negativity towards Steven Gerrard?

[CTorres17]

We all have good and bad games he came back from injury thats why is hard for him to play as smooth as he used to. Maxi is also settling in thats why the left side isn't being played as much as it was with Benayoun. Aquilani should had started to be later replaced by Gerrard after we had scored.

 

The team is playing way better then in the beginning of the year, I had always criticized the defense but they have learn to work together now we are just waiting for the midfield to get settled in and the forwards to start taking shots.

[Redshadow]

I think the hero worship of Gerrard on here - all the crap about ''HOW can we drop Him when he's the only one with creativity etc?" is not only pathetic and embarrassing but also one of THE primary reasons for the fucking mess our team is in now as quite clearly it's shared by the coaching staff at present as well. Erm, no he's NOT undroppable - anyone remember 2 seasons ago when he was hooked off in the Derby - Lucas replaced him (as attacking midfielder which is Lucas Proper position) and we instantly looked a better team? Also When Gerrard was recalled to the team (taught that HE to can spend time on the bench) he responded with something like 10 goals in his next 9 matches? What about our Last game v Tottenham - for all the plaudits their midfield and team have been given recently our Reserve side totally outplayed them and dominated their famed midfield for long periods but when Gerrards back (and clearly NOT fit?) he goes Straight back in - the man who created our last goal from open play goes on the bench to make way for him and lo and behold - we look as a team like an arthritic, blindfolded old man trying to fight his way out of a paper bag upside down, in front of goal (ie WORSE than useless).

 

I'll tell you what, people moan non-stop at Kuyt on here and spout utter rubbish like ''Is Aquilani ready for the Premier League?'' (Idiots!! As if Rafa' would have bought and shown faith in him otherwise - Think) but in their last league game in their PROPER positions (that's another bugbear of mine - Proper attacking midfielders like Lucas once was and now Aquilani IS being 'reinvented' by Rafa' to accomodate Stevie) these two bossed the game and tore Spurs apart within 6 minutes - so what does Rafa' do today? Drop our main creative midfielder - the man who was Meant to SUPPLY Gerrard as Alonso used to - Stick Gerrard up behind Kuyt on his own, basically use the formation that was so awful in the winter months of 2009 with NO creative force and then? He feigns surprise when we DON'T score!!! I give up - I really do..... The reason Gerrard did so well for the last 2 seasons in terms of goals, creativeness etc - is Because the team was DESIGNED not ONLY around him, It was designed around Torres, Alonso, Masch', Kuyt and Riera - it could play Well without him and thus he was free to cause havoc in the foe's defence with complete impunity Knowing the team around him could handle his absence AND supply him effectively. Now? We're back to LFC circa 2004 - give Gerrard the ball and wait for something to happen and when HE gets it? He gives it to Torres- without them our team looks useless as we have NO Plan B as we did last season with Alonso to pull the strings and find Other ways to goal - assisted by Riera and Benayoun (both of whom have suffered with injury this time). We NEED to build an Alonso 'style' team as we had before (We all know who the REAL midfield General in that side was and it wasn't Steven was it?) with Aquilani in Xabi's place (and he showed last Wednesday he CAN do it), and accommodate Gerrard Where we can and when the teams built? Then make him a regular again but until then? A change could/WILL do us good and we really Do need it by tonight's evidence.

 

Where was the force, venom, purpose and intent for 90 Bloody minutes that did for Spurs? Where was the barrage we rained down on Spurs goal only a week ago? - gone that's where and it's not hard to see why - Gerrard shouldn't be an automatic starter anymore - sacrilege though that is - He's older now, his legs are going if not gone (someone said to me he reminds them of Viera in 2005 - to my mind he's more like Barnes in the mid 90's - a once superstar who could turn it on at will suddenly finding that the gearstick to his extra gear/that which separated him from mere players had been removed and WASN'T coming back - he looked a little lost and has done increasingly so this season) What's more - he's far from a shoe in as attacking midfielder/in the hole attacker anymore - Rafa's going to have a Very hard decision to make between Gerrard and Aquilani soon and I'll tell you now - Steven is Far from a shoe in to win that race - nor should he be, have we forgotten just How we made our TEAM so successful in the 80's etc? It wasn't Mr X FC (that was United with Robson - remember?) but LIVERPOOL FC - Some around here in the management team seem to have forgotten that in the rush to accomodate our fragile captain - me? I say, drop him now - his lack of fitness and accumulating years are dragging the team down at the moment and we STILL haven't organised a system to supply him Properly upfront in the hole where he can do REAL damage to replace the system Alonso's departure shattered nor have we moved him back permanently as we Could have done after trying it in September - Until we DO - He's not worth his place in the team against Aquilani and the chance to build a New team NOT dependent on him - and yes I do think an unchanged team from the Spurs one would of won tonight - why? Because it would have WANTED to prove itself - it WASN'T a shoe in to Always play - Gerrard IS and knows it;

 

