Liverpool FC Forum

Showed some bottle putting away that first penalty, I could hardly watch, it's easy looking back now after a comfortable win and thinking it was never in doubt but at 0-0 and our title hopes on the line that took some serious nerve.

It's amazing to think, not so long ago, that some on here wanted Gerrard dropped!

I defy anyone to argue that he is not a world class player, the bloke reinvents himself every season.

If anyone deserves a title it's this guy. Been absolutely immense recently.

As a holding midfielder, Gerrard has more goals this season than Benteke, Negredo, Welbeck, Adebayor, Dzeko, Eto'o, and Soldado.

SouthCoastShankly » Mon Mar 17, 2014 5:03 am wrote:It's amazing to think, not so long ago, that some on here wanted Gerrard dropped!

I defy anyone to argue that he is not a world class player, the bloke reinvents himself every season.

I don't think anyone has ever questioned his ability with the ball at his feet, it's was his defensive contribution that worried people.
it's just a plain fact that he isn't athletic enough anymore to do what the likes of Hendo and Joe Allen do and early on in the season when he played further forward he was constantly letting runners just waltz by him into goal scoring positions (like Cazorla at Arsenal, Mirallas at Everton) but this move to a deeper role has definitely helped negate the weaknesses in his game.
Rodgers has done a great job by rotating the likes of Coutinho (or Sterling) with Joe Allen, depending on wether he feels Gerrard needs more protection in front of him or not and up to now he has called it just right.
Gerrard is a great, great player but there are players in our team slogging their guts out in order for us to have the luxury of playing a 33 year old in a 3 man midfield and to be fair to him he said as much himself in his post match interview.

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Mon Mar 17, 2014 11:42 am wrote:

SouthCoastShankly » Mon Mar 17, 2014 5:03 am wrote:It's amazing to think, not so long ago, that some on here wanted Gerrard dropped!

I defy anyone to argue that he is not a world class player, the bloke reinvents himself every season.

I don't think anyone has ever questioned his ability with the ball at his feet, it's was his defensive contribution that worried people.
it's just a plain fact that he isn't athletic enough anymore to do what the likes of Hendo and Joe Allen do and early on in the season when he played further forward he was constantly letting runners just waltz by him into goal scoring positions (like Cazorla at Arsenal, Mirallas at Everton) but this move to a deeper role has definitely helped negate the weaknesses in his game.
Rodgers has done a great job by rotating the likes of Coutinho (or Sterling) with Joe Allen, depending on wether he feels Gerrard needs more protection in front of him or not and up to now he has called it just right.
Gerrard is a great, great player but there are players in our team slogging their guts out in order for us to have the luxury of playing a 33 year old in a 3 man midfield and to be fair to him he said as much himself in his post match interview.

I have no problem with a midfield working for Gerrard. It enables us to play arguably the best dead ball delivery in the league, a quality penalty taker, one of a select few who can pick out any pass on the pitch, a big game player and finally an inspirational captain.

The pros far outweigh the cons

Quote of the fkg decade goes to Yakka    THE LUXURY OF PLAYING A THIRTY THREE YEAR OLD.......  Did he really say as much himself? It certainly wasn't the way I interpreted his comments. Just accept Yakka that you have written some awful stuff about Gerrard this season and at times it has been over the top. This is a poor effort to justify your previous comments !!!

devaney » Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:36 pm wrote:Quote of the fkg decade goes to Yakka    THE LUXURY OF PLAYING A THIRTY THREE YEAR OLD.......  Did he really say as much himself? It certainly wasn't the way I interpreted his comments. Just accept Yakka that you have written some awful stuff about Gerrard this season and at times it has been over the top. This is a poor effort to justify your previous comments !!!

What was the awful stuff? That he's a liability as a CM?
I think even Rodgers has worked that one out hence his new position in the team.
Gerrard is playing well now but that hasn't always been the case this season and we all know the main reason why we are doing so well, our midfield and defence are nothing special but our attack is.
Take away our attack and IMO we are mid table outfit.

