Liverpool FC Forum

[Bam]

I personally believe Rafa would never be able to go with the pragmatic approach he does at LFC if Gerrard wasnt in the side. Rafa would have to adopt a more attack minded side together and not lay much of the emphasis on defending and working without the ball shutting players down.

Simply if Gerrard didnt play in a Rafael Benitez side under Rafa's pragmatic approach we would be scraping to fourth, as we're nowhere near clinical enough, creative enough. Take Gerrard out of the side and we'd have racked even more draws this season than we have.

This is where I still dont think Rafa has found the right balance between defending efficiently, and attacking fluently breaking teams down. We find ourselves effective at one and toothless at the other, take Gerrard already out of an inefficent attack and I believe we'd struggle for fourth.

Mascha, Alonso, Lucas, Kuyt even Riera arent game breakers and although Torres is, you cannot rely on him only and he needs a creative supply line to feed off.

[Bam]

Sky just reported that Steve will be out for 3 weeks.

There goes the title then, sorry but that is a FACT!

I bet you just did a sex wee you muppet.

[Toffeehater]

No players is bigger than the club well stevie is , feck knows where we'd be without him . .

[meissler]

I think the simple answer to the question is we'll see over the next couple matches.

[access]

I think personally Steve is the heart of the whole team ... and I think he is a huge loss now and when he finally hangs his boots up ..

What I am possibly more concerned about is the ''3 weeks'' statement about a torn hamstring my mate is a physio and says it would possibly be 5 to 6 weeks at a push .. I think shrek has taken 5 weeks to get back because the injury can be damaged even more by progressing with the injury.

The second serious tournament injury involves the hamstring, the thick muscle at the back of the thigh that bends your knee and lifts your leg backwards and upwards.

The hamstring lengthens and acts like a brake when the quads muscle at the front of the thigh contracts to straighten the knee.

If the hamstring is weaker than the quads it can be overloaded during sprinting and may tear or rupture.

This is not a career-threatening injury but recovery from a hammie tear takes about six to eight weeks and a ruptured hamstring may require an operation to repair the torn fibres.

This was taken from the Times online today:

Gerrard’s injury is similar to that suffered by Fernando Torres while on international duty with Spain in October, since when the forward has started only four of Liverpool’s 17 league matches. Torres has had a series of slight setbacks in his rehabilitation — and is perceived by the club to be some way from full fitness as he continues a personal programme to strengthen his hamstrings — so the loss of Gerrard to a similar injury is causing concern at Anfield.

I dont really know but this is a setback whatever we say on here.

[ConnO'var]

I think personally Steve is the heart of the whole team ... and I think he is a huge loss now and when he finally hangs his boots up ..

What I am possibly more concerned about is the ''3 weeks'' statement about a torn hamstring my mate is a physio and says it would possibly be 5 to 6 weeks at a push .. I think shrek has taken 5 weeks to get back because the injury can be damaged even more by progressing with the injury.

The second serious tournament injury involves the hamstring, the thick muscle at the back of the thigh that bends your knee and lifts your leg backwards and upwards.

The hamstring lengthens and acts like a brake when the quads muscle at the front of the thigh contracts to straighten the knee.

If the hamstring is weaker than the quads it can be overloaded during sprinting and may tear or rupture.

This is not a career-threatening injury but recovery from a hammie tear takes about six to eight weeks and a ruptured hamstring may require an operation to repair the torn fibres.

This was taken from the Times online today:

Gerrard’s injury is similar to that suffered by Fernando Torres while on international duty with Spain in October, since when the forward has started only four of Liverpool’s 17 league matches. Torres has had a series of slight setbacks in his rehabilitation — and is perceived by the club to be some way from full fitness as he continues a personal programme to strengthen his hamstrings — so the loss of Gerrard to a similar injury is causing concern at Anfield.

I dont really know but this is a setback whatever we say on here.

Thanks for the info, access..... good points and learnt something new today.