What's FAR worse is he Expects it to - he Expects to be played - Expects to take the corners despite being useless at it, same for free kicks (where did our dangerous free kicks and corners from Wed' last go again? Off with Steven's choice to take them all that's where......AGAIN) and generally, he EXPECTS to be in charge of the whole team no matter what - all who DID dispute with him, our other 'Generals' who kept him in check; Sami, Xabi, even Arbeloa who was rather argumentative !! They're gone and the only Possible replacements are Aquilani (whose not settled in yet), Carragher (who Rarely argues with Steven) and Pepe Reina (whose 2 busy saving the chances our newly inept midfield offers freely to the opposition to comment). Yet Again, Gerrard dominates the WHOLE team and our foes know Exactly Who to stop, they stop him and we look toothless, gumless even. Pathetic, predictable and in Big need of a change!!.........Now!! Gerrard NEEDS to feel threatened for his own place, Needs to feel insecure - fuck all this media (and from our idiot Gerrard worshipping fellow fans) ''oh how DARE you have a go at Steven?'' crap, forget all the ''he's the main man'' rubbish and the media's Benitez is ''a stroppy foreigner/how DARE he lecture/shout at Gerrard'' and grow some Balls Rafa'!! MAKE the team take Collective Responsibility, MAKE Gerrard sweat over his place, MAKE the lazy so and so pull his finger out and DROP him if you need to!!! It's Way past time this team AND it's captain Grew up and the team Stopped relying on ONE thing all the time to win games for it. Only one man can do that so? Now it's over to you Rafa'..........................................................

[CTorres17]

Haha I read your essay and I completely agree.

[Sandman]

Redshadow, I want to read your post as you've taken the time to craft another essay, but for fucks sake man, enough with the random capitalization.

[Sandman]

Agree with most of what you've said though.

 

Am now off to bathe my eyes.

[Redexile]

I defy any midfielder in the world to play well in the current Liverpool side. Defender wins the ball and HOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFF bypassingg our midfield and the lone striker straight to the opposition defenders. It is absolute shite and an indictment on the club.

[The 5th Benitel]

What we are seeing for the first time this season is a Benitez team that is regularily having to play without Gerrard playing at his top level. Now, when we play negatively or just very poorly there is no one to pull us out of the fire. We've managed for the odd game here and there but the team have had to try and manage without him on a consistant basis and it ain't pretty.

[Redexile]

What we are seeing for the first time this season is a Benitez team that is regularily having to play without Gerrard playing at his top level. Now, when we play negatively or just very poorly there is no one to pull us out of the fire. We've managed for the odd game here and there but the team have had to try and manage without him on a consistant basis and it ain't pretty.

 

That's an understatement

[zico]

Even when he is shit he is light years ahead of most of the team

 

At least he can trap and pass a football

 

So you think he was one of our better performers yesterday?

 

He was shite, and I can't believe he got to finish the full 90 minutes....

 

Gerrard is not a particular good player in that position, and he needs to be put back into midfield or right midfield in order to get his game back on track, and more importantly get us back on track, as Lucas and Mascherano simply are not good enough to run our midfield. (Kuyt not good enough to play on the right).

[The 5th Benitel]

So you think he was one of our better performers yesterday?

 

He was shite, and I can't believe he got to finish the full 90 minutes....

 

Gerrard is not a particular good player in that position, and he needs to be put back into midfield or right midfield in order to get his game back on track, and more importantly get us back on track, as Lucas and Mascherano simply are not good enough to run our midfield. (Kuyt not good enough to play on the right).

 

What you're saying there is that a lot of our players aren't good enough, which has been the case for a while. In the past Gerrard's talent could overcome that but now he's not playing well everyone is noticing it more. Not least cos it means we now draw or get beat quite often.

[Unrighteous]

Do we even have a midfield?

[darnells]

Gerrard is suffering from playing alongside crap players, please tell me how many goals Lucas and Monster have been involved in - they simply dont offer anything offensively. At times this season we have relied on Aurelio, Degen, ELZhar as our wide players in midfield - he simply is getting frustrated.

 

We were all angry about the loss of Xabi but imagine what it felt like to the guy who played alongside him for the last 4-5 years. He would have known that Lucas would never be up to the job.

 

His form has been bad but that's because he hasnt been fit all year, the stubborn manager refused to buy cover so he is always forced back when not sharp. The problem lies with Rafa and not Gerrard.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

He wasn't getting frustrated with the same players last season when they helped us finish second was he.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

Do we even have a midfield?

 

Yes, however our defence chose to completely ignore it last night.

[dirty_sanchez]

Gerrard has been utter bollocks this season. He's not alone, but he needs to pull his finger out because everyone else is playing at 50% and he's playing at about 25% and doesn't look arsed.

[aws]

I've said it before but sometimes you're greatest strength can be your greatest weakness.

 

When Gerrard is playing well he lifts the team to a level at which we can compete with anybody. When he plays poorly the effect is to drag us down to mediocrity because everybody looks to him, everything goes through him, he takes virtually every set-piece and the fluency of our game just collapses in the attacking third.

