Should we be playing Gerrard in the Holding Midfield position?

[WhiskeyJar]

Call it Holding Midfield or Defensive Midfield but do you think our captain should be playing there or can we utilize him better in a more advance position? 

[Guest LFD]

I think our attack is so good do we need him in the front three or four?  Suarez, Coutinho, Sturridge and Sterling are all boss.  Plus I'm not sure he has the energy to do the pressing which we ask of our attacking players to do.  Also let's remember when we played him higher up the pitch at the beginning of Rodgers time here he struggled.

 

He has all the tools for that deeper / quarter back role.  He is brilliant on the ball (yesterday was just an off day in that regard), he can read the game and has all the tools to protect, win tackles and headers.  Plus in that deeper role he can still do those great long balls which do launch counter attacks to get effect at times, direct to Sturridge or Suarez.

 

For me the key to making it work, is the two centre midfielders that are ahead of Gerrard in that role.  Have to be able to do a lot of pressing and forcing errors, which makes his job much easier.  I don't think Lucas has the fitness, speed or mobility to do that role and struggled at times doing it yesterday.  I think the best time to judge whether Gerarrd can play this new role is when he has Allen and Henderson in front of him, as they are both capable of doing the pressing and making the midfield work much better.

 

I think it is worth a try and see a lot of sense in why Rodgers wants to do it.  I think it could work very effectively as well.

[Mark M]

Not sure yet. He done some very good things yesterday tracking back and tackling but also gave the ball away very cheaply at times I felt. And I think he looks to play the long ball out wide too often rather than keep things ticking over.

 

I'd prefer to see him further forward but it looks like Rodgers has made the call and for the next while thats where he'll play.

If Allen comes in for Lucas over the next couple of weeks that might help Gerarrd as Allen and Hendo can both run all day I think Lucas even though he did well yesterday doesn't offer enough energy and pace to play with Stevie in the middle for me.

[ZonkoVille77]

No. He could go on and prove me wrong, and I hope he does, but what's the point of having one of the best finishers at the club playing further back from the goal?

It's just managed decline as far as I can see and I don't like it.

[Jairzinho]

Pretty much exactly what Zonko said.

 

Its a fucking stupid idea that is detrimental to the team, and a complete waste of his best abilities.

[Baltar]

I think we look better without him in the team to be honest, although he's still our best midfielder. I really think Henderson's effectiveness is greatly reduced when Gerrard's in the team. I would try Gerrard a bit further up the pitch, maybe in Coutinho's in position for a while.

[Boss]

Steven Gerrard is an attacking midfielder, and will be till the day he retires.

[Guest LFD]

but what's the point of having one of the best finishers at the club playing further back from the goal?

 

I don't think his finishing has been that good since his last injury.  Most of his goals come from penalties now.  When he has had chances in open play, he's missed them.

 

Plus we're not exactly short of goals in attack.  

 

There are two key issues which I think will determine if playing him deeper is a success:

 

1) We can't have Lucas playing in front of him.  The two players have to have much more energy to make his job much easier (the same goes for when Gerrard is ahead of Lucas).

 

2) Gerrard has to accept his role is different now.  He's no longer the star, the match winner - that's Suarez, Sturridge, Coutinho etc.  Now he has to do more of the ugly stuff, such as winning tackles and interceptions - he is perfectly capable of doing, but I think at times in the past he stopped doing as he knew he was the star and would influence games more in the final third.

[Bobby Hundreds]

No. Although I enjoyed a few of his sliding tackles yesterday its in gerrards nature to always want to be involved to push for a breakthrough, I don't believe he can hold back when its needed.

[Guest LFD]

https://vine.co/v/hL7bAEHEvAl

[TheHowieLama]

People are viewing this through sepia glasses. He has not been a force going forward for many years and it is not going to get better. We break with such pace now as well.

Finisher? Like when? He has scored probably a dozen goals in the last four years from open play.

[Fi!]

He need to know how to control the tempo of the game better then. Yesterday he didn't do that and wants to play the ball to the wide attacker almost everytime he got the ball.

 

Defensively he is more than decent when under attacking. The problem lays during counter attacks when the ball is lost at midfield. Too many times he is unable to provide a shield for the defence and the attackers are often one-on-one with the CB.

 

But playing as a sole DM in a 4-1-4-1 formation is not easy, he deserves another chance at a home game maybe.

