"We Need To Talk About Gerrard."

Whilst I agree with some of the comments re: Gerrard in the DM role. Sometimes we can all get caught up in the negativity of a situation. Lets just take a second and respect the man. He is after all a living legend and getting some grief as of late.

Games played: 675
Goals Scored: 175
Homegrown
LFC Academy since the age of 9 - 25years breathing everything liverpool.
Debut: 29 November 1998. 14years+ in the 1st team.
Loyal. Plenty of offers and never swayed (well nearly but what a mistake that would have been)
Replaced Sami in 2003. 11 years as Captain.
Epitome of a Professional.
Philanthropist.
Got us out of countless holes.
Loves the club as much as his family.
Will be, and rightly so, immortalized in LFC folklore. Sure to be a statue of him at some stage (must be).
Hates the Mancs.

#respect x 100000000000

http://youtu.be/_X83b1-xcyw

Whilst I agree with some of the comments re: Gerrard in the DM role. Sometimes we can all get caught up in the negativity of a situation. Lets just take a second and respect the man. He is after all a living legend and getting some grief as of late.

Games played: 675
Goals Scored: 175
Homegrown
LFC Academy since the age of 9 - 25years breathing everything liverpool.
Debut: 29 November 1998. 14years+ in the 1st team.
Loyal. Plenty of offers and never swayed (well nearly but what a mistake that would have been)
Replaced Sami in 2003. 11 years as Captain.
Epitome of a Professional.
Philanthropist.
Got us out of countless holes.
Loves the club as much as his family.
Will be, and rightly so, immortalized in LFC folklore. Sure to be a statue of him at some stage (must be).
Hates the Mancs.

#respect x 100000000000

http://youtu.be/_X83b1-xcyw

He's been amazing but so has Kenny Dalglish, but he wouldn't get a game now.

He's been amazing but so has Kenny Dalglish, but he wouldn't get a game now.

Based on our last few performances, Im not too sure about that.

Seriously though - he has a lot to give still. His legs have gone so stick him up top for 30-60 a game or as an impact sub. He can still change games and defences with sh*t themselves if he was coming on up top, with 20min to go.

Based on our last few performances, Im not too sure about that.

Seriously though - he has a lot to give still. His legs have gone so stick him up top for 30-60 a game or as an impact sub. He can still change games and defences with sh*t themselves if he was coming on up top, with 20min to go.

I'd rather use him that way, I don't know if Brendan has the guts to do it in case it fails and the fans turn on him or something, or just for good PR and not upsetting the camp.
 Of course most of the players haven't hit form for this season so it makes everyone look worse. Players can waltz through our midfield at times, it's not just Stevie's fault but he is being relied to do something he may not be capable of at this point in time
That could simply just be until he gets sharper or he can't be playing the full 90.

I keep forgetting about the amount of players injured, he'll get himself ready for the derby I'm sure.

It may just be a temporary spell at this stage of the season so lets see what happens.

We can only improve when players come back from injury.

Because he just can't. Jordy harries players into mistakes and nicks the ball - like he did on Ozil when we twatted Arsenal last year. Asking him to screen the back four and actually get his foot in, isn't his style. I also have doubts whether he'd spring the ball forward quickly enough. While he's got the passing range he doesn't use it enough. Whether that's because Stevie is in the team or not, I don't know.

Asking him to sit the deepest would be a bad choice in my opinion.

No you don't mate.

You have a vastly overrated, slowly moving the ball forward, weak midfield. And possibly what would become one of Liverpool's most frustrating midfields in recent memory.

I think that Hendo could easily slot in front of the back four without any problem.

His positioning is great, he's energetic, high work-rate, very good passing range and he's vocal. He knows how to make a tackle and doesn't lack pace either. He'd be marshaling that back four better than Gerrard is right now in my opinion (which, granted, isn't saying a lot).

With regards to the midfield, I think we'll have to agree to disagree. Coutinho pings the ball forward nice and quick the majority of the time, Lallana is comfortable with the ball at his feet and knows how to get round a couple of players with consummate ease and Allen can retain possession outside the box for when we're attacking teams that sit deep.

The only way we will ever know, though, is by seeing that team playing together. Otherwise it's all just a guessing game.

I hope Brendan has read my posts re moving Gerrard to the right and bringing Henderson in to the sitter role (Yes I know  ) as I'm absultely convinced it'll work like a dream.

Well, don't see Gerrard as a problem. I mean, it's not like we have someone that could do what he does better than him. Without him, against a Championship team, we were giving away the same spots and spaces we give with when we play with proper DM (Lucas).

Gerrard was really underrated last season. It's kind of weird to say that, but he was. We played on a extreme offensive tactic, with 4 players having little participation on the defensive side, with a right back that can't defend, with poor defenders and so on. Don't really think he is the one to blame because of our defensive flaws.

Whilst I agree with some of the comments re: Gerrard in the DM role. Sometimes we can all get caught up in the negativity of a situation. Lets just take a second and respect the man. He is after all a living legend and getting some grief as of late.

Games played: 675
Goals Scored: 175
Homegrown
LFC Academy since the age of 9 - 25years breathing everything liverpool.
Debut: 29 November 1998. 14years+ in the 1st team.
Loyal. Plenty of offers and never swayed (well nearly but what a mistake that would have been)
Replaced Sami in 2003. 11 years as Captain.
Epitome of a Professional.
Philanthropist.
Got us out of countless holes.
Loves the club as much as his family.
Will be, and rightly so, immortalized in LFC folklore. Sure to be a statue of him at some stage (must be).
Hates the Mancs.

