Time To Put Gerrard Back Into The Middle

[stringvest]

It's not that for me. No matter who Gerrard is playing with, he can't seem to even lay off a 10 yard pass. If it wasn't Steven Gerrard playing so badly but some unknown then everyone would be howling for him to come off. Top talent look good on the pitch. Gerrard is a top talent, but this season he has been utterly terrible. He was passing the ball to the oppo last night from 5 yards away. it doesn't matter if Alonso or Stephen Hawkings was his intended target, it was getting no where near a Liverpool player.

 

 

 

Exactly! We need to drop Gerrard!

 

Only joking like before people go insane.

 

That's why I qualified it with 'desperately limited', just in case anyone made the same mistake.

[stringvest]

Excuse after excuse after excuse from the Gerrapologists. His head clearly isn't right this season and blaming everybody in sight for his inability to pass or shoot with any kind of consistency isn't going to alter that fact.

 

I agree with the fact that his head plainly isn't right. I think everyone does.

[JohnnyH]

Excuse after excuse after excuse from the Gerrapologists. His head clearly isn't right this season and blaming everybody in sight for his inability to pass or shoot with any kind of consistency isn't going to alter that fact.

 

Tee hee

 

That's why I qualified it with 'desperately limited', just in case anyone made the same mistake.

 

Tee hee also.

[piscinin]

You're betraying precisely the same binary view that you accuse others of, and there's no surprise there either. I don't think anybody believes Gerrard has no weakness.

 

I've just asked some questions. Don't see how that is binary

 

Why don't you give us the benefit of your thoughts about Gerrard's weaknesses. Tactical naivety and ill-discipline? Poor tackler? A tendency to look for the Hollywood ball? Over-frowning?

 

That's a good start. Add pressing, positioning and game management to the list. Compare it to what Benitez wants CMs to do. Then list his strengths, compare that to what he wants a forward to do and it's a no brainer. Any coach who puts the system ahead of the individual is going to put Gerrard in a free role.

[stringvest]

I've just asked some questions. Don't see how that is binary

 

 

 

That's a good start. Add pressing, positioning and game management to the list. Compare it to what Benitez wants CMs to do. Then list his strengths, compare that to what he wants a forward to do and it's a no brainer. Any coach who puts the system ahead of the individual is going to put Gerrard in a free role.

 

The tactical naivety and ill-discipline thing is a lazy cliche invented by Sky after a few lacklustre performances and bought into all-too-readily by the Gerrard detractors. He is stronger in these areas than Lampard, but then he doesn't have the intelligence or the legs in his teammates to support him.

 

Pressing. An on song Gerrard is great at it. He's perceptive, he's agressive, bit most of all he's quick. He will have made more interceptions in dangerous places than any other Liverpool player. It's less obvious when he plays midfield, but he's very effective at doing this here too.

 

Positioning. Gerrard has played right back, CM, LM, RM, free role, off the front man and even as an emergency centre forward. He has a broader practical understanding of the game, and positioning, than any other player we have on the pitch. The problem is, we have a team of relatively static individuals who do not share the intelligence to backfill and support.

Game management is a sufficiently generic term to mean all things to all men, so I can't possibly comment.

 

And whatever it is Benitez wants his CMs to do, either they haven't done it all season, in which case they should be dropped, or Benitez's thinking is badly flawed, in which case he should be considered for the drop.

[piscinin]

The tactical naivety and ill-discipline thing is a lazy cliche invented by Sky after a few lacklustre performances and bought into all-too-readily by the Gerrard detractors. He is stronger in these areas than Lampard, but then he doesn't have the intelligence or the legs in his teammates to support him.

 

Pressing. An on song Gerrard is great at it. He's perceptive, he's agressive, bit most of all he's quick. He will have made more interceptions in dangerous places than any other Liverpool player. It's less obvious when he plays midfield, but he's very effective at doing this here too.

 

Positioning. Gerrard has played right back, CM, LM, RM, free role, off the front man and even as an emergency centre forward. He has a broader practical understanding of the game, and positioning, than any other player we have on the pitch. The problem is, we have a team of relatively static individuals who do not share the intelligence to backfill and support.

Game management is a sufficiently generic term to mean all things to all men, so I can't possibly comment.

 

And whatever it is Benitez wants his CMs to do, either they haven't done it all season, in which case they should be dropped, or Benitez's thinking is badly flawed, in which case he should be considered for the drop.

 

Yeah, I thought you'd think he was great at everything in the whole wide world.