[Guest LFD]

I think it seems that Rodgers has decided that is where Gerarrd is going to play, whether people like it or not.  Based on Gerrard's comments after the match yesterday.

 

For me, I'm more concerned with how the rest of the midfield and team should be set up, to ensure it is going to work.  

 

We can all crave for him to be higher up the field, but I think it is unlikely under Rodgers and I prefer him as a DM than a box to box midfielder, as I don't think he has the energy for that role anymore.

[Boss]

If Gerrard is DM in the future that goal Charlie Adam scored can not happen, just jogging back, no purpose to get a challenge in or stop him from shooting. He also needs to go into the 50/50 challenges 100% without fear, he's too worried about getting injured. Other than that he'll make a much better DM than central mid.

[Brigant Moloch]

No, he's useless there.

Anyway, when he and BR were speaking of the "deepest" role, it was more about Gerrard playing the Pirlo/Alonso regista role, the deepest midfielder isn't always the defensive midfielder. The other thing is that I wouldn't pay too much attention to what Rodgers says to the press about player positions and their form. 

[Lee909]

Dont like Gerrard deep at all.

He doesn't track runners well enough.

[Rotpeter]

He's Ste Gerrard.  He'll play where he wants.

[Guest LFD]

If Gerrard is DM in the future that goal Charlie Adam scored can not happen, just jogging back, no purpose to get a challenge in or stop him from shooting. He also needs to go into the 50/50 challenges 100% without fear, he's too worried about getting injured. Other than that he'll make a much better DM than central mid.

 

He was only out of position because Henderson messed up the pass to him and he slipped.

 

Skrtel should have blocked that shot anyway.  Don't think Gerrard is to blame for that goal at all.

[Guest LFD]

No, he's useless there.

Anyway, when he and BR were speaking of the "deepest" role, it was more about Gerrard playing the Pirlo/Alonso regista role, the deepest midfielder isn't always the defensive midfielder. The other thing is that I wouldn't pay too much attention to what Rodgers says to the press about player positions and their form. 

 

I agree and that's why the two in front of him need to be effective at pressing and winning possession.  Henderson is perfect at it, Allen was impressing at that role as well until he got injured.  If we can get another one who does that and maybe offers a little more going forward then we'll be laughing and the midfield set up would work a lot more, making Gerrard job easier.

[old skool tom]

id keep him further forward as he can still strike a bal and find a killer pass but his legs have gone.....once the play/opposition go past him hes out of the game because he just cant (or wont?) get back anymore sadly.....plus hes shit scared to tackle these days because he knows hes one more injury from retirement

 

if stevie would of played against city we'd probably of got fucked instead of playing so well in midfield.

 

tbh id actually play him as AM (Mainly from bench replacing Coutinho) because the living legends time is sadly up in my opinion. 

 

sooner he retires the better so we can bring in 2 good younger players using his 100k a week wages

[Torvald Utne]

The only positive thing I can take from that interview is that Gerrard himself said he needs to work on getting that role right

[CWD82]

Well, he's miles better on the ball than Lucas, can contribute more in attack than Lucas and is better in the tackle than Lucas.

 

He's definitely not as selfless as Lucas though and it remains to be seen if he had the positioning that Lucas has.

 

The thing that interests me is that we could have Gerrard and Henderson who are capable of 5-10 goals a season then we'll have another spot that's open in a 3 man midfield. If we can get someone in there who gets between 10-15 goals and can press the opposition we'll out score anyone. Nevermind about clean sheets

[thompsonsnose]

Voted no.

We need a younger specialist in the position with plenty of vim.

[stringvest]

Gerrard is not going to get a forward midfield role in the team unless Coutinho stinks the place out.  So that's that.  Can he do Lucas's role better than Lucas?  Of course he can.  Play him there and let the two young lads press from further forward.  

 

It won't be the same QB type role that Alonso played, simply because we play more players further forward these days - we tend not to break from deep with a long ball played into 20 or 30 yards of space for a pacy forward to accelerate onto.  We still do it on occasion of course, but it isn't plan A as it was with Torres.  

 

Ideally, we'd brig in a top class DM, a very good box-to-box midfielder, and use Gerard sparingly in whatever position we needed him - even RB.  Until we do that, and assuming Henderson and Allen are fit, Gerrard must play DM.  

[CWD82]

He's the new Fernando Hierro and he'll be great in that position