Gerrard will be when he leaves. That’s hardly “moving a player on”, is it?
It’s true Johnson was dropped after a great season – for a fella called Ian Rush! If there had been a midfield replacement equivalent of Ian Rush available then maybe Rafa/Kenny would have ditched Gerrard a few years back (which would still have been a mistake) and brought in this undefined world-beater in his place. I just don’t remember Iniesta or Pirlo beating a path to our door at that time.
So Paisley was more careful with who he moved on and when than is being suggested here. There is nothing “ruthless” in swapping out David Johnson for Ian Rush. There are no equivalent scenarios that presented themselves to anyone managing Liverpool in .
There are many things I would have changed about our club these last 15 years, and I can think of approx. 4628 of them before I get to: “And if only we’d gotten rid of Gerrard sooner”.
Glad to see you know better than Bob, Brownie! Where d’you keep all those trophies? Ray Kennedy didn’t set the world alight at Swansea whereas Ronnie…
You’re missing my point spectacularly. Bob always had a plan and it wasn’t because we were the richest club in the land: we were not. It was a combination of having the best scouting team in the country and an eye for weakness. He could spot a player slowing down a mile off. All the ex-players talk about this. And the scouts…think about where these great players came from, and how much they cost: Home Farm, Ayr United, Partick Thistle, Chester City (no offence Robin!).
I do agree with your last point, though. I don’t think Gerrard’s first 11 material this year, and I had my reservations last season too (but accept that he made an enormous contribution=. But in the years before that he was a cast-iron starter and the problems with the club ran far deeper than the Gerrard issue.
I’m pretty certain my granddad’s old schoolmate would be less affronted at my disagreeing with him over Kennedy than you are. And you do know why RK failed to set the Vetch Field alight, right?
I don’t disagree with any of the points made about the scouting system or Paisley’s general nous. I’m a Liverpool fan for feck’s sake. I was disagreeing that the examples you gave were good indicators of Paisley knowing when to move a player on (although I fundamentally agree that this was a skill he did have), and that in the case of Gerrard he would have “moved him on years ago”.
In fact, it seems you disagree with your hypothetical Paisley on this point. Because whilst you:
a) agree with Paul that Paisley would have moved him on years ago
you also:
b) accept that until last year at the earliest Gerrard was a “cast-iron starter”
The only logical interpretation is that you think it would have been a mistake to move him on years ago. And you’d be right, it would have been. And Bob would have come to the same conclusion, too.
*One of* Lfc’s greatest ever players. Not *the* greatest ever player. He’s not even my pick for *the* greatest ever LFC player.
I would have no problem with your broader analysis for *certain games*. I am not now and never have suggested Gerrard is a must start for every game. I think it’s now clear that Rodgers doesn’t have a first 11 in the true sense of the phrase. He picks the team based on opposition, match priority, how soon each game is after our last game and how close to the next one, how much each player has played during high frequency game periods, etc.. About the only exception to this is Henderson because:
a) he has the physical conditioning to play more games at high frequency than nay other player in the squad, and
b) he has adaptability that means he can offer something whatever formation/approach Rodgers takes game to game
Everyone else in the midfield – including Gerrard – being assessed on a case by case, game by game basis. And quite right, too.
My disagreement with your analysis is that there are plenty of games where – notwithstanding Rodgers’ preference for a high-press game – you need something more from your midfielders than an ability to run around a lot. There are some games (quite a few for Liverpool) where the opposition will happily concede possession in certain parts of the field and we will dominate ownership of the football. The high-press game is an irrelevance in such games. Quite often in these scenarios you’re relying on greater invention and creativity than you are an ability to cover 11ks in the 90. I think Gerrard has a role to play in such games, whether as a deeper-lying CM (not a DM) or as a number 10(ish). We agreed months back that without two upfront, one of Gerrard’s greatest assets (his passing) is neutralized because there is insufficient movement ahead of him and not enough targets for him to hit. In those situations you either don’t play Gerrard or deploy him in the advanced midfielder/split-striker role. With two upfront (which we’ve seen precious little of this season) Gerrard has more options and we can exploit one of the attributes he retains and which doesn’t fade with age: the ability to see passes others don’t and make something happen…and this is leaving aside his superior (most of the time) set-piece ability which whilst not conclusive on its own, is more important than some people give credit for *especially* given the dearth of goals supplied the midfield alternatives.
I also think the three at the back give us a more solid base regardless of who is playing in midfield. We are not as soft through the middle and the number of bodies in there means we are not as exposed in transition as we were earlier in the season. So the main criticisms of Gerrard – that his inability to get around the park as much as others and lack of defensive nous give us a soft centre (criticisms that are vastly overstated anyway) – are no longer (to the extent they ever were) relevant, or at least not as relevant for as long as we persist with the back three.