[hamstrung]

Did he just use the words "game management"

 

He didn't, did he?

[Guest LFD]

Sod it, just stick with the Lucas / Mascherano partnership, it is clearly working!

 

Despite what the stats say and the performances this season.

[stringvest]

Yeah, I thought you'd think he was great at everything in the whole wide world.

 

And you were wrong as usual.

[stringvest]

Did he just use the words "game management"

 

He didn't, did he?

 

I don't think we see it enough in the threads on here. Rafa uses it a lot, apparently.

[The Dude Abides]

Sod it, just stick with the Lucas / Mascherano partnership, it is clearly working!

 

Despite what the stats say and the performances this season.

 

Why is it that all our ills this season get boiled down to them two? It couldn't be anything to do with Gerrard being rubbish, no threat on either flank, and no decent option up front other than Torres?

 

I'm curious what the "stats" said about Alonso last season, given that he didn't score many goals and didn't have many assists.

[Guest LFD]

I'm curious what the "stats" said about Alonso last season, given that he didn't score many goals and didn't have many assists.

 

Well we only lost two league games last season.

 

I would safely say the stats would be far far better, than the ones I posted up.

[Guest LFD]

Hate to say I was right, but Rafa should have listened to me.

 

Hopefully Roy won't make the same mistake.

[The Party Boy]

Yeah i'm sure you "hate to say it", hate to bump the thread too?

[Thants]

Mmm?

[Best Believe It]

I see the 'repetative bellend' gap left by Rashid is being filled well.

[hobbit]

Now the only man standing in Reals way has gone I've no doubt Gerrard will play in the middle, just not for us.

[Gary Mac Legend]

Reading back through here, really wish we'd gone for Javi Martinez last summer when we had the chance.

 

Aquilani - What on earth was Rafa thinking!?

[Glen C]

Maybe i'm being petty, but its really beginning to piss me off with gerrard talking about his commitment to england but won't say fuck all about liverpool. If you want to go then just say it. All he's saying is how he's totally committed to england and wants to continue. Good on you gerrard, now how about showing a bit of balls and saying one way or the other if you want to leave.

[Guest LFD]

I see the 'repetative bellend' gap left by Rashid is being filled well.

 

Ouch.

 

Sticks and stones! Anyway...

 

If we use Gerrard's stats used in centre midfield last season and times by three to see how many points we would have got over the course of a season - assuming the results were similar:

 

Won – 7

Drawn -3

Lost – 2 (one game against Chelsea, in a game we half wanted to lose)

 

That would mean in 36 games our side would have got 72 points with two games in hand.

 

That is significantly better than the 63 points we achieved and despite our side being in woeful form last season.

 

We probably would have come third.

[Guest TK-421]

Negged.

[PaulMcC]

What a load of bollocks.

[Best Believe It]

Ouch.

 

Sticks and stones! Anyway...

 

If we use Gerrard's stats used in centre midfield last season and times by three to see how many points we would have got over the course of a season - assuming the results were similar:

 

Won – 7

Drawn -3

Lost – 2 (one game against Chelsea, in a game we half wanted to lose)

 

That would mean in 36 games our side would have got 72 points with two games in hand.

 

That is significantly better than the 63 points we achieved and despite our side being in woeful form last season.

 

We probably would have come third.

 

Ok. First of all Gerrard played poorly last season and the evidence would suggest that this wasn't down to his position on the pitch. There is no way of knowing for definite that he would have been much better in centre-midfield. And even if he was, there's no guarantee that whoever replaced him in the attacking midfield position would have done any better.

 

Therefore this is supposition, and you are stating your opinion. Your opinion may be valid, and had Rafa put Gerrard in centre-mid, all you say would have happened may have come true.

 

But you have said this a million fucking times. It's your opinion. Ok, we get that. We understand. You cannot prove it would have happened as you say. We cannot prove it wouldn't have happened. So it is your opinion and you have said it so many pissing times that even people like me who don't post all that often know it is your opinion. You don't need to keep on repeating yourself at every opportunity.

[mattyq]

My eyes are bleeding, mummy

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Reading back through here, really wish we'd gone for Javi Martinez last summer when we had the chance.

 

Aquilani - What on earth was Rafa thinking!?

 

He was thinking 'Roma owe us money and are willing to structure the deal so that we effectively have no short term initial outlay. Just like the Johnson deal, maybe I can afford a player that isn't a freebie if I do some creative accounting'.