Should we be playing Gerrard in the Holding Midfield position?

[RedRazor]

Gullit, Hoddle, Rykjaard, Matteus, even Barnes and Giggs, all brilliant footballers who extended their careers by accepting the fact their body couldn't do things it once could. We either give this new role a go and get another 3 or 4 years out of an outstanding footballer or we wave good bye next year.

Exactly precisely spot on and dead right

[Guest LFD]

Gullit, Hoddle, Rykjaard, Matteus, even Barnes and Giggs, all brilliant footballers who extended their careers by accepting the fact their body couldn't do things it once could. We either give this new role a go and get another 3 or 4 years out of an outstanding footballer or we wave good bye next year.

 

Agree with this.

[RedRazor]

Exactly. People talk about it as if it's some kind of retirement home.

 

The DM should be one the hardest working players on the pitch. Non-stop pressing,harrying, chasing and shuttling into the right position is what the role is about especially in a team trying to play an offensive game like we are.

Not for me. It is about positional play. He needs to take up the right position centrally and picks up anyone running through the middle of the park. Most of the time he shouldn't need to move much more than 10 yards. Agreed he needs total concentration for 90 mins but I think at this stage of his career this role in our team could be a brilliant move.

 

An anecdotal bit of evidence I will offer up is the second goal we conceded at the Emirates. Arteta - their DM - picked up the ball deep in his own half stode forward 10 yards and passed it wide right to (Sagna?) who crossed it for their second goal. Arteta had been in that role for only a couple of games at that point. I hope Gerrard can do the same a hundred times for us in the next couple of years because Lucas has not done it too often to my recollection.

[xerxes]

Exactly. People talk about it as if it's some kind of retirement home.

 

The DM should be one the hardest working players on the pitch. Non-stop pressing,harrying, chasing and shuttling into the right position is what the role is about especially in a team trying to play an offensive game like we are.

It all depends upon who you have in front of you.

 

Anticipation and positional awareness are what is required, you have to run and chase if the midfield is collapsing which it shouldnt with our midfield.

 

Gerrards experience is vital and I would rather have him at the back than coming off the bench.

[Torvald Utne]

Not for me. It is about positional play. He needs to take up the right position centrally and picks up anyone running through the middle of the park. Most of the time he shouldn't need to move much more than 10 yards. Agreed he needs total concentration for 90 mins but I think at this stage of his career this role in our team could be a brilliant move.

 

An anecdotal bit of evidence I will offer up is the second goal we conceded at the Emirates. Arteta - their DM - picked up the ball deep in his own half stode forward 10 yards and passed it wide right to (Sagna?) who crossed it for their second goal. Arteta had been in that role for only a couple of games at that point. I hope Gerrard can do the same a hundred times for us in the next couple of years because Lucas has not done it too often to my recollection.

He's never done it before so no idea why you all think he'll start doing it now just because you want to extend his career.

[xerxes]

He's never done it before so no idea why you all think he'll start doing it now just because you want to extend his career.

Gerrard is one of the finest, arguably the finest, footballer ever to have played for our club- I think he can manage it.

[Pureblood]

It remains to be seen whether this will work, by no means a foregone conclusion.  Experienced he may be but inexperienced in this role.  

[redfromtubebar]

Gerrard just doesn't have the legs or the positioning sense for that role. At home against relegation threatened teams I can see it but imagine him away at Arsenal or City. It's not fair to force a role on him that's against all of natural instincts as a player. 

 

He still has a big role to play competing with Henderson and Allen for the other two spots. I think he could more effective coming off the bench too for 30 minute bursts rather than plodding through 90. 

[spider-neil]

We need to drop the idea of Gerrard in a attacking position because A) Brendan hasn't used him in a front 3 since he arrived and he has lots of chances to do so (like when Suarez was suspended) and B ) Brendan wants players that press like animals high up the pitch and Gerrard isn't able to do that so it's either drop him or find a new position for him and as with Carra, Brendan wants experience on the pitch.

 

Also Mignolet doesn't sweep or distribute particularly well so Gerrard can kill two birds with one stone by dropping between the centre backs and doing that job for him.

 

I'm of the opinion that if we buy a M'VIla type player he will rotate with Allen and Henderson with Lucas rotating with Gerrard.

[Cardie]

Gerrard just doesn't have the legs or the positioning sense for that role. At home against relegation threatened teams I can see it but imagine him away at Arsenal or City. It's not fair to force a role on him that's against all of natural instincts as a player.