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:54 pm wrote:

devaney » Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:36 pm wrote:Quote of the fkg decade goes to Yakka    THE LUXURY OF PLAYING A THIRTY THREE YEAR OLD.......  Did he really say as much himself? It certainly wasn't the way I interpreted his comments. Just accept Yakka that you have written some awful stuff about Gerrard this season and at times it has been over the top. This is a poor effort to justify your previous comments !!!

What was the awful stuff? That he's a liability as a CM?
I think even Rodgers has worked that one out hence his new position in the team.
Gerrard is playing well now but that hasn't always been the case this season and we all know the main reason why we are doing so well, our midfield and defence are nothing special but our attack is.
Take away our attack and IMO we are mid table outfit.

Surely Coutinho and Sterling are technically speaking midfield players so I'm not too sure why you regard our midfield as nothing special. And I'm sorry mate if you can't see that calling Gerrard a liability in CM is nothing other than an awful comment that totally lacks respect then we will have to agree to differ. Good that you acknowledged his brilliance yesterday.

devaney » Mon Mar 17, 2014 3:17 pm wrote:

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:54 pm wrote:

devaney » Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:36 pm wrote:Quote of the fkg decade goes to Yakka    THE LUXURY OF PLAYING A THIRTY THREE YEAR OLD.......  Did he really say as much himself? It certainly wasn't the way I interpreted his comments. Just accept Yakka that you have written some awful stuff about Gerrard this season and at times it has been over the top. This is a poor effort to justify your previous comments !!!

What was the awful stuff? That he's a liability as a CM?
I think even Rodgers has worked that one out hence his new position in the team.
Gerrard is playing well now but that hasn't always been the case this season and we all know the main reason why we are doing so well, our midfield and defence are nothing special but our attack is.
Take away our attack and IMO we are mid table outfit.

Surely Coutinho and Sterling are technically speaking midfield players so I'm not too sure why you regard our midfield as nothing special. And I'm sorry mate if you can't see that calling Gerrard a liability in CM is nothing other than an awful comment that totally lacks respect then we will have to agree to differ. Good that you acknowledged his brilliance yesterday.

For most of the season we played Gerrard, Lucas and Hendo in midfield, Coutinho's first game as a midfielder was the recent derby game.
Nice try to get some reflected glory onto our midfield though 

If Brian O'Driscoll at 35 can set records like he did, then Stevie G can do the same at 33...


(Totally unrelated post, just thought I'd bring in a glorious 6 Nations campaign !!)

SouthCoastShankly » Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:38 pm wrote:

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Mon Mar 17, 2014 11:42 am wrote:

SouthCoastShankly » Mon Mar 17, 2014 5:03 am wrote:It's amazing to think, not so long ago, that some on here wanted Gerrard dropped!

I defy anyone to argue that he is not a world class player, the bloke reinvents himself every season.

I don't think anyone has ever questioned his ability with the ball at his feet, it's was his defensive contribution that worried people.
it's just a plain fact that he isn't athletic enough anymore to do what the likes of Hendo and Joe Allen do and early on in the season when he played further forward he was constantly letting runners just waltz by him into goal scoring positions (like Cazorla at Arsenal, Mirallas at Everton) but this move to a deeper role has definitely helped negate the weaknesses in his game.
Rodgers has done a great job by rotating the likes of Coutinho (or Sterling) with Joe Allen, depending on wether he feels Gerrard needs more protection in front of him or not and up to now he has called it just right.
Gerrard is a great, great player but there are players in our team slogging their guts out in order for us to have the luxury of playing a 33 year old in a 3 man midfield and to be fair to him he said as much himself in his post match interview.

I have no problem with a midfield working for Gerrard. It enables us to play arguably the best dead ball delivery in the league, a quality penalty taker, one of a select few who can pick out any pass on the pitch, a big game player and finally an inspirational captain.

