This article is by James Atkinson from our partner site Football Fancast. Make sure to check out the latest football blogs and news at FFC – ed
Steven Gerrard is more than a player for Liverpool. He is Mr. Liverpool. He can pick the team up from the brink of defeat and propel them to victory. Just ask AC Milan… and Olympiakos… and West Ham. But with concern and worry abound at his absence at the weekend, despite the Anfield outfit playing at home against basement dwellers West Ham, has his injury in fact been a blessing in disguise for Liverpool, and particularly their much maligned midfielders?
I’ll set the record straight, I am not in any way suggesting that Liverpool can do without Gerrard. If they lost him to long term injury, or heaven forbid, a transfer, it would devastate the side in more ways than one. However, with the way Liverpool ably swept aside West Ham at the weekend, with their midfield personnel including Maxi Rodriguez, Christian Poulsen and Raul Meireles (all players who have been strongly criticised), Has the absence of a man so heavily relied upon by Liverpool FC, in fact been beneficial to these characters? In my opinion, in the short term, yes, for both club and the aforementioned players.
West Ham were awful, there is no hiding from that fact, but you can only beat what is put out in front of you and Liverpool applied themselves to the task with vigour, especially in the first half, and brushed the east Londoners aside. The lack of Gerrard’s presence affected the other midfielders in one of two ways; first it put more responsibility on to their shoulders, there was no hiding behind captain marvel, and second, it allowed them to play their own game with some freedom. Understandably the Liverpool midfield is based around Gerrard. So in his absence they could play with a freedom rarely afforded to them, and Poulsen, Maxi and Meireles grabbed the opportunity with both hands, with all of them performing ably.
So while Gerrard’s long-term absence would be deeply felt in a team not exactly brimming with confidence, his short-term absence may well be beneficial for those around him.
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The facts are outstanding player that he is. Gerrard is a liability in the centre of midfield. His passion to get foward leaves gaps and means our midfield tends to lose control of the game which then becomes end to end football. I’m still unsure where Stevie best position is.
Maxi and Meireles played ok but Poulson was as bad as ever so to Koncheski.
We should be operating with a 3 man central midfield, to give Gerrard/Meireles/Cole/Lucas more license to push up safe in the knowledge that they have cover behind them, and to offer more protection to the man operating as our anchor man.
Rodriguez is a waster though – if the whole team is on dominant form, he’ll look OK, but he won’t actually help the team into a dominant position. Madrid dumped him off for a reason; he’s sh!te!!
Sometimes I do think that gerrard over awes other players when he is in the team but surely the more experienced players like maxi and poulson should take this in their stride tho unfortunately they don’t and I don’t think ever will! That said, I’m quite happy with a pairing of Lucas and meireles when stevie is not there because the balance seems right. 1st choice for me tho is stevie and raul with cole infront and Lucas as back up. These 3 with a bit of width and creativity down the flanks in my view is a match for anyone.
I also agree that maxi is a complete passenger in games and is taking the place of someone who we could afford the odd mistake ..shelvey and Pacheco for example. Get rid I say and put babel in his suitcase! Poulson can stay, but only cos I want to see his bird on matchday!
Unrelated I know but just watched a generally good performance against spurs, though the ref was poor and maxi and Torres need to reach down have a rummage and find a pair! What stood out though was Roy. We go 2-1 down with 3 mins to go and leans back puts his feet up and does nothing. Harry makes a change and we do sod all. Babel and jova apparently only there to keep seats warm. Roy has to go and he can take konchesky with him. He is one of the worst buys in a while lacking pace or ability, just like roy’s mind!!!