KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum The demise of Steven Gerrard - NOT

You are all deluded, the man is well past it, not only has he been bad this year people are forgetting he's been pretty bad for 2 seasons before this.

Lets get honest here, the man's a living legend and as a club we owe him alot. However this situation is an example of whats been wrong with LFC as a club for the last 20 years!!!! And that cancer is called SENTIMENT.

We need to face facts here..Gerrard is not the player he was at peak, and in all honesty his decline in last 2 years has been pretty steep, perpetuated by the fact that his standards for previous years have been incredible.

For me BR has to be brave and put Gerrard on the bench and pass the baton of responsibility to other players and let them grow and develop. Clear example is Lucas, in Gerrard's absence last year became out exceptional player of the year. That way we can actually develop the younger talent at the club.

Its SENTIMENT that screws our club, and we need to find that healthy balance with ruthlessness. Needs to be benched and do a CARRA, he can help develop our players in lots of other ways!

BTW - BR Still needs to be sacked, his record is now equal if not worse than Hodgson's and he got hounded out of our club.

Until we get a replacement, I'd still use him - Henderson, Allen, Shelvey just don't cut it yet.

No one is saying he is still the player he was like you suggest, but he still is the best we have.

I think Gerrard is just playing down his career, think he has accepted he will leave the game with no League Winners medal so is just playing within himself so as to preserve his body for Brazil 2014. He knows he needs to take care of himself so for that reason he won't be pushing himself...

Because he thinks England can win the World Cup?

you could be right. but he could also aspire to help the team to get 4th place.

y'know...could be an alternative to your perception of his thought process of "i don't think i'll win the league with liverpool so f**k them, i'll just sit here and take money from those pr1cks until i retire"

not so much that, just think captaining his country in Brazil of all World Cups will be one of the highlights of his career, win lose or draw, he has publicly said numerous times how proud he is playing for the three Lions...

Has he publicly said he'd put it ahead of Liverpool?

i would never want gerrard sold after all he has done for our club

I have posted this before but feel it's still relevant:

He's getting a little old, can't run around as much as he used to, and probably can't be expected to carry us singlehandedly as he sometimes did in his younger years. However, take into account the players playing alongside him, and the current Liverpool form. It must be difficult for him to get older and see the squad get weaker and weaker.

And for those saying we should bench him, who would you think should replace him? Sahin drifts in and out of games, Henderson seems to play better in the deeper role as opposed to a little upfront, and Shelvey seems to have gone of the boil a bit (understandable considering his age). A lineup of Shelvey, Henderson, and Allen, doesn't inspire confidence, and I'm not sure is going to see us create more scoring chances, atleast at this moment (but promising for the future), and replacing anyone of the above for Sahin doesn't make that much of a difference.

We need Gerrard right now because he seems to be the only midfield player capable of looking up and seeing openings, and just by his physical presence on the pitch it forces the opposition to drift a little and keep an eye on him. We may feel that what happened in the past shouldn't make a difference when we judge the form of players at this moment, but certainly for the opposition, it seems that his reputation still makes them think twice before leaving him open.

We need him because of the 100+ things that can't be measured but make a difference in the morale and confidence of a young squad playing under tremendous pressure that isn't easing away anytime soon. He's our captain, and though he may not be anywhere close to his best, it's not like any other midfielder has come in and shown him up as past his prime. We're disappointed because we've seen him play at rarified levels, but he's still had as good/bad a season as any other midfielder right now.

Captain of England, Captain of Liverpool, put on the bench as an impact player so the likes of Allen, Shelvey, Sahin, and Henderson can play ahead of him. There may come a time when the above mentioned players may be playing at such a consistently high level as to deem this argument as worth having. But now is certainly not the time.

Sterling is a great talent, and Suso has shown promise, and even Jose seems to have done his part in the left midfield position, but considering their age (or in the case of Jose, it being a new position for him) their movement is not up to par yet, and it's not so often that Gerrard looks up and sees wingers streaking on the sides in space, or a striker looking for the longball over the defence. A great pass is only as good as the movement that preceded it, and generally, Gerrard has been spot on in his passing whenever an opening is there for a long outfield pass. The only problem is when there is little movement ahead of him, he'll tend to force things, a tendacy that he had in his early years which was offset when players like Torres, Garcia, Kewell, Kuyt, Bellamy, Benayoun, Riera etc were the ones on the recieving end and were smart in their movement, and he played with Alonso behind him as the primary playmaker. Right now, we expect Gerrard to play as the Gerrard of old, without the above mentioned players creating movement in front of him.

Gerrard is not the reason why we concede so many goals, why we miss so many opportunities, or why a simple 1v2 attack is not converted into a goal. We have far more important issues to deal with in terms of the balance and consistency of the squad to be spending time discussing the need for Gerrard to be converted into an impact sub, or his relative lack of form this season.


That is all.

good post D&I.

don't forget though cos johnnydramax thinks we're all deluded so there's probably no point in thinking again.