The pros far outweigh the cons

This is all true. His motivational and leadership skills and the fact that he's mentally the most capable player to lead the team to a title challenge make him unbenchable at the moment. He has started to play better in that deep role as well.

However, it's unobjective to deny that at one point during this season Gerrard was basically slowing us down and the lack of control in our midfield had a lot to do with how he was performing. It wasn't his ability that was in question though, it had more to do with his inability to fit in the system. Even those who were defending Gerrard thought that we should start thinking about replacing him but didn't think that we have the right personal at the moment.

IMO, Gerrard has upped his game a bit (talking about this season) because he has realized that we're in for a title challenge. Long may his form continue, but it's a bit unfair to say that it was "lack of respect" by those who questioned his contribution to the team because there were definitely grounds to do that.

bunglemark2 » Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:08 pm wrote:If Brian O'Driscoll at 35 can set records like he did, then Stevie G can do the same at 33...


(Totally unrelated post, just thought I'd bring in a glorious 6 Nations campaign !!)

Damjan - if you are happy for people to regard Gerrard as a liability and you don't feel that demonstrates a lack of respect for an absolute legend then you are welcome to your opinion. Forgive me if I don't share your views. In the not too distant past Gerrard has had to carry some thoroughly awful players who should never have been allowed anywhere near Anfield let alone playing for Liverpool FC. Thank goodness all that has changed and the lad is no longer having to do the work of three players and to be frank it is about time. I have no problem with constructive criticism but let's keep it real. I have stated on numerous occasions that there is a lot more to Gerrard than making a tackle or playing a killer pass.To be honest mate I think some people are a bit too quick to condemn certain players.Of course it is your absolute prerogative if you are content for that to be the case.

devaney » Tue Mar 18, 2014 9:51 am wrote:Damjan - if you are happy for people to regard Gerrard as a liability and you don't feel that demonstrates a lack of respect for an absolute legend then you are welcome to your opinion. Forgive me if I don't share your views. In the not too distant past Gerrard has had to carry some thoroughly awful players who should never have been allowed anywhere near Anfield let alone playing for Liverpool FC. Thank goodness all that has changed and the lad is no longer having to do the work of three players and to be frank it is about time. I have no problem with constructive criticism but let's keep it real. I have stated on numerous occasions that there is a lot more to Gerrard than making a tackle or playing a killer pass.To be honest mate I think some people are a bit too quick to condemn certain players.Of course it is your absolute prerogative if you are content for that to be the case.

You are obviously a bit of a Gerrard fanboy and a bit touchy over the subject, never mind I was like that myself over Kevin Keegan.
Gerrard in the centre of the park was a liability and he'd still be a liability now if Rodgers played him further forward where he has to do the type of running Hendo and Allen do, and as for disrespecting a legend give me a break, I've repeatedly said the Gerrard is the best player I've ever seen at Anfield and considering some of the players I've seen play for this club there's no higher praise than that.
This club has often fell into the trap of letting the legends play on for too long, Shankly admitted himself that he did it en-masse in the late 60's and the rebuild ended up so drastic that we didn't win a trophy for 6 years, I've seen fans roll their eyes and hold their head in their hands in despair when they've seen the likes of Phill Neal and even Kenny Dalglish's name on the team sheet.
Gerrard at the moment deserves his place in the side on merit and that's how it should be, once you start playing players because of what they did 3 or 4 years ago then you are on a very slippery slope indeed.
No matter how great a player you are you can't dodge the effects of Father Time, Maradona couldn't, Pele couldn't, Cruyff couldn't, Gerrard is now 33 and that is some age to be playing 90 minutes week in week out in the quickest, most physically demanding league on the face of the planet, especially for a midfielder.
Gerrard is managing to do that because Rodgers is protecting him.

bunglemark2 » Mon Mar 17, 2014 9:08 pm wrote:If Brian O'Driscoll at 35 can set records like he did, then Stevie G can do the same at 33...


(Totally unrelated post, just thought I'd bring in a glorious 6 Nations campaign !!)

Didnt win the triple crown though did you.