"Steven Gerrard Is Our Captain"

[millomred]

IMO the best player to ever wear the shirt.

[Randy Marsh]

In 2008-2009 season, he was the best player in the world.

 

Hima nd Torres together are unbelievable.

 

Agreed.

 

Still baffles me how people consider him at his best playing center mid. To me, that is a total and utter waste of both his talents and also Fernando Torres'. Him and Nando are unplayable on their day, they are almost telepathic. Stevie is a better player when he's close to Nando, and vice versa.

 

If we are going to do anything of any note then those two have to be as close as possible, it's an absolute no brainer. Why anyone would want him back in the middle waisting his attacking talents defending and keeping in a disciplined shape is a mystery to me. Man City proved that.

[lfclad_4eva]

yes that 08-09 season, if only him and torres can do that this year, it helped having alonso behind them in that season. Gerrard deserves every bit of praise he gets, he is so highly regarded yet still underrated. best player in the world, and good luck tonight!

[Barnesey]

Agreed.

 

Still baffles me how people consider him at his best playing center mid. To me, that is a total and utter waste of both his talents and also Fernando Torres'. Him and Nando are unplayable on their day, they are almost telepathic. Stevie is a better player when he's close to Nando, and vice versa.

 

If we are going to do anything of any note then those two have to be as close as possible, it's an absolute no brainer. Why anyone would want him back in the middle waisting his attacking talents defending and keeping in a disciplined shape is a mystery to me. Man City proved that.

 

I would definitely play him centre mid. He is so much better with the ball in front of him than the other way around.

 

Sure he is fantastic playing off Torres, but only when he gets a supply of the ball. Which he doesn't without Alonso in the side. And with Cole extremely able in that role, he has to play centre mid. He contributes a whole lot more there, passing, tackling and he will get forward and score.

 

Incidentally, he is clearly the best right back in the world as well, brilliant wide right and could become a great central defender before he finishes. for me, the best player we have ever had.

[Bogman]

Agreed.

 

Still baffles me how people consider him at his best playing center mid. To me, that is a total and utter waste of both his talents and also Fernando Torres'. Him and Nando are unplayable on their day, they are almost telepathic. Stevie is a better player when he's close to Nando, and vice versa.

 

If we are going to do anything of any note then those two have to be as close as possible, it's an absolute no brainer. Why anyone would want him back in the middle waisting his attacking talents defending and keeping in a disciplined shape is a mystery to me. Man City proved that.

 

That.

 

Anywhere else he is waisted, imo.

 

His strengths are when he's going forward.

 

But as said previously, we will not appreciate the man until he's retired. And what a void that's gonna leave.

 

The man is right up there with anything the club has had.

 

Th quote a man on the Kop on saturday....."Gerrard I love you".

 

Just so glad he's been ours.

[VladimirIlyich]

You cant judge a player until he has retired IMO.

 

Gerrard is going to be one of the best but still not 'the best.'

 

Probably the best way of judging a player is whether hes a stand out player in a great team,King Kenny was but Stevie G hasnt been in that position yet.

 

Wait a few years before making a final decision.

[Wor Horse]

Truly superb player.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

First off no one that has played in at least the last ten years is better then Messi.

 

The set pieces thing with Gerrard is annoying but I don't think it's all down to him being poor at them. The squad has got very small the last few years. Could be a bit better now though with Poulson and Raul.

 

That said there is no one I'd rather have standing on the edge of the box or even in it.

 

That has to be the worst defence for Gerrard's 3 years of poor corner taking I have ever seen.

 

Don't ever become a lawyer.

 

To me Steven Gerrard is a very good player. Not one of the best in the world ever, as I like my players to be like artists, players who can play the game as an art form and not just through power.

 

Gerrard is the best midfielder, right back, right winger and attacking midfielder this country has ever produced. However he is a typically English player, hustle, bustle, power and (a declining due to his elder years) pace. Nothing wrong in that at all.