 

He still has a big role to play competing with Henderson and Allen for the other two spots. I think he could more effective coming off the bench too for 30 minute bursts rather than plodding through 90.

He doesn't have the legs of a makelele or a Hamann so we should play as a box to box player where he doesn't need the legs?

 

Sounds like engineering a reason without any logic.

 

You're all getting obsessed with the idea of him as a defensive mid when the reality is all he's doing is following his natural career path. He'll be a centre mid in the traditional sense (molby/Alonso) rather than a dm (hamann/mascerano).

 

He'll still be able to go forward he'll still get in positions to shoot he just won't be expected to constantly get in the box to support the attack.

 

[spider-neil]

To be honest the idea of Henderson and Allen pressing with Gerrard sweeping behind them (sounds like they are doing the household chores) excites me rather than scares me.

[John McClane]

After the World Cup, he must quit International Football.

The pressure of captaining the fucking muppets is unwanted as is the travel and having to talk to Roy fucking Hodgson. A thankless task given he aint a Londoner.

Next year, we will hopefully have European football adding 10+ games to our season, a bit harsh to call him a squad player but I dont expect to see him playing 50 games+.

[Pureblood]

I have a feeling he'll get injured again soon making all of this moot.

[Guest LFD]

To be honest the idea of Henderson and Allen pressing with Gerrard sweeping behind them (sounds like they are doing the household chores) excites me rather than scares me.

 

Certainly think we should see how it looks before deem whether it will or won't work.

[Paul]

Yes - and this sums up why, for me:

 

Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard happy with new role Steven Gerrard is now ready for a deeper midfield role which Brendan Rodgers believes will prolong his career

Deep thinker: Liverpool's Steven Gerrard will play a new role allowing Jordan Henderson to play further forward Photo: AFP

 

By Chris Bascombe

10:30PM GMT 17 Jan 2014

 

12 Comments

 

Necessity is the mother of reinvention for Liverpool and England captain Steven Gerrard. Once the marauding centre midfielder, he is now primed for a deeper role, with his manager Brendan Rodgers arguing that his career at the highest level will be prolonged by curbing his attacking instincts.

 

Gerrard has known this was coming and it appears initial resistance has given way to pragmatism. It was only 18 months ago he insisted it was too soon “to think about the Paul Scholes role”, but having spent his Anfield career making personal sacrifices for the greater good of Liverpool, there is a natural symmetry his latter years will go the same way.

 

It was during Liverpool’s pre-season tour of Boston, in the aftermath of Euro 2012, that it was suggested his future for club and country lay in mirroring the midfield management Andrea Pirlo had mastered for Italy a few weeks earlier. This was met with a brisk response.

 

“I know what you want me to say,” he interrupted, seeing the theme coming. “You want me to sit here and say that I can’t play the same way any more, that I have to control the game from deep and play a slower game – it’s not happening, not yet. Maybe as we work through the ages, maybe 33 or 34, then maybe I might be dropping a bit deeper.”

 

If a week is a long time in football, a season is a different dimension. Now he is 33, Gerrard is going there. Enthusiastically.

 

Rodgers utilised his captain in the position for 45 minutes against Oldham in the FA Cup but it was more noteworthy when he did so at Stoke last weekend. The timing is significant because it followed Gerrard’s enforced spell out of the side over Christmas when Joe Allen and Jordan Henderson excelled alongside Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling in the advanced midfield positions.

 

There was an anxiety when Gerrard was absent for fixtures away to Spurs, Manchester City and Chelsea – justifiable given Liverpool lost two of those three – but the performances at White Hart Lane and the Etihad were full of energy, vigour and pressing of defenders in the final third. The primary weakness without Gerrard was in front of the defence, with Chelsea and Manchester City’s ability to break rapidly punishing the advancing midfield.

 

Now Rodgers wants to make Gerrard a permanent anchor, the disciplinarian who will protect the back four while setting the passing tempo yet still contributing assists and occasional goals. If there is a weakness in this Liverpool side – one that pre-dates Rodgers’ arrival – it is the reliance on defensive midfielders with limited capacities.

 

Moving Gerrard further back makes the side more balanced, particularly as fit-again Daniel Sturridge needs to be accommodated.

 

Gerrard was right to be suspicious of any urge to tweak his game 18 months ago. He would have looked around the squad and felt he was still the best attacking midfielder at the club.

