That's certainly a factor mate, but he is slower. It's also a bit lazy to suggest it's simply down to lack of movement up front, (cheeky reversal on you there , it's a bit of both. No doubt he'll offer more once Studge comes back, but enough? Not on the evidence I've seen this season.
But is he really much slower than he was in May when he was performing so well? I'm not saying he hasn't lost his legs in many ways, he can still run in a straight line and get up a head of speed but he is a big lad and he can be made to look quite cumbersome on the turn BUT he is still comfortably the best passer of a football at the club, and I don't just mean the long raking 40 yard cross frield balls, I mean every single pass. His intermediate passing and the ease at which he makes it look is completely overlooked by many because he makes it look so easy.
The club should be figuring out the best way to get the best out of Gerrard because we are not going to find that passing range and vision in players like Emre Can or Jordan Henderson (maybe if we'd splashed £50 million on Paul Pogba in the summer - that's what I wanted the club to do). If that means getting a DM who can run and close (think Makalele) then go and get one. If it means having a couple of players alongside him who can run all day then get them. I think every Red will regret it if the skipper is allowed to leave and ply his trade for a season or two at one of the other top sides in the division.
And even last year when so many things clicked, the amount of goals we scored mitigated the defensive frailties, and one of the factors contributing to that was a lack of proper DM. We got out of jail becuase of SAS a lot, but we're not in any danger of outscoring opponents anytime soon; it should never be a sustainable game plan anyway.
The DM position is just one factor and it's one that has some merit BUT I could name a bunch of other factors:
- The full-backs are encouraged to get high and wide too early
- The full-backs don't prevent crosses particularly well. The two Spanish lads we have brought in this season are a million miles off it.
- We can't defend set pieces, we ball watch and don't attack the ball
- Brendan couldn't buy a decent centre-half if you gave him £20 million to do it. Wait a minute......
- I don't think enough scrutiny, attention to detail and scrutiny is paid to our defending and with that in mind, would a decent DM really have much impact on the ridiculous errors we have seen from Skrtel, Sackho, Lovren, Toure and co over the past 18 months? Maybe some impact but a big impact? I'm not so sure
- Going back to my point on scrutiny, how do you think Mourinho would have reacted to Coutinho's failure to track the run of Rooney at the weekend for their first goal? He would have gone ballistic, probably would have called him out the same way he has done to Hazzard. I just don't think it (as in defending) gets that level of attention at Melwood
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