 

I would personally say people like Brian Laudrup (who has sadly been diagnosed with Lymphatic cancer) and his brother Michael were better players, but that is my opinon because I felt they possessed better craft, guile, vision, skill and calmer heads.

 

Not saying Gerrard hasn't got any of them, just not as good as those guys in my opinion. Plus he is a different type of player.

 

I also like players like Platini, Baggio, Zola, Bergkamp, Gullit, Baresi, Signori, Socrates, Zico,to name a few.

 

Gerrard the player, great, fantastic to have in our team.

 

I have opinions on whether his time had finished with us, but that is down to my opinon of Gerrard the man and the captain, not the player.

 

He will rightly go down in folklore as a legend.

 

Best player for me, ever to wear a Liverpool shirt, was Kenny Dalglish, and it will take Gerrard to complete a billion and one things for me to ever change my mind.

 

Kenny was and is not called 'The King' for nothing.

[Byrnie]

I would definitely play him centre mid. He is so much better with the ball in front of him than the other way around.

 

Sure he is fantastic playing off Torres, but only when he gets a supply of the ball. Which he doesn't without Alonso in the side. And with Cole extremely able in that role, he has to play centre mid. He contributes a whole lot more there, passing, tackling and he will get forward and score.

 

Incidentally, he is clearly the best right back in the world as well, brilliant wide right and could become a great central defender before he finishes. for me, the best player we have ever had.

 

I really don't get that you think Cole is extremely able in that role. He hasn't proved it in his whole career that he can be consistently good in the hole. I don't think he is anywhere near as capable as Stevie there, won't get near Stevie's goals or assists tally from there either, in my opinion.

 

I can see the arguments on both sides of where Stevie should play, before we got Meireles I said CM, due to us having no ball player in there. Now I'd like him back behind Nando.

 

As for Stevie, deffo top 2 in the all time list. You don't know what you've got until it's gone, that'll be the case with our captain.

[silverlining]

Is one of the best players to ever wear the shirt.

 

And I don't require his career at LFC to be over before I realise it.

It's been obvious for about 8 years.

[Irishlad]

That has to be the worst defence for Gerrard's 3 years of poor corner taking I have ever seen.

.

 

Look at the team the last few years. Hardly anyone providing a decent aerial threat. Agger, Carra, Skrtel, Masch, Insua, Lucas are all poor in the air, at least in an attacking sense.

 

I'm not saying that Gerrard is great at corners but he's no where near as bad as made out because of this lack of height/aerial threat the last few seasons.

[Original202]

A lack of height is irrelevent if you can't beat the first man or you overhit the ball.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

Look at the team the last few years. Hardly anyone providing a decent aerial threat. Agger, Carra, Skrtel, Masch, Insua, Lucas are all poor in the air, at least in an attacking sense.

 

I'm not saying that Gerrard is great at corners but he's no where near as bad as made out because of this lack of height/aerial threat the last few seasons.

 

A lack of height is irrelevent if you can't beat the first man or you overhit the ball.

 

I rest my case your honor.

[Irishlad]

I could of swore I seen him knock plenty in for big Sami. Funny how when probably the only decent header of the ball leaves his corners get worse.

[Randy Marsh]

I would definitely play him centre mid. He is so much better with the ball in front of him than the other way around.

 

Sure he is fantastic playing off Torres, but only when he gets a supply of the ball. Which he doesn't without Alonso in the side. And with Cole extremely able in that role, he has to play centre mid. He contributes a whole lot more there, passing, tackling and he will get forward and score.

 

Incidentally, he is clearly the best right back in the world as well, brilliant wide right and could become a great central defender before he finishes. for me, the best player we have ever had.

 

I'm hoping that Meireles can provide the central link between defense and attack that we've missed since Xabi, which in turn will only benefit Stevie and Nando.

 

Last season the 2 central midfielders where just far too functional, not enough creativity or spark. In those circumstances I understand the argument for throwing Stevie back in there.

