YET another international tournament comes around and yet again the old debate comes to the fore. Why hasn’t Steven Gerrard retired from international football? Since he made his debut against Ukraine all those years ago, the skipper has paid the price for being too ‘versatile’.
He has been shunted around to accommodate players like Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry in recent years. Yet, he still continued on playing and accepting the shoddy treatment. He has played in pointless friendlies and got stupid injuries meaning he has missed vital games for his club.
The answer to all of this is that he loves playing for England. It has always been his dream to represent his national side, along with playing and winning silverware for Liverpool of course. At the moment, he sits on 93 caps and is also captain of the side. If he carries on for the next couple of years, he will join David Beckham on 100 caps. It will be a magnificent feat, especially if he does it as captain. As well being captain when he reaches 100 caps, Steven has also become one of the few players to captain England at both a World Cup and European Championship.
But, all of this may come at a price. It has been no secret that he has become very injury prone in the past few seasons. Several groin and ankle problems were his bête noire and it seemed to affect his ability to play in 2 games a week. Surely giving up England would enable him to prolong his Liverpool career.
Many Reds have made the comparison to Paul Scholes. Whilst I hate to give anyone from Manchester United any credit whatsoever, it is clear that his retirement from England duty in 2004 helped him to prolong his career playing in a deeper role. I am of the opinion that Gerrard is more effective further forward and his career stats prove this theory correct. If he retires from international duty, he could perhaps preserve his energy and give the team more performances like his stunning performance in the Merseyside derby in which he scored twice.
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If Gerrard doesn’t give up England, what are the alternative options for Brendan Rodgers in his first season as manager? As we all know, Stevie cannot play 3 games in a week, so surely Europa League games would be out of the question for the skipper? Well, until the latter stages that is. Perhaps the unthinkable could happen and he could be moved further away from goal? He has been played in a limited role for England lately but that has proved ineffective. There are only a few possibilities for the new manager on this issue.
But, can you really blame him for sticking it out? If I was in his position, and was in the position to play for my country 100 times and captain them in the process, I would carry on. As has been said numerous times, it is a huge honour and one you cannot deny him for grabbing with both hands. In the highly unlikely event that England go all the way in the European Championships he will be two caps away from the feat. Even if that doesn’t happen, he could conceivably get there by this time next year. From a selfish point of view we’d all like him to retire and focus on Liverpool Football Club, but, unfortunately it won’t happen in the foreseeable future.
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