KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Gerrard question.

well made post, not sure i agree with it all though. in relation to the closing points, i cant remember the last time he saved us, or inspired anyone on the pitch. i think he might be doing the opposite on the latter. he certainly is a terrific professional, no doubt, carries himself very well and loves the club...... but isnt that the exact pre requisite for the job of club embassador?

dont get me wrong, i dont think he is finished and certainly not the worst player at the club, but i do question his influence on the pitch, and for a while i have failed to see the passion of old. if you cant fire yourself up, you cant fire up those around you.

i also think that rather than being "mr team", he is "mr i have to win this by myself". not his fault because often the second title has been the truth. but he is struggling to blend into a team. its either the gerrard show or not much at all.

continue and you may lose your account.

It's a tricky question. I think one poster was very unfair to Gerrard. I bet you the players that have played under him as captain over the last 5/6 years would tell you he was an astonishingly good captain not just a great player. He used to inspire the whole team to push on.

There is this idea, not sure if its right or wrong, that the team plays less as a team with him around, and certainly a lot of play goes through him, but I believe that is because like with suarez, he has considerably more quality in delivering a pass and seeing a player/run.

I do think some players pull more weight when stevie isn't around, but I just don't think we can afford to lose him as his quality and vision far surpasses Kuyt, Hendo, Shelvey, Adam, Downing, Carroll, etc etc. Funnily enough, the only other person who seems genuinely on suarez' wavelength most of the time (other than Gerrard) is maxi. He gets slated, but I don't know he doesn't play more. He is much cleverer than downing. Not as fast, but far far smarter with the ball.

You make some valid points, but again, I disagree the one-man show bit. His dynamism makes it appear that way, but one of his strongest points is his ability to make a killer pass, to create a chance that makes his partners look good.

Case and point is Fernando Torres. With Gerrard's passes Torres is the most feared striker in the world, setting the league and Europe alight, scoring as many as 33 goals in a single season. At Chelsea, he's scored 7 total. That is no coincidence.

Gerrard needs the correct partners to function in the role we know him for, but he works very well with technical forward like Torres, deep-lying passers like Alonso, and most importantly holding midfielders like Hamman, Masch, and Lucas.

He is a creator, a game changer, and an inspirer. You don't remember him saving us? You must be thinking of a different player. What about his header in Istanbul that suddenly put us back in the game? What about his 30 yard drive against West ham in the FA cup final? Those are just 2 big ones that stick out in my mind, but he has saved us more times than I can count or remember.

When he comes onto the pitch, even now with age, injuries, and missing personnel doing their terrible work, he injects quality that is unseen without him, his torrid performance at Wigan aside. Take our first game against the scum this season. We're playing like [oops], but suddenly he comes on and we start attacking with venom and his freekick puts us ahead. We should have won, but without him we would have certainly lost. His penalties (in both legs) are what put us (and kept us) ahead of City in the League cup this year, arguably our most crucial fixtures that we've won all year. Look at his goals against Newcastle and Everton and you can see the quality is still there, although he's had a hard season. Players like Carroll, Suarez, even Downing and Henderson play better with him there. It's no coincidence that Downing's only goal against PL opposition was from a Gerrard ball. And look at the games Gerrard, Suarez, and Carroll have started together and see how much better we've done.

In terms of vocal inspiration, I'll leave this quote to speak for me: “When I die, don't bring me to the hospital. Bring me to Anfield. I was born there and will die there.” -Steven Gerrard.

Also, look at what young players like Carroll and Coates have to say about playing with him and how he inspires them:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress...91332859476634A

He is quiet on the pitch, but I honestly think leading by example is better than being too vocal like Carra who is sometimes helpful, but sometimes he just yells at people and does more harm than help (like with Skytrel).

Look at standout captains at other top clubs: RVP, Kompany, Vidic. None of them are the loudest, particularly RVP. But look what he's done for Arsenal this year, not just in terms of goals (which in itself is incredible), but in terms of carrying the team on his back and leading them out of the jaws of death. He isn't terribly vocal, but he leads them, and he leads them far better than Fabregas did. Great leaders are men of action, not necessarily men with loud mouths.

I'm not sure that Carra harms Skrtel because of his yelling, but rather their failed partnership is because Skrtel just isn't cut out to play on the left of the defence and Carra isn't good enough at this level anymore.

My belief (and I've had it a very, very long time) is that Gerrard is only good as a captain because he is inspirational as a player. When he has off days the club tends to have off days, when he defends deep and can't get into the game then then team can't get into the game either. The last time I saw him grab a game by the scruff of the neck was against Napoli at Anfield in December 2010, at 1-0 down at half time and facing elimination from the EL group stage. *That* is the kind of situation in which Gerrard excels - chips stacked against us, must win game, bang. Same for Istanbul and most of the other European nights in 04/05. Same for the FA Cup final in 06. Same for that title run in 08/09 - we were devastating in the first half of the season mainly because we always conceded first, and then we went totally off the boil after his arrest. Only once he got himself back into the right frame of mind did we start winning again, but by then the title was gone. A lot of people blame Rafa for his "facts" rant, but I think that's because the media is too scared to blame England's own (and would rather pick on the foreigner they already hated).

The rest of the time, especially against teams that aren't threatening and we just need patience rather than brilliance, Gerrard is just another player, and the people around him can't get into the mood. Unless he has someone else to drive him on, to allow him to be the spearhead, and for me that player was Hammaan and then Alonso. He (and we) have generally been poor without such a midfield partner for him - and have often been better when he didn't play.

I agree thundyr, I've also said this a while back about Skrtel, he does not like playing as the left sided CB and makes many mistakes from there. He is much more comfortable on the right side.

excellant post.i'm afraid as always we as lfc let our heart rule our head over legends.we would rather watch something wither and die because of status rather than make healthy proactive decisions.at the moment and i don't see it changing in the near future he is not really the man for his job to inspire and lead us and it will probably be like thet until he decides to retire.god help the manager who strips the captainacy or leaves him on the bench when fit.after saying all that he still provides great nights everton hat trick.however moyes put out a [oops] team to ensure fa cup.they play us in semis and that will be much tougher than anfield oh and they are still on track to take us over in the league sorry rambled at the end

I think the injury to Lucas is when we began to come unstuck properly. Lucas allowed the others to express themselves more, hence the better football at the start of the season.