As a team of Liverpool legends continue to debate over which pair of players from the last decade deserve to join the club's official Hall of Fame, we take an in-depth look at two of the contenders - Xabi Alonso and Steven Gerrard.Last week, the five-man panel of Kenny Dalglish, Brian Hall, Phil Thompson, Ian Callaghan and Alan Hansen whittled a shortlist of 21 players from the 2000s down to just 10 names to be considered for a position amongst the club's elite.
Alonso and Gerrard join Jamie Carragher, Dietmar Hamann, Sami Hyypia, Gary McAllister, Michael Owen, Pepe Reina, John Arne Riise and Fernando Torres as the 10 stars to have made the cut.
Two players from every decade since the club's inception in 1892 make up the current roll of honour and, over the course of the summer, the panel will carefully study each contender before ultimately deciding which duo are worthy of having their names forever associated with the greats of Anfield.
Over the coming weeks, Liverpoolfc.tv will also be analysing each of the 10 and today we cast a look back at the contributions Alonso and Gerrard made to our success during the decade, as well as getting Kop icon Hansen's view on the pair.
Xabi Alonso
Era: 2004-09
Total games: 210
Total goals: 19
League games: 143
League goals: 15
Honours: Champions League (2005), Super Cup (2005), FA Cup (2006), Community Shield (2006)
Midfielder Xabi Alonso was a true Kop favourite with a reputation as one of the best passers in the game.
The Spain international was among the first players to be signed by Rafael Benitez in a £10.5million deal from Real Sociedad in August 2004.
Alonso made his debut at Bolton's Reebok Stadium on August 29, 2004. Two months later he put in a dazzling performance against Fulham at Craven Cottage which had Kopites purring. With the Reds 2-0 down at half-time, Benitez threw on his new boy. The midfielder duly inspired a miraculous comeback, with the game ending 4-2 in our favour.
His first season in English football was interrupted by a broken ankle following a tackle from Chelsea's Frank Lampard on New Year's Day. After three months out, he returned in the Champions League quarter-final second leg against Juventus. Alonso played 90 minutes as the Reds held the Italians to a goalless draw and thus progressed to the semis.
Next up were Chelsea, though a wrongly-awarded yellow card following a brush with Eidur Gudjohnsen meant the midfield anchorman missed the second leg.
Never mind, his teammates got the job done, and Alonso would play a pivotal role in Istanbul when the club won its fifth European Cup. It was he who scored Liverpool's third and equalising goal on 59 minutes, knocking in the rebound from his own missed penalty.
The Spaniard's second season in England was perhaps most notable for his performance against Luton Town in the third round of the FA Cup. With the Reds 3-1 down early in the second half, he scored two corkers, including a 65-yard punt from inside his own half.
Liverpool went on to win the FA Cup in Cardiff four months later, with Alonso playing 66 minutes of the final against West Ham.
Alonso returned to Melwood after the World Cup finals to prepare for what would turn out to be another memorable season.
Not only did he play in his second European Cup final, he also scored another goal from inside his own half in a match against Newcastle United. Remarkably, it was his first Liverpool strike since the almost identical effort against Luton, and he remains the only modern player to score consecutive club goals from beyond the half-way line.
In June 2007 Alonso penned a new five-year deal, though sadly much of the following campaign was spent on the sidelines with a metatarsal injury.
Fortunately for Spain, he was back in time for Euro 2008 - and the tournament provided another career high as he and his countrymen defeated Germany in the final. Though not always in the starting XI, Alonso featured three times from the bench and wore the captain's armband in the final group game against Greece.
With his confidence sky high, the No.14 went on to enjoy perhaps his finest season at Anfield as Liverpool took the 2008-09 Premier League title race to the wire. A personal highlight arrived with a solitary goal which gave us our first win at Stamford Bridge in four years.
Sadly for many Kopites, it was to be Alonso's final campaign in a red shirt. That summer, with re-elected Madrid president Florentino Perez assembling his second team of Galácticos, he followed the likes of Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo to the Bernabeu.
Finest moment?Xabi was the calmest man inside the Ataturk Stadium when he retained his composure to net a penalty at the second attempt and draw Liverpool and AC Milan level at 3-3 in the 2005 Champions League final. Goals from inside his own half against Luton and Newcastle are also worthy of a mention.
Quote"Here was a player people all over the world would pay to watch."
Nigel Worthington after seeing Alonso deliver a passing master class on his home league debut for Liverpool against Norwich in September 2004.
Hansen's viewA fantastic passer, who was very competitive and scored a lot of great goals for the club. He had great vision and awareness, looked forward quickly, played it quickly and had two good feet. We missed him last season - we were a better team with him than without him.
Steven Gerrard
Era: 2000-09
Games: 477
Goals: 124
League games: 323
League goals: 75
Honours: Champions League (2005), UEFA Cup (2001), Super Cup (2001, 2005), FA Cup (2001, 2006), League Cup (2001, 2003) Community Shield (2001, 2006)
Our inspirational captain is arguably the most complete footballer in the world. Power, pace, touch and a never-say-die attitude; Steven Gerrard has it all, and rarely have these attributes been more apparent than when he skippered the Reds to 2005 Champions League glory in Istanbul.