 

I believe that 4-2-3-1 is the best formation for the modern game, (we were one of the first big clubs to play it under Rafa 3 seasons ago) and playing with 2 holding midfielders doesn't have to be defensive if one is expansive and forward thinking like Xabi was. If Meireles can attempt to fill that roll then we will be a much better team for having him in there and Stevie closer to Nando I reckon.

[edinjapan]

 

I would personally say people like Brian Laudrup (who has sadly been diagnosed with Lymphatic cancer) and his brother Michael were better players, but that is my opinon because I felt they possessed better craft, guile, vision, skill and calmer heads.

 

Not saying Gerrard hasn't got any of them, just not as good as those guys in my opinion. Plus he is a different type of player.

 

I also like players like Platini, Baggio, Zola, Bergkamp, Gullit, Baresi, Signori, Socrates, Zico,to name a few.

 

Gerrard the player, great, fantastic to have in our team.

 

QUOTE]

 

Some interesting discussion to be had here. As an old fart, I'd personally have Gerrard over everyone in that list. I wouldn't even have the Laudrups on there to be honest although I think Socrates, Zico and Gullit were all as influential. I didn't see enough of those two Brazilians to really judge however, and that team in 82 that had Eder and Falcao in it as well was absolutely breath taking as a 9 year old. There was so much class in that team, it was hard for them not to all look amazing as individuals. Would love to dig up some tapes to see if they were as sublime as I remember. Always thought Platini was wildly over rated, and the fact that he's a massive cunt hasn't helped.

 

Having said all that, Kenny is still my number one, not only as a player but as a man. That's not to say Stevie can't equal that as the years go by, but he'd have to be pretty special. Even if he won us the league a few times before he retired I think it'd still be Kenny for me.

[El_Ménco]

Steven Gerrard's best position remains open to debate - Jonathan Wilson - SI.com

 

Twenty years ago, it would have been obvious what Steven Gerrard was. He has boundless energy, a ferocious shot and an extraordinary capacity for bending games to his will.

 

Think of his goals against Germany in the 2001 World Cup qualifier in Munich, against Olympiakos in the 2005 Champions league quarterfinal and against West Ham United in the 2006 FA Cup final. On each occasion, as the ball dropped to him, there was a magnificent inevitability about the ball flashing from his boot into the net. There was something of the comic book about him, a hero who always did what was needed just when it was needed.

 

The player he most recalled in style was Bryan Robson -- not the crabby battler Robson became later in his career, but the swashbuckling leader who for much of the 1980s seemed to drag England and Manchester United along single-handedly. If there was a last-ditch challenge needed to be made, he'd be there, and seconds later he'd be clattering through the opposing penalty area to thump a header into the top corner. He seemed to be everywhere, tireless and fearless.

 

In terms of trophies, Gerrard has actually been more successful than Robson, but he, like Michael Owen before him, has found the evolution of tactics overtaking him. His case is not as severe as that of Owen, who has admitted that he needs another striker alongside him and is finding it difficult to adjust to an era of single-striker formations, but the box-to-box midfielder is in its own way becoming as much of an anachronism as the specialist goal poacher.

 

The problems are twofold: practical and theoretical. Very simply, box-to-box players are slipping out of fashion for the same reason wingbacks are; because they cover a huge amount of ground, they have to be fitter than everybody else, and with improvements in general fitness and sports nutrition and the increase in the pace of the game, the number of players who can cope with the physical demands of the role is decreasing. Gerrard is one who still can, but there must be a tactical framework to accommodate him.

 

The liberalization of the offside law has also had a huge impact. Since the interpretation of what constitutes interfering with play was altered in favor of the forward in 2005, it has become harder and harder for teams to play an aggressive offside trap (as a measure of that, the number of offsides per Premier League game fell from 7.9 to 4.9 between the 1998-99 season and 2008-09). That means teams are defending deeper, and that in turn stretches the effective playing area from around 50 yards to about 70 yards, which in turn means that those players whose job is to charge up and down have to cover more ground (in that regard, box-to-box was always something of a misnomer; "defensive-line-to-defensive-line" would have been far more accurate).

