Steven Gerrard, a man who has been one of Liverpool’s key players for the past decade, is finally back in the first team. After six months out due to injury, Gerrard recently made his return as a substitute in the League Cup clash with Brighton & Hove Albion, before further encouraging cameo appearances against Wolves and Everton.
There is no doubt that his return is a huge boost to Liverpool FC. However, it does throw up some intriguing questions. Where will he play? Who will make way for him? Since Kenny Dalglish’s return to Anfield as manager, Gerrard has been available for eight times, and now the boss has some decisions to make.
In recent years, Gerrard was a fixture in the team playing off the front man, for many years supporting Fernando Torres. This was part of a 4-2-3-1 formation that Rafa Benitez stuck to almost religiously. Nowadays, Liverpool are much more tactically versatile, and have much greater strength in depth. Towards the back end of last season, and at the beginning of this, the Reds have been playing 4-4-2, with Lucas Leiva and Charlie Adam occupying the centre of midfield, where Gerrard is most likely to fit in.
Lucas is the more established player, and perhaps compliments Gerrard’s style of play better. He also has much more experience playing alongside him, so it may be that at first the Liverpool skipper is brought in at the expense of Adam. Another possible option would be to take out one of the strikers, and have Gerrard playing just behind one man up front. At the moment, Luis Suarez is in ‘un-droppable’ form, which would mean that Andy Carroll would be demoted to the bench.
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Too much backpassing,the thing that charaterised us at Spurs in London,If we can try to compress teams,then we would be on the right way to European crowns!!!!!!
Well I disagree with “Adam, Lucas and Henderson are all fit and firing”. Lucas is fine but I am not yet satisfied with Adam and Henderson. I expect more to come from them. If Gerrard can go back to anywhere near his best then he can replace anyone in the team no question asked.
I agree, the only one of those three that should be an sure starter is Lucas. Henderson seems to be lost most of the time he is out there, fairly non-existant. Adam has yet to back his reputation and is the most obvious as a back-up to Gerrard. Kuyt should start ahead of Henderson and let Gerrard roam and create in front of Lucas.
4-3-1 will be right for us.
Think it’s unlikely gerrard will start b4 kuyt based on fitness. Don’t think he has a problem coming on last 20mins or so and mgr hs used him effectively this way this far. I wd favor starting adam and bringing Steve on later as required