England's World Cup captain collected just about every medal during the decade and in 2006 was awarded an MBE by the Queen. The one piece of silverware that eludes him is the Premier League title.
Gerrard was instrumental in the Reds starting the decade by winning a unique treble in 2001. With the Worthington and FA Cups already in the bag, Stevie G was one of the scorers in an unforgettable 5-4 UEFA Cup final victory over Alaves. It came as no surprise when the man nicknamed the Huyton Hammer was voted PFA Young Player of the Year.
The midfield maestro helped Gerard Houllier's men mount a title challenge in 2001-02, but a disappointing season would follow, the highlight of which was a Worthington Cup final at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. Gerrard opened the scoring in a satisfying 2-0 win over Manchester United.
By the start of 2003-04 the midfielder had firmly established himself as Liverpool's on-field leader, and it was no surprise when Houllier handed him the captain's armband in place of Sami Hyypia.
Just when it seemed things couldn't get any better for the Scouser, they did. On May 25, 2005, under new boss Rafael Benitez, Gerrard lifted the club's fifth European Cup.
Having already brought Liverpool back from the brink earlier in the campaign with a last-gasp strike against Olympiacos, the skipper helped inspire the greatest comeback of all time in Istanbul.
No-one believed the Reds could overturn AC Milan's 3-0 half-time lead - until Stevie G's 54th minute header, that is.
His heroics earned him the title of UEFA's Most Valuable Player, as well as a nomination for the prestigious Ballon D'Or award. He would come third in the latter, behind Ronaldinho and countryman Frank Lampard.
In the months that followed the final, captain fantastic signed a new four-year contract at Anfield to put an end to speculation about a possible move to Chelsea.
With his future sorted, Gerrard went on to enjoy his most impressive season to date, scoring 23 goals in 53 games and being crowned PFA Player of the Year. He was the first Liverpool man to win the award since John Barnes in 1988.
The 2005-06 campaign culminated with another FA Cup win in Cardiff, with West Ham providing the opposition. If 1953 will always be remembered as the Stanley Matthews final, then 2006 will surely go down as Gerrard's day.
The No.8 twice breached Shaka Hislop's net, including a dramatic equaliser in the dying moments to send the game into extra-time and, ultimately, penalties. This 35-yard volley was voted Match of the Day's Goal of the Season.
Gerrard - who's played in just about every position for Liverpool - had now scored in four major finals, something no English-based player had ever done.
The Kop idol returned from the 2006 World Cup in Germany for another eventful domestic season during which he broke Ian Rush's European Cup goalscoring record. His header against PSV was his 15th in the competition, one more than the legendary striker.
In December 2006 Gerrard was awarded an MBE, which he later collected from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
As if all this wasn't enough, the season ended with another European Cup final, and again it was AC Milan. The Reds might have lost 2-1 in Athens, but Gerrard was more than happy to pen a new four-year contract to keep him at Anfield until 2011.
The 2007-08 season ended without silverware despite a 21-goal haul for Gerrard including an ice-cool penalty versus Arsenal to take Liverpool to yet another Champions League semi-final.
Now a bona fide legend of the British game, the midfielder made it a century of club goals with a powerful free-kick against PSV in October 2008. In doing so, he joined an elite band of 16 Anfield legends to achieve the feat.
The strike was one of 24 for Gerrard during 2008-09, a personal record which earned him Football Writers' Player of the Year for the first time. Sadly, his haul wasn't enough to secure an elusive Premier League winners' medal, though Liverpool mounted their best challenge since 1990 before United crossed the line on the penultimate weekend.
All this persuaded the pride of Merseyside to once again commit his future by agreeing a two-year extension tying him to Anfield until the age of 33.
A disappointing campaign followed for both club and captain, though Gerrard still plundered 12 goals as Liverpool finished seventh. He also made his 500th club appearance at Ewood Park on December 12, 2009.
Finest moment?
Picking just one standout Gerrard moment from the last decade is an almost impossible task, though lifting the European Cup as Liverpool captain in 2005, having helped the Reds come from three goals down at half-time against AC Milan, is perhaps the finest moment of his career so far, with his superhuman FA Cup final heroics a year later a close second.
Quote"Is he the best in the world? He might not get the attention of Messi and Ronaldo but, yes, I think he just might be. If you don't have a player like Steven Gerrard, who is the engine room, it can affect the whole team. He has great passing ability, can tackle and scores goals, but most importantly he gives the players around him confidence and belief. You can't learn that - players like him are just born with that presence."
French footballing legend Zinedine Zidane on Gerrard in March 2009.
Hansen's viewI've said many times, Steven Gerrard is as close as you're ever going to get to a player lifting a team single handedly. He's got every attribute you need to be a top-class player in abundance. His commitment to the cause for Liverpool and supporters is exceptional. Looking at the pivotal moments of Liverpool's success over the last decade - Oylimpacos, the Champions League final, the FA Cup final - who else in the history of the club, on so many occasions, in so many important games, has bailed the club out like Steven has? Nobody. He could get into any starting line-up, of any Liverpool team, in any decade in the history of the club.
