Many Liverpool fans are, at best, pretty ambivalent about England, but we have to admit that it’s not a viewpoint shared by our captain. As he’s made quite clear in his autobiography and in countless interviews, he’s proud to play for the country and even prouder to captain it.
Add to that the fact that the clock’s ticking and he’s likely to retire from international games after the next World Cup and you can see why Gerrard is keen to make the most of his remaining opportunities. Also, who knows, he might be thinking, I don’t need anyone coming in taking my place, having a blinder, and putting doubts in the manager’s mind for next summer. Nothing to worry about after the Chile game you’d have thought, but still. And captaining your country in the World Cup in Brazil – who wouldn’t want that?
Having said that, it’s only a friendly. Then again, it is against Germany. Then again (again), his first duty is to Liverpool. Especially at the moment, when we’ve had a very good start to a strange season where there’s a real chance of finishing right in the mix at the top end of the table. Make no mistake, a top four finish is essential if we’re not to slip away from those clubs we’ve always considered to be our peers, and a fit and fresh Steven Gerrard has to be considered a vital factor in achieving that.
So, can pumping your body full of painkillers in order to play a “meaningless” friendly really be the right thing to do? Well, LFC were pretty vocal when Capello kept an injured Gerrard on too long in a friendly against France three years ago, and it appears the captain’s current treatment and decision to play meets with our medical team’s approval, so I guess we just have to go along with it.
It doesn’t mean we have to be happy with it, though. In the end, hindsight will be the winner. If he gets through an hour or so of the Germany game unscathed everyone will wonder what the fuss was about. But if he limps off into six weeks’ lay-off, Club v Country will be back on the agenda, and big time.
John Inman
There’s two ways of looking at this. There’s the view through a Liverpool fan’s eyes and then there’s the view through the eyes of Gerrard. It’s very difficult to be objective about international football at the best of times, but the number of friendlies that seem to permeate the football calendar these days is a thorough irritant. The season just starts getting exciting and… SLAP… international break.
This international window is so the World Cup qualifying play-offs can take place. Most countries are playing friendlies; England, in their infinite wisdom, are playing two. They do have a £750 million house to pay for after all. Make no mistake, playing two games in this international break is unnecessary. When England inevitably crash out of the World Cup in the round of 16, the FA and tabloids will harrumph about there being no winter break, and how all this extra football affects the players. Well playing two unnecessary friendlies isn’t helping ease the problem either but sure, blame winter.
Looking at this first as a Liverpool fan, I would obviously prefer Gerrard to play no part in Tuesday’s game against Germany. He’s old, needs to manage his minutes and we have an important game coming up early on Saturday afternoon. The rumours that he’ll have pain killing injections to play in this game both worries and angers me. If he’s suffering that much then he shouldn’t have a sniff of playing in a game which has zero meaning. The club pays his wages and he should respect that the club comes above everything else for him. The team is currently second in the league and we’re going into a derby weekend, the club’s captain should be doing everything possible to get himself ready for that fixture. Instead he’s looking to play through an existing injury. Not cool, Stevie. Not cool.
However, looking at this from Gerrard’s point of view, it’s not as definitive. Gerrard clearly loves being captain of his country. Sure we can all sneer at ‘it’s only England’ and all that but Gerrard obviously feels a lot of pride in being the country’s visible leader on and off the pitch. I’d bet he also has one eye on the caps record too; overhauling Beckham would be a pretty decent achievement given how much Beckham played up the ‘Mr. England’ role in his latter career years. Then there’s the fixture itself. England vs. Germany is one of the classic international fixtures. It doesn’t matter whether it’s played in an international tournament, a qualifier or a friendly; it’s a game that the players want to be involved in.
I’m also pretty sure that Gerrard has involved the club in whatever decision over treatment he’s made. I’m also pretty sure that he’ll have talked with Rodgers over whether he’s going to play. That conversation might have been one way but it probably took place. We’ve seen time and again that Gerrard has played more minutes than other club’s players in meaningless fixtures, that probably isn’t the club’s doing; it’s Gerrard’s, he wants to be out there.
Ultimately there’s no telling if Gerrard will play, for how long and if he’ll be fit for Saturday. He could just as well injure himself in training if he wasn’t playing. Gerrard has taken the decision and I doubt he’s thinking about how bad his injury could be but about just taking part in both of the games this week. Whether someone else should take the decision about playing for him is another matter.
Julian Richards
It’s tough to level criticism at someone for wanting to play for their country, but I am a bit alarmed by Steven Gerrard’s insistence on trying to be fit for the Germany game on Tuesday.
I get why he wants to, I really do. He’s not going to get another chance in all probability to play against them, depending on the World Cup groups of course. England versus Germany is one of the great footballing rivalries. And if I was an England player, I would be out for revenge after the 4-1 embarrassment in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
But the timing of this is all off – from Liverpool’s point of view. I watched Gerrard go straight down the tunnel when substituted against Fulham last Saturday and I was expecting him to be withdrawn from the England squad.
That was the case, but I did not expect him to fight for the Germany game. Playing for England obviously means a lot to him, and he is captain and his time is running short at international level. Brendan Rodgers has hinted that the World Cup will be the end of Gerrard’s international career, which I would expect to be the case even if the man himself has had nothing to say on the issue.
But any risk to his fitness at all from a Liverpool perspective is extremely concerning. We’re currently second and enjoying one of our best starts to the season in the last twenty years. Our next game is away to Everton – win that and we go top, even if that could be temporary. We’re not exactly overstocked on quality in central midfield, in fact with the exception of left back it is arguably where we’re at our weakest.
We need Gerrard for games like at Goodison, where experience plays such a huge part. Even if he hasn’t always been at his best this season he is still indisputably a match winner – and you can’t have enough of those.
If he plays for England with pain killing injections (which is the plan) then I fear there’s a huge risk he might not be at his best for the derby – or he’ll wind up not playing at all. This is a massive gamble for our captain to be taking with our season entering a crucial phase.
I always cast my mind back to the game after the Carling Cup win two years ago when talking about injured players on international duty – Gerrard played 120 minutes plus penalties when we beat Cardiff, got injured on international duty (which was just a friendly) and missed the game after, which was at home to Arsenal. We would have been one point off 4th with a win, but we lost and our season went into a nosedive from which we didn’t recover.
Would Gerrard have had such a huge influence? I have no idea – but I know I would have fancied our chances of winning more with him in the team than without. The same applies for the game at Goodison.
He might come through the Germany game with no further issues, but I can’t help but think he needs to put Liverpool first. If anything goes wrong midweek, he’s out of the derby. It’s our biggest game of the season and just to repeat – we can go top with a win. For me he should withdraw from the squad and prepare to go out on a high with England at the end of the season.
I do understand the draw for him but a Merseyside derby with so much at stake should be where his loyalties lie on this occasion.
Dan Thomas
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