 

Improvements in fitness and the change in the laws have both contributed to tactical changes in the game, but so too has the realization that using two holding midfielders allows a side to include three creators plus a striker in a 4-2-3-1. As the World Cup showed, that setup has replaced 4-4-2 as a near-universal default. In such a system, there is no place for the box-to-box player. Midfield has been split into, broadly speaking, holding and creative roles. Of course, there are variations within that: Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano are about as different as two players could be and yet are both holding midfielders -- which is perhaps why they once formed such a superb partnership for Liverpool.

 

But where does Gerrard fit? Even in conservative England, the World Cup brought an acceptance that sending out the players in good old 4-4-2 and expecting them to sort it out isn't really enough, and that in turn has led to a slew of debate about Gerrard's "best position." But even that seems an oddly English way of looking at the problem.

 

"I can't believe that in England they don't teach young players to be multifunctional," Jose Mourinho said during his time at Chelsea. "To them it's just about knowing one position and playing that position."

 

The temptation, following the paradigm of the late Robson, was always to see Gerrard as a holding midfielder who got forward to score the odd goal, but former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez quickly decided he lacked the tactical discipline for that, and tried to turn him into a goal-scoring midfielder who made the odd tackle.

 

The decisive game in his thinking was probably Liverpool's Champions League quarterfinal with Juventus in 2005. Liverpool won the first leg at Anfield 2-1 but Gerrard missed the second leg in Turin with a thigh strain. There was much anguish in the media, but Alonso and Igor Biscan were superb in midfield as Liverpool held possession and frustrated Juventus to draw 0-0. It was hard to imagine Gerrard's contributing to such a performance, full of sideways and backward passes designed to draw the sting from the game and keep Juve at arm's length. One of the joys of English soccer is its lack of cynicism, its relentless pursuit of goals, and Gerrard embodies that. This, though, was a night for discretion, and Gerrard's seemingly unbreakable habit of spraying 40-yard passes at every opportunity would have been out of place.

 

But if Gerrard lacks the tactical discipline to be a holding midfielder, he also lacks the guile to be a playmaker. His game is about power and endeavor, not subtlety. By using Alonso as a holder, Benitez was able to provide enough guile to use Gerrard off a front man in his 4-2-3-1. When Alonso left, though, Liverpool were rendered predictable.

 

Fabio Capello's solution, during the World Cup qualifiers, was to use Gerrard on the left. He has made clear he prefers to play in the center, and tends to follow the ball, but at first it worked as Wayne Rooney dropped off Emile Heskey and drifted left, creating a neat interplay as Gerrard came inside, opening space on the left for Ashley Cole to overlap from fullback. But when Rooney, perhaps under instruction or perhaps because his role at Manchester United had changed, began playing higher up the pitch during the World Cup, alongside rather than off Heskey, Gerrard's drifts inside simply led to congestion.

 

Against Bulgaria on Friday, with Capello reverting to a more orthodox 4-4-2, Gerrard was back in the middle alongside Gareth Barry, a natural holder, but that may be because of the absence of the injured Frank Lampard rather than a long-term plan.

 

Four years after the FA Cup final he won almost single-handedly, though, there's the nagging sense that wherever Gerrard plays he'd always be slightly better elsewhere, mainly because he remains a square peg and tactical changes in the game have left only round holes. Gerrard has had a great career, but it might have been even greater if only he'd been born 20 years earlier.

[silverlining]

I believe that 4-2-3-1 is the best formation for the modern game, (we were one of the first big clubs to play it under Rafa 3 seasons ago) and playing with 2 holding midfielders doesn't have to be defensive if one is expansive and forward thinking like Xabi was. If Meireles can attempt to fill that roll then we will be a much better team for having him in there and Stevie closer to Nando I reckon.

