Interesting article, however gerrard is as versatile as a can opener and good for only one thing. Cutting a defence.
Have to dissagree with you Redeagle. I think any position Stevie G plays in hes very effective. His best position is definetly centre of the park but hes played out of his skin at right full, right side of midfield and just behind the lone striker. I think the boy plays every game like its his last and I for one would never want to see him with another club. Hes like Owen Hargreaves....only Stevie G can play ball, ha ha
oh he certainly is very talented. However we have been trying to accommodate him for some time now under rafa. In the centre he doesn't really control the play for us like alonso can do. But rafa does like to have a mean defence so we always have at least one defensive minded player in there (momo, masch) hence why gerrard was pushed out wide. He did pretty well from there, however it does force us to go either through the middle or out left an awful lot. Basically where ever he plays in the midfield its always going to slightly unbalance the team to an extent. Its clear he is more comfortable and better off just behind torres where he can roam and we still have 4 mf's doing their stuff (apart from kuyt)
i would have to agree with the statement.i've always felt stevie g could and shold have been a better player than roy keane,who we all know was exceptional in the central midfield roll.keane used to grab games by the scruff and drive his team on.patrolling that area in front of the back 4 when need,starting play from the same area taking the ball from the back four(similar to alonso)and making simple but effective forward passes.and also driving forward when his team need him most.he just inspired his team mates.never scores loads of goals but he did get his share.this is were i think stevie g had the edge on keane.imo stevie g could do all of the above but he could also score more goals than keane.thats why i think between houlier and benitez they have moulded stevie into the wroong type of player,as happened with heskey and mcateer. personally i think stevie g should have been left in the central midfield roll to develop in the same mould as keane.but houlier started to play him too deep and then too far forward and benitez started to play him on the right wing and also too far forward. if you watch stevie g now he does'nt track as far back as he used to.sometimes he just leaves it to the other midfielders.also he gives possition away far too easily trying the killer ball.just my thoughts.
Gerrard is an attacking midfielder he's never been a player that can pull the strings in central midfield and his game has more in common with Paul Scholes (except Stevie can tackle) than Keane who he has been compared with on this thread. Gerrard is know for these bursting midfield runs scoring spectacular goals from the edge of the box but he's not a Masch who I would compare to Keane in that his job was to break up play and lay the ball off to the creative midfielder. Gerrards best season in a Liverpool shirt was the season when he was played wide right something Rafa keeps reminding everyone about. Could Gerrard and Masch work as a CM partnership full time? I dont know, Stevies proclivity for pushing forward leaving Masch exposed could be why Rafa prefers the Masch/Alonso partnership that would have been the Masch/Barry partnership had that transfer come off which shores up the midfield. One thing is for certain going to the press and making comments like these isnt going to make Rafa stick him back in his preferred position.
i know it was a few weeks back but that article really gets me pi##ed off.What purpose did it serve only to give his many media friends an oppurtunity to bash Rafa over his playing in certain positions. He is a wonderful player who is capable of special things but he is not an orthodox centre midfielder and never will be.He doesnt do the hard graft of a masch and doesnt possess the vision for pass thats not a 40 yard "killer"ball,playing the short give and go is not his game. He is not a Roy Keane but more a Kaka and thats where is so effective.The captain of Liverpool should not be in one of the most read sunday papers complaining about his position and telling people he looked Rafa in the eye and told him he wanted to play cm.Bad form in my opinion.
Pictures of every one of Gerrard's 99 goals (some of them bring back some great memories) : http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footb...s-100th-come-against-everton-115875-20754381/
> "I told him that the way I like to play, you get the most out of me when I’m box-to-box, defending at one end, throwing in tackles, then getting my passing game going and getting to the edge of the box for shots. I find it difficult to play how I want to in the other positions. Rafa told me, when the Robbie Keane deal went through, that his plan was to play Keane behind Torres and to drop me back to play centrally." This bit of info is insightful and ties in with the 4-4-2 formations for most of the games this season and the switch from 4-2-3-1. However, we have not been as effective at the 4-4-2 as we were at the 4-2-3-1. Also, Stevie's best attributes are not defending as he cant be box-to-box when we come up against the difficult teams. He admits that with his comments about Butt. Alonso or Masch on those occasions cant do the defending on on their own ala Makelele, but as a pair they can and are a strong obstruction, but that leads us back to a 4-2-3-1 with Stevie in the centre of the 3. Stevie is a great player, but I think he is deluding himself and will leave gaps if he tries to play box-to-box in the big games. He is great at going forward but there is a price for that. he just cant be in two places at once. Redspider