Cut The Corner’s and Get Him In The Box, Brendan!

NUMBER one was a fantastic individual goal for Gerard Houllier against Sheffield Wednesday. Number fifty was a neat finish in a dire League Cup defeat at Crystal Palace. The Century came with a thundering drive from distance against PSV Eindhoven, somewhere within Rafa Benitez’s love affair with the Champion’s League. Number 150 was a tap in versus FC Gomel in Brendan Rodgers’ first home game in charge.

Should Steven Gerrard reach the milestone of a second century of goals, it will be fascinating to see under what circumstances it will fall. The goals listed above provide snapshots of the career of our famous captain and also remind us of various peaks and troughs in the club’s recent history.

Gerrard is without doubt within the best few players to ever play for Liverpool Football Club and within his 150 goals we have seen a wide variety of finishes. Stunning long range efforts, volleys, headers, penalties, free kicks, individual efforts, one on one’s, poachers goals. I’m sure all Kopites could come up with their own personal list of five or ten favourite Gerrard goals. (Actually, quite a difficult job).

‘Important goals’ should also have a category of its own, and there can be few players who have ever scored as many of those in a red shirt. The only player ever to have scored in League Cup, FA Cup, European Cup and UEFA Cup finals, the thought of him scoring a League Title clinching goal is one that would rank right up there with the most stunning moments of in the club’s illustrious history.

Going back to one category of goal in particular – headers, we have seen him score some great ones. Of course there is Istanbul, the brilliant diving header at Besiktas, the one where he climbed all over Dirk Kuyt to set us on our way in Eindhoven, a bullet against Wolves at Anfield from Insua’s cross, to name but a few.

The man is a fantastic header of a ball. And why not? At 6 feet tall and a truly exceptional all round footballer, there is no reason not to judge heading alongside all of his other remarkable skills.

So why, for the last six or seven years have we seen him either taking corners or standing on the edge of the box while someone else does? For many seasons, Liverpudlians have bemoaned the fact that the team rarely takes advantage of corners, yet the club’s most influential player is never in the mix.

Some might say he takes corners due to him being the best corner taker. In my opinion, taking corners is not one of Gerrard’s strongest skills. Sure, he puts in some dangerous ones as you would expect, but there is rarely anyone there to put them away.

Gerrard, with his superb heading ability and poachers instinct, should be in the penalty area every time. Defenders would not like to mark him for a start. Distractions caused for the opposition alone would be worth his inclusion in the goalmouth.
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Any professional footballer should be able to deliver a ball into the danger area from a corner kick. Therefore it shouldn’t matter who takes them instead of him. There is more chance of Gerrard taking advantage of an average ball into the box than there is of Lucas or little Borini (for arguments sake) reaching and converting a high quality ball. I’d rather have Djimi Traore spooning the ball into the air such is my belief that Gerrard should be in the box.

I’m sure somebody will correct me, but I can’t recall much evidence of Gerrard scoring from somebody else’s corner since the Treble season of 2000/01! A looping header at Olympiakos and a close range nod at Prenton Park are two examples from that wondrous season. Plus, for good measure, a thumping header from a Gary McAllister free kick in the League against Coventry showed his potential from set pieces.

Don’t get me wrong, if we have a free kick in a shooting position, there is nobody I would rather see stood over it. The number of direct free kicks or shots from those rolled into his path that have found the net is astounding. But during his remarkable rise to prominence and deserved inheritance of the captain’s armband, he clearly felt obliged to take control over as much as possible on the pitch.

We are all very grateful that he did so because who knows how the last few years would have gone if Mr Gerrard had not shown one hundred per cent application. However, I believe that the taking of corners is one job that he should pass on.

There are times when others take them and he stands on the edge of the area, loitering, waiting for the ball to fall his way to smash back towards goal, but surprisingly, this occurs rarely. A fine finish in the home drubbing by Chelsea in 2005 is a rare occasion when I can remember this happening, and even that required a gallop into the box to thrash home the loose ball.

But Gerrard’s skill in the danger area would not solely be confined to his heading ability. He is also very adept in the art of poaching. Many of his goals have come from following up rebounds and his excellence at reading the game allows him to anticipate where the ball might end up during goalmouth scrambles. His strength and very presence will cause problems enough for many teams, which can lead to chances falling to others and allow the likes of Skrtel, Agger and Carroll less attention from opposition defenders.

No doubt that after writing this piece, Gerrard will produce a pearl of a corner that someone will tuck away past an opposing keeper, but it has been my frustrated view that over the past few years and in the present day, glorious opportunities have been squandered in every match due to the lack of our number 8 being right in the opposition’s face.
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