Just One More, Steven

This is the one. The one he’s been waiting for. Fifteen years, 664 games and 173 goals for Liverpool FC. Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup. Memorable games and memorable goals. Moments; for him, for LFC, for the city of Liverpool and for the fans all over the World. Moments he helped create or created all by himself; moments that created the living legend and shaped the captain he is today.

But this is potentially the biggest one of them all; the one that can elevate him to immortality. I say potentially because everything doesn’t hinge on this one game, even though it feels that way. It’s the game we have been whispering about for some time now; the game we have been glancing towards when looking at the remaining fixture list and predicting. Dreaming of those big moments; those that define a season and sometimes even more.

When Steven Gerrard leads his army of eleven down the Anfield tunnel on Sunday it will simply be the case of one more. One more defining moment in a fantastic career. One more to look back on. One more for us to talk about. For him though, I don’t think it will be that big a deal. It’s just what he does now.

Something has changed within the club over the last eighteen months, and it seems to have changed Steven Gerrard for the better. He has often had something about him, as if he didn’t quite enjoy himself. Football has sometimes looked like an ordeal to him, like he was driven more by the fear of failure than anything else. Like the collective expectations that come with the territory of representing Liverpool Football Club – the weight of the shirt – were all placed on his strong shoulders.

The difference between him and most others is that he accepted the weight. He accepted the responsibility. He accepted carrying our dreams with him. When he could have taken the easy way out, he didn’t. He stayed. He continued carrying us.

Now is the time for him to take what is his. Now is the time to take one big step towards the big reward. The biggest of them all; the one he hasn’t won yet. The moment he is yet to experience. The one he had given up on.

Manchester City have already won it. Vincent Kompany, Yaya Touré, David Silva and Sergio Agüero – they have all done it. They have all felt something he hasn’t, and now they all stand in his way; between him and that one thing. And I think that will be deciding factor in this title race.

I don’t think they know what they are walking into. We want this more than them. Steven Gerrard wants this more than them. Together we will make it happen. He will make it happen, because that is what he does.