[Owzat]

Think we would be fighting it out with villa BS and arsenal for 4th place . Gerrard is the best player in the prem and the most complete midfielder in the world - you just cant replace him

Can't disagree, he's our top scorer and scoring nearly every other game this season. He made little significant contribution in our win over the mancs, but that was won without Torres as well - our best performance of the season IMHO

Gerrard 2008/09

Appearances : 32
Goals : 15
Goals/app : 0.469
Yellow Cards : 4

With Gerrard : P32 W19 D11 L2 (Won 59.4%)
W/O Gerrard : P5 W2 D2 L1 (Won 40.0%)

His goals have been crucial :

With Gerrard's Goals : P37 W21 D13 L3 (Won 56.76%)
W/O Gerrard's Goals : P37 W17 D12 L8 (Won 45.95%)

If that were a league season the points would be (with one game to go) 76 with Gerrard compared to 63 without. Fair enough some of those goals he's scored were penalties, like the equaliser against Atletico, but you don't score that many goals and not be a crucial part of the side. Don't forget that's only goals, doesn't include assists and his driving force come influence over the game.

Anyone reckoning we could have done the same with Lucas or Plessis or anyone else in the side is perhaps on the shorts too early for a Friday

[bigmick]

I think personally Steve is the heart of the whole team ... and I think he is a huge loss now and when he finally hangs his boots up ..

What I am possibly more concerned about is the ''3 weeks'' statement about a torn hamstring my mate is a physio and says it would possibly be 5 to 6 weeks at a push .. I think shrek has taken 5 weeks to get back because the injury can be damaged even more by progressing with the injury.

The second serious tournament injury involves the hamstring, the thick muscle at the back of the thigh that bends your knee and lifts your leg backwards and upwards.

The hamstring lengthens and acts like a brake when the quads muscle at the front of the thigh contracts to straighten the knee.

If the hamstring is weaker than the quads it can be overloaded during sprinting and may tear or rupture.

This is not a career-threatening injury but recovery from a hammie tear takes about six to eight weeks and a ruptured hamstring may require an operation to repair the torn fibres.

This was taken from the Times online today:

Gerrard’s injury is similar to that suffered by Fernando Torres while on international duty with Spain in October, since when the forward has started only four of Liverpool’s 17 league matches. Torres has had a series of slight setbacks in his rehabilitation — and is perceived by the club to be some way from full fitness as he continues a personal programme to strengthen his hamstrings — so the loss of Gerrard to a similar injury is causing concern at Anfield.

I dont really know but this is a setback whatever we say on here.

As Conn says, that's a good post mate. Welcome to the forum, very informative that.

[Rorschach26]

BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD

[KennyisGod....still]

I have absolutely no doubt that the one player we're gonna find hard to replace is SG, but eventually we will have to face that prospect. And judgin by what I'm readin here  so will half the damn fans professin to be Liverpool supporters. I agree wholeheartedly that without our skipper the next few games will be tough as fu.ck but I also believe that (rightly or wrongly) some members of the team play better when SG is nowhere to be seen.

I aint lookin forward with any relish to the next few games, as I doubt most of us are. Thing is, the next coupla PL matches could have been much worse than a strugglin Pompey and Citeh. Lets be honest, had it been March 6th instead of Feb 6th then we'd be potentially far worse off. These are games that historically Rafa would have been utilizin his rotation plans, and there's no GUARANTEE that SG or Torres would have started in either if not both. Squad players, seasoned internationals and fringe players alike have to stand and raise their game, earn the red shirt......

As far as the threads concerned Gerrards so important it's impossible to quantify - if Kaka's worth in excess of 100million then to us Gerrard's priceless. His attitude, effort, determination and drive alone make him currently irreplaceable, but some day thats gotta change - the sooner we realise and accept it the better. Even better if his team-mates accept it too.

[Madmax]

Lets just hope we will gain maximum from both games without our gem... Time for some of the other lads to step up a gear and show some passion for the club. Feckin show that we want to win the title...

[Owzat]

What odds he has to travel to Spain to prove he's injured? :rolleyes:

[Owzat]

Didn't miss him one bit on Saturday..............................

[GYBS]

Oh dear it looks like it is half term time and the kids are out to play - well done you for such an insightful post.

[GYBS]

Oh good there is two of them - maybe you two can stop tugging on each others little willys and go grab yourself a life.