The Root Causes of Gerrard’s Poor Form

Steven Gerrard’s form, by his own admission, has not been what it should have been this campaign. There have been various issues this season that have prevented the Liverpool captain from playing at his best. Certainly his early season injuries have played a part in his season not really taking off and his absence from the team (as well as his presence in the team when not fully fit) coincided with the poor run of early season form for the club which has led to the current predicament with the team struggling to get fourth place. Certainly there were many other problems with the team earlier on in the season but the combination of these with Gerrard and Torres’s absence started a dip of confidence that hasn’t been fully recovered from. Something that Benitez has talked about only today:

“We were not doing well at the beginning (of the season) and we lost a bit of confidence because we couldn’t be contenders but you cannot change what has happened in the past… In two or three games you concede the gap is too big and then you cannot (change this) and you lose your confidence and that has been the situation this year. This season has been very difficult because expectation was too high and once we lost one or two games it was more difficult mentally for everyone. We have had too many injuries to important players but if you put all these players together and are fully fit we play much better.”

When Gerrard recovered fully from his injuries, he came into a team devoid of confidence and attacking ideas, and they looked to Gerrard solely for inspiration. Although Stevie is a fantastic player and players should look to him as captain to provide the creative impetus, he can only do so much. He is still just a footballer and when a player comes back into a struggling team after injury, it can be difficult for even the best of players to find the rhythm required to get back to their best. It is a lot of pressure on one man, especially when your strike partner and main attacking threat, Fernando Torres, is still out injured. Gerrard himself today, expressed the difficulty of finding top form.

“I think it can be better, if you look at my form through the season as a whole I am not totally happy, I have not reached the level I would like to be at. It is not worrying me as I still have confidence that it can switch and turn at any given time to where I would want it to be. I have played well this season but I have come out of games when I have not been totally happy.”

Hopefully in the last seven league games of the season, something will just click back into place, but it clearly hasn’t been easy for him this season. In the past, it was apparent that Xabi Alonso played an important role in linking the midfield to Gerrard and Torres, and Gerrard has said already this season that Liverpool will miss what the Basque brought to the team. Hopefully, if Rafa goes for it in the last seven matches and plays Aquilani as a regular starter, the link between midfield and attack may be restored, and we may just see the best of him and Torres. The return of Torres himself has already shown a rise of goal scoring opportunities for the Reds, as well as for Gerrard himself. It is critical component for Benitez in the run in as he has already highlighted the importance that the big players perform well in the final matches of the season.

If Liverpool really go for it in the last seven matches, I fully expect both Gerrard and the team’s form to improve markedly, and he will definitely get off nine goals which has been his worst return since the 2006/07 season. As the old adage goes, form is temporary but class is permanent, and although his form has been decidedly dodgy for the best part of the season, circumstances may have played more of a part than a general malaise he may be feeling about the team’s failure to challenge for the title. There is obviously a good part of him that feels frustrated about the lack of progress the team has made and psychologically it may have led him to perform at a lower level than he would have liked. It is probably affected him without him realising it sometimes but you can tell he is trying to give 100% for the team. In public, he hasn’t looked to criticise the manager, the players or the board, he has rather focused on his own form, and how he can do better for the team. Whether inside his head he is thinking the same thoughts is another matter, but I hope that it is the case and that this season is just a one off when injuries, confidence and loss of important players around him have played a crucial part in his loss of form.

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