Steven Gerrard - Captain Marvel?
Posted by Tony Barrett on August 21, 2007 8:25 AM | Permalink
WHEN Steven Gerrard was made Liverpool captain in October 2003 he had played barely 100 league games for his club.
The then Reds boss Gerard Houllier had decided the time had come to reward his most talented player with an honour and responsibility which would reflect his growing influence on the pitch.
That decision was welcomed almost universally by Liverpool fans, many of whom felt the deposed Sami Hyypia was a bit too nice to be captain and with Gerrard being very inch the local hero Houllier seemed to have pulled off something of a masterstroke.
What more could you ask for from a Liverpool captain? Gerrard was tough, competitive, dynamic and the player his team mates looked to for inspiration. He even spoke like the fans and once stood on the Kop.
If it all seemed to good to be true, that's because it was.
At 23, Gerrard was simply too young to be skipper and even though his own performances did not suffer under the weight of such huge expectation, there was a feeling on the terraces that he had been over-promoted and although he was far and away the best player, he was not necessarily the best captain.
There were those who wanted Jamie Carragher, a much more natural leader of men and more vociferous communicator, to assume the role.
And when Gerrard twice had dalliances with Chelsea there were some, myself included, who wanted him stripped of the captaincy altogether.
Gerrard knew his flirtation with one of Liverpool's biggest and most hated rivals was not behaviour befitting of the club captain and at one stage offered to give up the arm band but his team mates urged him to remain as captain and he did.
Still, there was something uncomfortable and unnatural about his leadership. He did not seem to encourage players as much as he should, there were times when he seemed ill at ease with the responsibility and on occasion his public utterances to the media were not in keeping with the expectations of the fans.
There was also a nagging doubt about Gerrard's relationship with manager Rafa Benitez which, from the outside at least, seemed uneasy at best.
All of this contributed to an overwhelming feeling that perhaps he wasn't the right man for the job, that although Gerrard was Liverpool's best player and inspirational talisman he was far from being the ideal captain.
He led by example - as illustrated so gloriously against the likes of Olympiakos, AC Milan and West Ham - but when his own performances failed to reach the heights he seemed to be too comsumed by his own problems to provide the kind of leadership his team mates needed and there were even occasions when he seemed (justifably) contemptuous of the standard of some of some of his fellow Liverpool players.
But against Chelsea on Sunday, Steven Gerrard came of age as Liverpool captain.
The signs have been there for some time that he is starting to grow into the role and the wonderful moment when he threw a sly left hand at Feyernoord's Theo Lucius during the recent pre-season friendly only served to confirm that.
It was by no means a great punch - if Graeme Souness had chinned an opponent he would have done damage as the Dinamo Bucharest player he left nursing a broken jaw back in 1984 would undoubtedly testify - but it was a massive statement of intent.
By backing up Daniel Agger, Gerrard was showing he was now ready to lead from the front and that he would not tolerate seeing any opponent trying to bully one of his team-mates.
If that was the moment when Gerrard finally appeared ready to assume all the responsibilities needed to be Liverpool captain, his performance against Chelsea confirmed it.
Firstly, he had a wonderful game as an individual, something which his most fierce critics have argued has not happened often enough in Liverpool's clashes with the Premiership big guns.
The confidence of playing so well from the very first whistle allowed Gerrard to stamp his authority all over the game, leaving Lampard and Obi Mikel well and truly in the shade and underlining his status as the finest central midfielder in European football.
But most significantly, he led from the front.
He tackled with a ferocity which temporarily deserted him for parts of last season, encouraged his team-mates at every opportunity, even when things were not going well, and when John Terry tried to bully Fernando Torres Gerrard let him know that wasn't on.
It was a true captain's performance and one which proved beyone any doubt that Steven Gerrard is now the perfect man to lead Liverpool Football Club.
It may not have been an easy journey to get to this point but Gerrard is now captain in the true sense of the word.
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