I'm going to defend ol' Gerrard here (and on PES - see it's PES related lol).
People say he's over-rated, and is not a good a player of his generation as most people think. Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion. For me, Gerrard embodies everything I want out of an English player playing in the most physically demanding league in the world.
Gerrard's first goal for the club was when he dribbled past three players before scoring. He confirmed his big match player tag with a long range stunner against Southampton on New Year's Day January 2001. March 2001 a stunner v Man Utd, fantastic goal. PFA Young Player of the Year award 2001 and PFA Fans' Player of the Year award 2000-01 and 08-09. Scintillating performance in League Cup Final 2003. THAT goal against Olympiakos when all was lost which put them through the qualifying stages.
Then - Istanbul, three nil down at half time, with all the Liverpool players dejected. After it was unveiled that Gerrard gave them a right bollocking at half time, Gerrard came out and single handedly drove the team towards victory, scoring the first and dragging the belief of the Reds up off the floor. Suddenly ALL the Liverpool players became bigger than their counterparts to a man and the rest is history. 2005 Club Footballer of the Year - the second English man to have won it! PFA Player of the Year 05/06. FA Cup Final v West Ham anybody?!? A stunning equaliser, pulled right out of his arse, ultimate pressure at a key moment. FWA Player of the Year 08/09. 100 goals for the club v PSV. March 2009, a Gerrard virtuoso performance v Madrid, scoring 2 goals. Gerrard/Torres combination, some of the best inter-play anywhere anytime. Napoli? 1-0 down at half time, Gerrard comes on and scores a second half hat-trick as sub!??
I could go on....
For me, Gerrard has been one of the most influential players ever in the Premier League. Let's look at some other reasons why I rate him.
When you think of other great players in the Premier League era, Keane, Scholes, Giggs etc you envisage the class players they had around them. The Man Utd championship sides have had brilliance right through their core, you look at the Arsenal invincible's and the great sides down the years for the Gunners, when you think of Henry you look at his partners, Bergkamp, Viera, Petit, Overmars, Ljundberg and the excellent defences that accompany both teams. You think of Chelsea - you think of the unstoppable Drogba, surrounded by Lamprard, Robben, Duff, again solid defence. These are world class players surrounded by world class players.
Steven Gerrard, apart from the Torres/Alonso years where his true class showed, has been playing in a team of muppets since he started playing at the club. Players like Leonhardsen, Dundee, Heggem, Traore, Camara, Heskey, Biscan, Xavier, Berger, Smicer, Diouf, Ngog, Cheyrou, Le Tellec, Diao, Steve Finnan, Cisse, Josemi, Gonzalez, Zenden, Sissoko, Penant, Veronin, Benayoun, Babel, Dossena, Aqualani, Konchesky, Poulsen, Cole, Jovanovic, Shelvey, Spearing, Henderson.....
I mean all these wouldn't get into the Lamb and Flag 11 on a Saturday morning. Look at all the various combinations he's had to endure, it's just bonkers. Since his professional debut he has almost single handedly driven Liverpool year after year. On a physical and mental note, this has taken its toll on him. Add to this the expectation of the fans week in week out, and you get the picture.
So, in my mind, he's a superstar of his time.
Now the England issue. Let's be serious for a second, England haven't produced world class players on the international stage for years. Some players transcend their club form, think of Pele, Maradona, Cruyff, Beckenbauer. BUT - hindsight is always so rose tinted, even these players had average years, with poor World Cup performances and Euro showings. There have been times through history where even the 'great' teams have been dumped out of major competitions, and it will always be the case.
Yes, I'm going there - Messi is undoubtedly the best in the world, the best ever may be. But you cannot deny his international form has been very poor by comparison. Does that make him exempt from being 'world class' all of a sudden? Also bear in mind that England haven't had a decent goal scoring striker since the Shearer/Sheringham axis and then Michael Owen. So to be a creative play maker with strikers and forwards who are not really of international calibre against the worlds best defenders, will obviously have an affect on his play and decision making.
The other issue I want to highlight is that the English league is just so, so unique, physically. Look at class players like David Silva and Aguero who have come out in recent weeks and said that they are absolutely shagged. The Premier League is the most physically demanding in terms of games and the 90 minutes on the pitch, week in, week out. Only now for example does a player like Silva understand that the Premier League is definitely a marathon and not a sprint. So is it any wonder that the England players are totally f'ked going into major tournaments when they are at it hammer and tong every week. There is a trade off I'm afraid, if England want to focus on team England then they need to rip up the blue-print for the Premier League - which will never happen because it's the most lucrative league in the world. So it's a stale-mate, and no doubt the players will be shagged again for the Euro's and be dumped out again at the group stages.
I think someone like Giggs is world class! But has he ever done it for Wales....no! So what does that mean? He's not world class? lol!?? Nobody foreign has bid for Giggs, does that mean that he wouldn't get into ANY side over the last 15 years in the world? Of course not, but the scouts and agents will only go for the kill on targets that can be moved from clubs, so the fact that say Giggs has never played for Barcelona, I mean is that an indication that he's not world class? And why are the Barcelona's, Madrid's, Milan's of this world THE yardstick for world class-ism? Sure now, at this moment, Barce and Madrid are streets ahead of the rest, but it wasn't so long ago that the English clubs dominated Europe....things go in cycles! Ultimately money will talk and the likes of Madrid, Barce, Man City will be the big boys unless they have cash problems down the line.
Also the great teams of yesteryear had a philosophy that they stuck to going into international games. By this I mean - when the Dutch players got together for international games they were already playing a technical passing system in their clubs. Nothing was foreign to them. Spanish players now, have the base of playing technical football from their clubs. The powerhouse Italian teams adopted the same style internationally (solid defence, big centre forward) into World Cup teams.
What you have in the England team is a group of people who have been running around like headless chickens in the Premier League making it the most exciting in the world, trying to come together and play some sort of tactical system that is foreign to them. The day the media and the public recognise that the England players, technically and systematically are nowhere near good enough to win major tournaments will be a day that the expectations of a nation get lowered to something more realistic. This is why Redknapp may be the man to just impinge and 'English type' fast paced game onto the opposition and not try and play their game. Be direct and decisive, much like his Spurs team. It's obvious England can't pass more than three times to each other because the players around the play-makers can't keep hold of the ball long enough in tight areas, so it's little wonder the likes of Gerrard and Lampard can't go looking for that creative element and have to pass sideways and backwards.
For me Gerrard embodies everything I expect from a British footballer and in spades, and that is why I think he is neither over-rated and why I think he is world class, in a team for over a decade that has been quite poor by comparison for both club and country.
(head down and back in the trenches
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