 

This dependency on him is in my opinion a major factor in us not putting in a title challenge until last season because his biggest weaknesses as a player are his inconsistency and his relatively poor injury record. You'll get 20 great performances from him over a league campaign when you'd probably be better off with 30 very good performances. This is partly why we've done better in Europe than at home.

 

Last season I thought he'd managed to find a new level of consistency and he nearly took us to the title. This season he has been consistently poor (by his standards) and the team performances are there to be seen. I know there are reasons why he's played poorly so I'm not pointing a finger of blame at him but you can't ignore the impact of having an undroppable, lynch-pin who isn't performing.

[Guest TK-421]

The most annoying aspect of all this is that it stems from playing for fucking England. Same goes for Torres/Spain.

 

Argh!

[Guest LFD]

He's a rose in amongst thorns.

 

He has to play with Carragher, Skrtel, The Greek, Insua, Degen, Lucas, Mascherano, Kuyt and Ngog - no wonder he is not playing well and looks unhappy.

[Guest TK-421]

Right, so it's all the other players' fault that Gerrard is injured and shit.

[The 5th Benitel]

This season's poor form for Gerrard makes me wonder how bad all of Rafa's teams would have been if he hadn't inherited him when he took over.

[shaunstrudwick]

I know there are reasons why he's played poorly so I'm not pointing a finger of blame at him but you can't ignore the impact of having an undroppable, lynch-pin who isn't performing.

 

i agree with this

[Skidfingers McGonical]

He's a rose in amongst thorns.

 

He has to play with Carragher, Skrtel, The Greek, Insua, Degen, Lucas, Mascherano, Kuyt and Ngog - no wonder he is not playing well and looks unhappy.

 

Right, your just being an arse now.

 

He's been shit all season. He was fucking awful last night, no urgency no motivating the team. He was shit with a capital S. The whole team were awful last night, but he was the worst.

 

He has just had a two game rest, he was put straight back into the team and stunk the place out. He had no excuse for not trying last night. None whatsoever.

 

He is not bigger than the club.

 

Rafa should not have picked him last night. He should have made him wait.

 

For the first time ever I was screaming at the telly for Rafa to take him off and put Aquilani on in his place.

[shaunstrudwick]

He has just had a two game rest, he was put straight back into the team and stunk the place out. He had no excuse for not trying last night. None whatsoever.

 

it doesn't change the fact that he shouldn't be playing

 

he's been a bit shit ever since the original injury

 

coincidence?

[Curly]

People need to have a word with themselves for turning on Gerrard in these times, especially the people on here who keep/kept saying, "You can't sack Rafa after one bad half to a season".

 

The lad has been the heart and soul of this club for the past 10 years or so. He's dragged us out of trouble and towards glory more times than I care to remember. We were, at the end of Houllier's reign, the closest I've seen to a one man team and we still managed finished in the Champions League places then mainly due to him. The way some people have staunchly defended Benitez on here, literally being appalled at his naysayers in the process, can lay into Stevie for the way things are is fucking ridiculous.

 

Redexile got it right in my eyes earlier when he pointed out the constant missing out of our midfield and hoofing hopeful long balls to the top, which they've become accustomed to because of 2 reasons, Stevie and Nando. They are the targets of Carra et al's eyes wide shut hit and hopes. They've probably realised there's no point giving it to Lucas because it'll only end up back with them 5 seconds later after he one-twos it with them or gives it a 10 yard square ball to Masch who then knocks it back. Unbelievable!

 

Talking about Lucas, I for one am right behind the lad. I don't think he's good enough to be started every week, but as a squad player he's perfect in terms of attitude and ability. He got ridiculous support when he was shite, and when I say he was shite, it wasn't Gerrard shite, it was pants down after a vindaloo shite. Why does Stevie not get the same support?

 

I've read on here that "we owe Rafa this" and "we owe Rafa that" after Istanbul and pushing us to "the next level", but surely even his most devout supporters could say that not even he has done for this club what Stevie G has.

 

Come on guys, a bit of perspective please!

[The 5th Benitel]

Right, your just being an arse now.

 

He's been shit all season. He was fucking awful last night, no urgency no motivating the team. He was shit with a capital S. The whole team were awful last night, but he was the worst.

 

He has just had a two game rest, he was put straight back into the team and stunk the place out. He had no excuse for not trying last night. None whatsoever.

 

He is not bigger than the club.

 

Rafa should not have picked him last night. He should have made him wait.

 

For the first time ever I was screaming at the telly for Rafa to take him off and put Aquilani on in his place.

 

 

I was screaming at him to take a defensive player off and put Aquilani on. You know, just so we could at least have as many attacking players as defensive ones on the pitch against one of the worst teams in the league.

 

I suspect Gerrard stayed on the pitch as Rafa knows he's saved him a fwe times before and that there isn't really anyone else who's shown they can do it. I mean, where would we have been over the last 5 years without Gerrard? I agree he shouldn't have played but it just shows the managers complete reliance on him over the time he's been here.