 

 

Mourinho was playing it in the Premiership before that

[Il Fenomeno]

Mourinho was playing it in the Premiership before that

 

We played it in 2004-2005 aswell, didn't we?

[silverlining]

We played it in 2004-2005 aswell, didn't we?

 

Oh, I dunno. I get fucking bored with it anyway. Oooh 4-5-1 is conservative, 4-4-2 is dead, fucking blah blah blah.

 

Arsenal's best team had two "holding players". But they were ace players.

 

Did we play 4-4-1-1 in 1988? Or was it 4-1-3-2? Or 4-1-4-1? Was Beardo a withdrawn striker? Was he an attacking midfielder? Was Whelan a defensive midfielder?

 

It's slightly boring and confusing and pointless at times. I really hated all the shit spouted about Lucas and Masher last year "oh, Benitez playing two holding players, how negative. And at Anfield too".

 

Well, nobody complained when Wenger did it. Or when the partnership was Masher and Xabi. It didn't work because Lucas is fucking shit and neither player offered anything offensively.

[Original202]

I could of swore I seen him knock plenty in for big Sami. Funny how when probably the only decent header of the ball leaves his corners get worse.

 

That'd be fine if people hadn't already been criticising his corners for years before Sami left.

[Il Fenomeno]

Oh, I dunno. I get fucking bored with it anyway. Oooh 4-5-1 is conservative, 4-4-2 is dead, fucking blah blah blah.

 

Arsenal's best team had two "holding players". But they were ace players.

 

Did we play 4-4-1-1 in 1988? Or was it 4-1-3-2? Or 4-1-4-1? Was Beardo a withdrawn striker? Was he an attacking midfielder? Was Whelan a defensive midfielder?

 

It's slightly boring and confusing and pointless at times. I really hated all the shit spouted about Lucas and Masher last year "oh, Benitez playing two holding players, how negative. And at Anfield too".

 

Well, nobody complained when Wenger did it. Or when the partnership was Masher and Xabi. It didn't work because Lucas is fucking shit and neither player offered anything offensively.

 

I agree, if you play crap players the formation is irrelevant, the team is still crap.

 

Players move about so much during a game does formation even matter?

 

Even if we played 4-4-2 with the same players as last season with Gerrard on the wing and Kuyt upfront we would still be crap, because most of our players were terrible.

[navbasi]

He's really grown into the the role of captain as the years have gone on.

 

As far as his best position, I'm quite happy for him to play in behind Torres or as a central midfielder. Away against top opposition I think the free role suits him and us. Wouldn't swap him for anyone.

 

I was going to post the same thought... I'm thankful he's "Our" Captain. We'll only really appreciate him once he's hung his boots up. For me, he's up there with Kenny as our greatest ever player.

[Guest LFD]

Most complete player I have ever seen.

 

I don't think anyone the last ten season's in the world has been as consistent in terms of quality as Gerrard.

 

I think he is brilliant in centre midfield, right back, behind a lone striker in a free role or on the right - that is why we always have the debate on where he should play. Ultimately his role depends on how good the rest of his teammate are.

 

When we had Alonso we could afford to play him on the right or behind Torres. Now we have Cole, he might be better off playing in centre midfield. However if Meireles thrives then he could play behind Torres with Cole on the left.

 

The fact he can play three or four positions to a world class quality just shows what a special player he is and he has eclipsed Barnes as my favourite red ever.

 

You only fully appreciate someone when they are not there - we know this to well with Alonso. Gerrard will be even more appreciated when he retires.

[VladimirIlyich]

Is one of the best players to ever wear the shirt.

 

And I don't require his career at LFC to be over before I realise it.

It's been obvious for about 8 years.

 

Obviously i dont dispute Gerrard is a brilliant player but its not right to judge until his career is over to get a good idea of all his good and bad points.

 

I personally think he hasnt been as good for the last 2 seasons but i wont judge him on 2 seasons but his whole career.