Liverpool FC Forum

by **JC_81** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 10:13 am

Agree, don't want Stevie anywhere near that England captaincy. All the media horsesh.it that goes with it might hinder his game and at the very least it won't help it. He'll be 32 when the Euros come around and it's possible that by the time the next world cup comes he won't be an automatic starter at the age of 34. England should probably look to someone a bit younger if this is going to be a long term appointment. He's picking up more injuries as he gets older and it seems to take him longer to come back now than when he was younger. He needs to look after his body, but I suspect he'd grab the chance to captain England at the Euros unfortunately for us.

Just on the subject of Gerrard, what's your take on his game these days? Anyone starting to think his best days are behind him?

He's certainly not the force he was in his prime in my opinion, but it's difficult to judge as he's still coming back from a longterm injury and I'm still hoping that after a decent pre-season he might be back to his best next season. I think he's lost a yard of pace and he doesn't throw himself into tackles or burst into the box as often as he used to. Of course part of that could be that he's having to be more disciplined in his play without a quality holding midfielder alongside him - Jay Spearing/ Charlie Adam/ Jordan Henderson are no Mascherano/ Alonso or even Lucas to be fair.

His goalscoring form seems to be dipping too...

2004/05 - 13 goals in 43 appearances
2005/06 - 23 goals in 53 appearances
2006/07 - 11 goals in 51 appearances
2007/08 - 21 goals in 52 appearances
2008/09 - 24 goals in 44 appearances
2009/10 - 12 goals in 49 appearances
2010/11 - 8 goals in 24 appearances
2011/12 - 5 goals in 14 appearances (so far)

Interested to hear what you lot think of what we can expect from Gerrard over the next season or two.

by **red till i die!!** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 6:09 pm

its clear that we need to sign more quality in midfield.our over reliance on him is riduculous and injuries havent helped him either.
no surprising that 08/09 was his best goal return as we had the best midfield in the league then.the likes of alonso and masch gave us security and allowed stevie to sit forward behind torres.he wasnt expected to be sitting deep breaking up play.on the wings we had much better service then to from players like riera and believe it or not babel and pennant.all three of these were much better than whats currently occupying those roles now even though they werent everyones cup of tea they were still better.

gerrards best position is behind the striker,he will take players on and beat them to either create an opening for himself or someone else but unless we sign better players he wont have that luxury.the days of him running a mini marathon during games is gone and without him on the pitch the rest would struggle to penetrate a wet paper bag.
ill use scholes as an example,he doesnt do too much tracking back,the rest do it for him which allows him to concentrate on creating space to recieve the ball and then pull a few strings.he's like a new player for them and is playing well but even he would struggle in our midfield(not that id want him) with the rubbish that we have.
the lack of pace and quality is killing us and it has to be addresed in the summer.
with lucas coming back that will help but like the rest he struggles offensively to make things happen.
with a few decent players around him to pick up the slack stevie could easily match most strikers in this league for goals even in the next season or two.
at the moment we are hoping that the likes of henderson,downing,spearing and shelvey will come good for us but tbh that could be another 3 years away and will no doubt be too late for gerrard.

by **yckatbjywtbiastkamb** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 6:16 pm

as you say john he`s just come back from practically a calender year out of the game so it`s hard to guage exactly where his game is at at the moment.
last week he was abysmal, possibly one of the worst games he`s had in a red shirt but that can happen, every player has bad games, even the maradona`s and cruyff`s of this world had nightmares sometimes.
players are playing longer at the top level these days and gerrard could end up playing for us for another 6 or 7 years yet if the likes of giggs and scholes are anything to go by.
one thing certain though is that gerrard is not the one man army he used to be, he needs the players around him to step up to the plate as well.

by **Kenny Kan** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 3:11 am

Just on the subject of Gerrard, what's your take on his game these days? Anyone starting to think his best days are behind him?

Tough one. There are a few variables that make it hard to pin down a "take on his game", injuries to himself and the injury of Lucas won't give us a clear indication. But - it's probably fair to say he's lost that energy that used to underpin his game, even after fully recovering and playing more games in succession I think Stevie is the wrong side of 30 to produce the kind of performances that made him legend here.

