Gerrard in Centre Midfield....

It doesn't take a genius to work out that that is his best position to get the best out of him.

But I think given the toe injury we have to accept something. If you want Stevie available for every game he cannot play centre mid in a 4-4-2 all the time. There are time where he will have to play elsewhere.

I looked back at some trends last season of the centre mid players in a 4-4-2 or the 2 deep sitters in a 4-5-1.

Just aboout every central midfielder had missed games through injury and then more games through suspension.

Look at Xabi. Cultured, far from a dirty player. But the nature of centre midfield means cos of all the nitty gritty involved that he served a suspension in the premier league and Champiomns league. He also missed games for being injured in games in both competition. Likewise Momo. Mascherano although don't think he was suspened he did pick up a few cards but didn't get enough to be suspended.

You only have to look at other teams. Man U. Scholes for example. OK the guy can't tackle but that's no go good if part if your poisition demands it. He got 2 reds last season and picked up an injury.

Chelsea, Wile Lampard gets the free role, It meant we seen either Essien, Makelele & Ballack get suspened through the season. Plus they were all out through injury. Lampard no as he doesn' play the orthodox 2 in the middle of centre mid.

Everton, Carsley, Cahill. Both served at least one suspension and both were injured on more than 1 occasion.

Arsenal, Both Gilberto & Fabregas got injuries and suspensions

Blackburn, Savage & Reid, both picked up bad injuries and as we know 1 of them is always suspended.

I'm not going to go through every club but you can see a pattern emerging. Injuries & Suspensions appear to be a cast iron certainty for those regular centre midfield roles. It appears ineveitable.

In the 2 seasons Stevie has hardly played centre mid under Rafa, apasrt from the rush of blood tohis head in the derby season before last, his disciplinary record has been good, and has only had a few minor knocks from training but all in all he has been available for every game in that period.

Looking back at Stevie under Houllier, he never had an injury free season playing centre mid and had a few games missing through suspensions, in some cases some of his tackle were x-rated. This is not a slight on him it is what happens all he time in these fired up central midfield roles.

I know, everyone knows where Stevies best position is. But that toe injury could have been worse and he could have been missing on Sunday. If he plays it could make it worse.

Given the options we have in centre mid my feeling are in games where we can get away with it not play him there as, l;ooking at the few examples above, it looks likel we would be without him on some games throughout the season, and it wiuld take a nice bit of luck for it not to be the games where we need him the most.

But I'd probaly play him there on Sunday.

I don't mean to be rude, but I don't agree with a word of what you've posted.

There are positions where you are likely to pick up more cards, but that's no reason not to play someone in that position. I don't subscribe to the idea either that central midfielders get injured more often then other players, if anything it seems to me that strikers are the ones most often on the physio's bench.

I looked at the stats at it appeared everyone who played there regularly got injuries/suspensions.

I didn't say he should never play there I said IF we wanted him available EVERY game then it was something to chew on given the fact he could well miss Sunday, which never appeared to be a problem when he wasn't playing centre mid as he always available.

I agree with the strikers as they are the most taclked players on the pitch which is why managers prefer to have 4 of them. And agree that because one position is more tougher than another then it's not reason to play them there.

But I wasn't talking about any player. I was talking about Gerrard. We only have one of him and I thought it odd that he was always available playing on the right/free role or whatever and all of a sudden our best player is having to play with injections on Sunday due to an injury, playing centre mid.

I knew when posting people would have differing views as a lot of people have the thoughts that Stevie should play centre-mid Full stop. No ifs or buts., and I would be wasting my time posting.

But what came to my mind was now that Stevie is back in centre mid we aren't going to have these 3 or 4 injury periods a season like we used to are with him are we ?? And looking at the records of just about every centre mid at all the clubs caused me a bit of concern there were worrying trends.

I think he should play there say 8 times of 10. But those days of him missing 4 games here, 3 games there still play on my mind as if we want to win the league, we will need him available for selection in every game.

I'm not saying I'm right, just my opinion based on stats.

I know people get very touchy on people saying anything about Stevie not playing centre mid so I may come in for a bit of stick, but I'm a big lad and can take it.

 

I think a lot of Gerrards injuries before were because his body was still developing, says as much in his autobiography. With regards to discipline I don't think it's a positional thing either, rather something that's come with age. He played pretty much the whole of Rafa's first season in the middle, and also played on the right a fair bit under Houllier, so the only difference I see between his record under the two managers is his age.

You may well be right Ed,

But as I said if we want even a whiff of winning the league we need available every game.

Interesting with the toe if he does play, where he plays on Sunday. Just hope he doesn't make it worse and he goes missing for a month or so.

Personnally I think you are both missing the point. The debates and opions can rage on until the year 3000, but the fact of the matter is that Steven Gerrard is a victim of his own success. You should both agree that being such a rare talent of football can be counter productive within the team element and counter productive on a career. What Im trying to point too is the fact that you could place SG in any position on the F***ing field and he would excell at it. This is a very rare player, and after years of coaching under 8s up till their teens I can honestly say I can have some perspective on such a debate, I have only ever come across one player who can do this he now plays for Blackpool after being carted out by the scum.

As for paticular players being in various postions Bootle lad I have to take the position of Eddie on this one. I think tempermant has more to do with someone getting a yellow card than anything else. If you have ever played football at any level depending on the sort of personnality you have if some cocky bastad like Ronaldo beats you on the right wing with his showboat antics, you can take it one of two ways. You can hack the bastad out ( probably what I would do seeing as I hate that showboating portugues bastad) or you can let it ride simple as really.

As for injuries I have to say that this is not due to position or tactics it again is pretty much down to the indivduel and what they want to give each game. If you get a young eager player who is head strong and dives in you are more than likely gonna get more injuries, I dont think playing one player in any such postion is gonna create more injuries, this is an obusrd obsversation to be honest. And as for the argument about needing Gerrard each game, I would have to argue that with the strength in depth we have at this moment in time you are probably ( although not completely ) wrong.
If the amount of money the club has spent this summer cannot produce a performance where yet again Captain fantastic pulls a rabbit from a hat then its a pretty bad job in my opion.

So?

I'd rather have Gerrard play 30 games at CM than 40 games on the wing.
He's a LOT more effective.

I think anyone who watches Liverpool on a regular basis knows that Gerrard is more effecive down the middle so i dont see why we need to have this debate every other week.

Didn't we get our record Premiership points score, and Gerrard scored the most goals he had scored in a season the year he played mostly on the right wing?

If I couldn't pick him for centre midfield then I would pick him for right wing above any other player at our club.

I think anyone who watches Liverpool on a regular basis knows that Gerrard is more effecive down the middle so I dont see why we need to have this debate every other week.

Just has a quick re-read of my original post. Can't seem to find where I said he wasn't most effective at centre mid. In fact I got as far as line 1 where I stated something to the contrary.

And yet he still scored 23 goals coming in from the right-wing during 2006 season, so I think that counters the "he must play cm"

Personally I'd prefer him to play were RAFA (you know, the bloke who manages the team), wants him to play.

The whole point to where he plays should be testament to how F***ing good a player the lad really is.

Heard some red on the radio - kind of criticising Rafa for 'only just realising' that Gerrard's best position is in centre mid.

When Rafa played Gerrard on the right I am convinced it was because it enabled us to have our four best midfielders on the park.  It was more out of necessity than choice.