That said, now that Sturridge is back I think there is some merit in looking again at the two up top which might (although not necessarily) mean a switch to a back four. I think we look a better, more potent team with a genuine partnership up top. Whilst winning is the most important thing and we are certainly harder to break down, goal-scoring remains a problem for us and I don’t think that will change if Sturridge is left to plough a lone furrow up front. I don’t want to sound churlish, but a as fantastic as the win was on Sunday that performance against a top 6 side doesn’t usually deliver 3 points and we shouldn’t allow the result to convince us we saw something we didn’t. For my money, the template is still Spurs away rather than Southampton away and I say that whether Gerrard is slotted into the formation as he was at Spurs or someone else.
You needed 79pts to make the top 4 last season. It won’t be anything like that this season – probably somewhere around 72-74. But even that lower target means Liverpool need to take 27 points from their last 36 at a minimum. Our poor start means that pretty soon we’ll need to risk losing in order to win games as draws won’t be enough. Solid, compact, difficult to beat was precisely what was needed to help us emerge from our early season slump and Rodgers deserves credit for making the change he did when he did. But I don’t think this will be enough to propel us into the top 4. It’s part of the equation, of course it is, but I reckon Rodgers will need to revert to two up top at some point (and probably sooner rather than later). Such a formation plays to the strengths of Gerrard as described above.
Take the home games against Burnley, Palace, Newcastle and QPR. We will take a minimum 60% possession in all those games and I expect each opposition team to deploy two banks of four and hope we can’t break them down. What are we more likely to need? Joe Allen’s Action Jackson impression or a bit of guile and creativity?
Of the 5 teams above us, we play 3 in our remaining fixtures. Chelsea will play for a win given their title ambitions but a point for Arsenal and Utd is a better result for both of them than it is for us. We will probably need to win those games if we’re to make the top 4, or at least take 4 points. Right now, I play Gerrard in the home fixture against United and go balls out for the win. If we get the win, I probably don’t pick Gerrard for Arsenal as a point there on the back of the Utd win is okay. If we drop points home to Utd, I play Gerrard at Arsenal in what becomes a virtual must-win game.
I hope this clarifies that I’m not a Gerrard groupie who insists he is a first-pick whatever the situation and whoever the opposition, but equally I’m absolutely convinced that he has more than earned the right to be asked to play a role in our efforts to make the top four, which probably means having to win at least 8 of our remaining 12 games, which in turn means putting the emphasis on attack rather than shoring up the back (which I accept is exactly what was needed at the time, especially when we were without our main goal threat).
He might not have a first eleven anymore Brownie, but he has a first 6 or 7 now, a spine, if you will:
Mignolet
Can, Skrtl and Sakho
Lucas and Henderson
Sturridge
Fitness permitting, I think these guys start every game. You could add Coutinho to that list too
The positions that are genuinely negotiable are at wing back and wide forward. We have a wealth of talent in the attacking positions and should rotate at will to save po’ li’l Phil’s legs.
I’m not affronted Brownie, I just disagree. Let’s keep it simple:
You agree that Ray Kennedy wasn’t moved on too early.
Bob would have moved Gerrard on four to five seasons ago. He didn’t like injured players on the books.
But it didn’t make sense for Kenny or Brendan to do so because he was the best midfielder on the books until last season.
I hope you can accept that line of argument.
Is it possible that Lovren at RCB is how BR sees his redemption in a future back three of Sakho, Skrtel and Lovren.? Rather than replace or rotate the beast that Sakho has become. And Can to move forward to his “best” position.
It seems to me that BR could be using time out of the First XI to coach him and then give him some cameos to ease him back. Obviously injury to Sakho forced his hand for the Saints (and presumably Kolo is still on the lash after the Cup of Nations). As has been said before by others I don’t believe the door is closed on anyone under BR until they’re gone out the door. Anyone remember Skrtel being completely bombed out of the team not so very long ago? Now he’s a rock in a three. Lovren gave me palpitations for the entire match but we paid serious money for him I don’t always see it, but there is a player in there somewhere.
The debate about Gerrard is now all but exhausted. But can I just say that Steven Gerrrard, in his pomp, let you believe in Roy of the Rovers. You KNEW that all was not lost, a thundetboly from 35 metres still on the canards. But you talk to kids today and they wonder what the fuss was about, and they have wondered what the fuss was about for at least a couple of seasons. I really hope we can see his last season ending with a trophy that HE wins for us, wiping the ‘slip’ from the memories of people who don’t lnow what Istanbul means to this club.
Aye, fair enough Kevin.