He's playing deeper at the minute and that probably suits his body more but I don't think it suits his game as well, that's not to say he isn't effective where he is. Just that, we get more out of him IMO playing an advanced role but if his body is saying otherwise he may have to become accustomed to the orchestral role from deep. I thought he was shabby and labourous against the Mancs and walked more than he did run and the inspiration in him had gone, as it did the whole team. He's been decent in other games - without being standout and I would say his best days are behind him. He'll still play an important role in the side [I don't know how long for], I can't see him playing until he's Giggs's age - I don't think his body can cope as well, probably because of all the wear and tear he's done to his body in years gone by where he's single handedly won us game after game.

by **Dundalk** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 1:16 am

Back page of tomorrow Mirror

Gerrard says he felt suicidal after the 2005 league cup final

by **7_Kewell** » Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:29 am

Dundalk wrote:Back page of tomorrow Mirror

Gerrard says he felt suicidal after the 2005 league cup final

there was me thinking the CL final defeat in Athens was worse...

by **Dundalk** » Sun Feb 26, 2012 10:26 pm

Great to see him lift the cup today. IMO he is still not the player he was before his long layoff, wasn't great today and didn't stamp his authority on the game. The pen miss was just unlucky it was a great save

by **7_Kewell** » Sun Feb 26, 2012 11:42 pm

Dundalk wrote:Great to see him lift the cup today. IMO he is still not the player he was before his long layoff, wasn't great today and didn't stamp his authority on the game. The pen miss was just unlucky it was a great save

I think he's off form more than anything.

He's still quick, strong and capable to deal with the physical side of the game. Takle today for example; lads of 21 were limping around in extra time because their bodies were not able to keep up...yet Steve was still running around, chasing the ball and knocking 30 yard passes.

by **lakes10** » Sun Feb 26, 2012 11:45 pm

STEVEN GERRARD our new defender lol
he was so deep today at one time i was sure he was in goal

by **mart** » Sun Feb 26, 2012 11:54 pm

7_Kewell wrote:I think he's off form more than anything.

He's still quick, strong and capable to deal with the physical side of the game. Takle today for example; lads of 21 were limping around in extra time because their bodies were not able to keep up...yet Steve was still running around, chasing the ball and knocking 30 yard passes.

Imo he is just playing too deep atm. He is not as good playing like that.

by **jimmy brighton** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 12:16 am

mart wrote:
7_Kewell wrote:I think he's off form more than anything.

He's still quick, strong and capable to deal with the physical side of the game. Takle today for example; lads of 21 were limping around in extra time because their bodies were not able to keep up...yet Steve was still running around, chasing the ball and knocking 30 yard passes.

Imo he is just playing too deep atm. He is not as good playing like that.

Kenny must have told him to play deep because Adam aint gonna play the DM role is he? It didn't work at all. Although we had serious bouts of dominance we still struggled. However. we won and thats all that counts. In a couple of days the performance will be forgotten about and its our name thats on the cup YNWA

by **Penguins** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 12:19 am

Well, he has to adapt cause Adam is ****!

by **jimmy brighton** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 12:24 am

Penguins wrote:Well, he has to adapt cause Adam is ****!

He aint sh*t coz he has quality. Just at the mo he has limited quality. Until he becomes fully fledged that is

by **yckatbjywtbiastkamb** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 12:39 am

jimmy brighton wrote:
mart wrote:
7_Kewell wrote:I think he's off form more than anything.

He's still quick, strong and capable to deal with the physical side of the game. Takle today for example; lads of 21 were limping around in extra time because their bodies were not able to keep up...yet Steve was still running around, chasing the ball and knocking 30 yard passes.

Imo he is just playing too deep atm. He is not as good playing like that.

Kenny must have told him to play deep because Adam aint gonna play the DM role is he? It didn't work at all. Although we had serious bouts of dominance we still struggled. However. we won and thats all that counts. In a couple of days the performance will be forgotten about and its our name thats on the cup YNWA

we showed a bit of bottle there today, massive favourites have been beaten in cup finals before like leeds v sunderland, united v southampton, us v wimbledon, united v sheff wed etc etc and even last year with arsenal and birmingham.
after hitting the bar early on, going a goal down, having efforts cleared off the line, the ref giving them a lot of cheap free kicks, having a couple of penalty shouts turned away, conceding an equaliser in the last minute of ET and missing our first 2 pens you wouldnt have blamed our players for thinking that this wasnt our day and cardiff`s name was on the cup.
there have been liverpool sides in the last 20 years that would have thrown the towel in mentally today believing the fates were conspiring against them.

by **Kerry07** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 3:41 am

lakes10 wrote:STEVEN GERRARD our new defender lol
he was so deep today at one time i was sure he was in goal

Bingo.

He was out of position. No Lucas meant he had to play that deep (theres no-one else anywhere near good enough). Had Lucas played today, Gerrard would have been positioned 30 yards further upfield, the hole, his natural position.

Delighted for Stevie to lift a trophy at Wembley. Another great memory in an incredible career.

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