Steven Gerrard Question

Maybe biased because of my links to Liverpool but I rate him in his favourite position as one of the top five in the world.

 

One player doesn't make a team plus it doesn't help when you have a clueless manager.

 

Good blog on the Guardian about the Gerrard problem: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/apr/10/the-question-steven-gerrard-liverpool

Liverpool are better without him.

 

Cross completion drops from 21.21% to 15.19% when Gerrard comes into the side, while the number of tackles won falls from 75.49% to 71.90%. That latter figure perhaps hints at what he does in terms of disrupting the shape of the midfield. That said, the injury to Lucas Leiva who, remarkably, has still made more tackles than anybody else in the Liverpool squad this season despite having been injured since November, partly accounts for that fall-off and has clearly been a significant factor in Liverpool's stumble.

That is the paragraph that caught my eye. The bit in bold is what I think Liverpool's problem has been. In no way does Gerrard weaken Liverpool's midfield, playing average players, such as, Spearing, Adam and Henderson, however, does.

If Gerrard hadn't of shown the loyalty that he has done to Liverpool, then he probably would have also had a couple of league winners medals to his name aswell. I personally think he was, and still is a great player, injuries are starting to take their toll though

 

Nah

 

I think he's lost it. He constantly looks in pain, and loses so many 50/50s. Doesn't seem the player he once was.

 

Just seen I voted for Top 20 in the poll. Having a conflict of opinion with myself at this very moment.

 

1 bad game this season and here we go again....

What if Messi has a bad game? * HE AIN'T THE BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD NOW!

 

Gerrard is gash for fucksake,been saying it for a couple of seasons now.

He will have 1 good game every 10 or so,nowhere near World Class.

 

No doubt about it he was one of the best but I think when Chelsea came in for him he should have moved IMO,defo lost a bit of everything to his all round game

 

I'd say he's in the top 50.

Massively overrated in England though.

 

It is not just one bad game you should know that being a Liverpool fan .

He was posted missing v West Brom and again today .

He does not look fit at all .

 

Not as good as he was but hard to put a number on it.

Id still say hes one of the best centre-mids in England. Probably 2nd to only Toure now that Song and Modric are in Spain.

 

No not now .

 

Still well within top 20 for me

 

Acutally weird how little quality there is in centre-mid in England.

When you think of Fabregas, Xavi, Busquets, Song, Iniesta, Thiago, Mascherano, Modric, Alonso, Khedira, Herrera, Banega, Susaeta, Rakitic, Medel and Diarra etc in Spain.

In Italy there is Pirlo, Montolivo, De Rossi, Asamoah, Isla, Inler, Hamsik, Nocerino, De Jong, Hernanes, Pjanic, Lamela, Marchisio, Vidal, Guarin, Aquilani, Valero and Sneijder among others.

Even Germany has quite a good standard of centre-mids.

But in England theres very few. Summed up by Mikel, Ramires, Diaby, Arteta, Cleverly, Carrick and Rodwell starting for the top 4 teams.

 

He's been bad this year, but christ, it's a new style, new manager, give him some time. Sure he's been off his game a bit since '09, but he's still one of the best, most complete midfielders in England.

 

While I think gerrard was/is a great, great player, I've always thought he's overated. Not in the same class as xavi or iniesta.