#respect x 100000000000

http://youtu.be/_X83b1-xcyw

I don't get why this is relevant when discussing his form in the here and now though and it's as though it gets brought up because people think you forget what he has done fr the club just because you debate his form in the present day.

Because he just can't. Jordy harries players into mistakes and nicks the ball - like he did on Ozil when we twatted Arsenal last year. Asking him to screen the back four and actually get his foot in, isn't his style. I also have doubts whether he'd spring the ball forward quickly enough. While he's got the passing range he doesn't use it enough. Whether that's because Stevie is in the team or not, I don't know.

Asking him to sit the deepest would be a bad choice in my opinion.

It's not the job of the deepest-lying midfielder to "get their foot in" - in front of the back four.

In fact, tackling the opposition is only done as a last resort since giving free kicks away in that area is highly dangerous (hence Lucas gets so much critcism for giving away "needless free kicks").

The job of the deepest-lying midfielder screening the back four is to slow down opposition attacks buying time for midfielders to return to the active zones and for the defenders to organise themselves whilst trying to push the attack laterally to decrease the threat.

That's why midfielders in those positions often show high "dribbled around" statistics.  If the opportunity i sthere to tackle that's great but it's not the primary aim. And in fact it's even less important than intercepting breaking play so i would argue it's not even the secondary aim of the position.

My opinion is that Gerrard is playing in the wrong role and he's too old to evolve into a Pirloesque type of player.

His main attributes have always been to influence the game - something he can't and has been unable to do as DM. He was quite frankly atrocious in the World Cup and has seemingly carried on in the same vain to date in the PL. He's making uncharacteristically the wrong choices and trying too hard to force play and passes. It's painfully clear that teams have targeted Gerrard as one of our main weak links and therefore becoming a major liability.

In no way whatsoever should a servant to the club such as Stevie be seen as a liability when the time comes for him to hang up his boots. I want him to go out and remember him as a marauding midfielder and not as some kind of sorry figure who the manager tried to placate to ease his own conscious because he couldn't or didn't have the nerve to make hard decisions.

He's got to be played back where he belongs with the stark realisation that he either gets played in the CL OR the PL. Not both - unless he comes on later on as a sub. The choice for Brendan being which of those competitions would he be more useful/influential.

My opinion is that Gerrard is playing in the wrong role and he's too old to evolve into a Pirloesque type of player.

At his best in that position I think he has proven he can and has. But, like Pirlo, he needs the right players in and around him.

Well there we have it, Stacey Keibler is the solution to the defensive midfielder position. At the very least, just by flashing her long legs, it will make the best midfielders lose the ball

Well I for one wouldn't mind losing my balls in her:-)

I think before envisionning Gerrard role to be limited to the one of an impact sub, Brendan should consider starting him but replacing him around the hour mark, or for a whole league game once in a while. Something that baffles me is why he nearly always play 90mn even when he looks tired before the hour.

But about the "Pirloesque role" question, I think Gerrard proved last year he could evolve into that kind of role. And I also think Pirlo himself is proof you can be efficient in that role even if you are old for a footballer.

The (possible) problem is more that the english league being more demanding than any other it's not suited here to have a 34 years old playing all games 90 mn per game.

I say "possible" because I also don't forget how bad looked Stevie, every year since 2009 or so in the first months of every season. He's a known slow starter who needs more game time than others to reach his best level (and it's perhaps why Rodgers is reluctant to sub him), but once he is fully fit he always done wonders.

Looked a lot better today.

But he had a whole week off and that needs to be taken into account no more playing him every game.

One game a week is enough.

Looked a lot better today.

But he had a whole week off and that needs to be taken into account no more playing him every game.

One game a week is enough.

Couldn't agree more, can't play twice in a week anymore full stop. His later years need managing better, now we're in full control of him (no internationals).

"We don't need to talk about Gerrard, yet"

There was a little tweak today with the way we deployed Stevie and it worked a treat. Brendan didn't quite go with my idea of swapping Stevie and Hendo, but he did get Gerrard further up when we initially got it each time and dropped Henderson into the quarterback role. From there once we'd circulated possession a bit Stevie would then often drop in, but he was picking his moments which made him much harder to mark.

As usual top piece of work from the boss.

"We don't need to talk about Gerrard, yet"

How? So it's alright for him to go anonymous for a number of games but then dismiss the fact he's not good enough because he had one good game?

Any captain for a club of this magnitude needs to perform, consistently. Sure he played well today, but he needs to do that on a regular occasion. Once in every five games isn't good enough. I'll be looking forward to his performance next week, the week after that, and against Real Madrid.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/players/steven-gerrard/11125932/Liverpool-captain-Steven-Gerrard-proves-he-is-far-from-finished-with-crucial-display-in-Merseyside-derby.html

A good piece from Henry Winter on Gerrard. Thankfully he has more sense than half the people in this thread.

Talk about Gerrard?
ok
He got us right out the sh*t again.

I said in the pre-match thread I thought Stevie would have a big derby and he did. He usually does. He was pretty good today, and that free kick was excellent.

I'm surprised Martinez went with such a negative midfield though. Didn't seem like he had anybody shadowing Stevie like Lambert and Fat Sam did.

Had midweek off.
Looked much better for it.

Seeing that people like to use stats to prove their point.

I would like to congratulate Stevie, club's top scorer to date.