 

Rodgers’ decision is not only a tribute to Gerrard’s versatility, but also recognition of the growing capabilities of Henderson and the greater effectiveness of the pattern of play. The reservations have gone.

 

“It is a position that I know excites him,” says Rodgers. “I always look at every player not only in terms of their favourite position but where else can we prolong them? That applies especially to older players. Every player is different. But it’s not as simple as putting him back into that role because he’s Steven Gerrard; it’s because I think he’s got the qualities to play and operate in that position at a very high level.

 

“Everything about his game fits with that controlling player; from how he co-ordinates a team with the ball, his range of passing, which is still at a top level, he is a world-class dead-ball specialist, and physically, in that role where you need to move from side-to-side to block spaces, he has shown he has got that as well. And he’s got the range to open up a game, short and long.

 

“Tactically, once he does more work on when to become the third man dropping in or pushing on, he’s got a great chance of playing that role to the level of a Pirlo or a Javier Zanetti. They did it until late in their thirties and because of the way Stevie looks after himself that is a position he can play for sure.

 

“He’s a world-class operator at the top end of the field. What we have seen is the evolution of the team. In my work the reliance isn’t just on one player, it’s on the team. Obviously top players will make that work better and I think he’s seen that, where his role was very much about creating goals and scoring goals, he has seen the development of the team in terms of the number of goals scored and there is not the reliance on him for that. He has other big qualities that can really help the team and help his career. You will still get that flurry from him where he can go on and shoot.”

 

There are plentiful examples of dynamic, attacking midfielders withdrawing to set up camp in their own half. In the Premier League era Scholes, Roy Keane and Ryan Giggs mastered it at Old Trafford.

 

If Gerrard is as successful, Roy Hodgson will reap the rewards as much as Rodgers. The England captain is already playing in a more withdrawn role for his country, but weekly practice will bring with it expertise, England’s most gifted passer of the ball will be in position to enable his side to retain possession. Essential if England have any hope in Brazil.

 

Two years ago, Gerrard looked upon the request to fulfil this task with a sense of trepidation, as if he feared the call of time. “They will do that one day, they’ll come to me and say, ‘You might need to adapt your game’,” he said. “But it hasn’t come to that yet.”

 

The final phase of Gerrard’s career has now begun, but only as a means of ensuring its end remains many years in the distance.

[Jairzinho]

Couldn't possibly disagree more with that article.

[stringvest]

go on J, you know you want to...

[Brigant Moloch]

some of these quotes are bizzare, Rodgers loves to chat shit to press and does it for some reason but it's too much sometimes, that's why fans shouldn't be bothered by what Brendan says about his tactics, players and their form to wider audience. He loves to say one thing and then do the opposite, maybe he's just trying to put the pressure off his players a la Mourinho.

[Jairzinho]

go on J, you know you want to...

 

Nah, biting my tongue like you did in the other thread. I just think its pure sycophantic bollocks from start to finish.

[stringvest]

not from Bascombe, surely?

[Jairzinho]

Well, quite.

[Mr T]

The difference with Scholes and Giggs is that Ferguson utilised them to benefit the team not the individual player. When other players stopped benefiting the team.. Ferguson was the ruthless bastard we all love to hate. 

 

Ultimately though even Ferguson didn't get it entirely right managing Giggs and Scholes. They went years without properly reinforcing and now they are paying the price. Typical of Ferguson that he has left some other idiot to clear up his mess.

 

I hope Rodgers doesn't think he won't have to reinforce central midfield because Stevie G can do an amazing job there because he is so world class etc blah blah. If Rodgers doesn't play this carefully he could become a new Roy Evans for the next generation - producing an exciting team that can't defend for shit with ageing legends getting overrun in midfield. 

[Guest LFD]

Couldn't possibly disagree more with that article.

 

You don't think arguably the most complete player ever can't adapt his game and play in a deeper role?

 

I'd rather give it a try than judge it now.

[Jairzinho]

Nice one.

[Guest LFD]

Nice one.

 

I think he is arguably the most complete player ever.  

 

He's played the deeper role before to great effect - he was the holding player when England beat Germany 5-1 for example.

 

I understand the fears of putting him in that role.  But let's see how it works before judging it.  He could thrive in that role, with energy in front of him.  It could fail, if so then your fears will be right and we'll either have to find another role for him or his retirement comes quicker.  

 

But let's see how it works.  Thought he did well defensively in that role vs Stoke.