ECHO Comment: "Fears of Witch-hunt Against Liverpool FC"

[graeme2911]

Gerrards best season was 05/06 when FSW played him on the right wing for most of it. He was great that season, because he had the engine, could run with the ball dead fast in a straight line and could put a great delivery in.
That was the season they started in the CL first round after uefa buckled and let them in despite not qualifying. He scored about 20+ from the wing, and set up another boat load.
But steeeevies ego made him demand he was back in CM, where he was actually much less effective.

He's no doubt been a very good player. Scored some excellent goals and was a nightmare for defences with his energy and unpredictability. But his ill discipline and lack of tactical nous has been shown up over the last 2 seasons when he's been asked to play a defensive role. He only looked decent last season when Henderson did his dirty work and he had easy out balls to the rat and sturridge.


He's nowhere near the awesomely official title of "best PL CM ever".
Scholes, Vieira, Keane and Lampard were miles ahead and their trophy cabinets back that up.
If you then think about player like Henry, Rooney, Bergkamp, Ronaldo, Drogba, Giggs; then starfish boy is nowhere near "de bestest premier leeegue player eva" either.



And he's a knobhead.

 

[Goat]

Well I aint gonna go on abar it like, cos I aint a kopite, yano?

 

[davek]

They clearly have a great desire for heroes. They can’t be like we were in 2004/5 essentially a well oiled workmanlike team with no outstanding individual. If that was them they’d have sold Rooney the season before, replaced him with Marcus Bent and be convincing everyone that Bent was actually world class and better than Rooney and that only a biased media prevented this acknowledgement.

It stunts them majorly though. They don’t recognise who there top quality players are and are not. The media don’t pull them up on their stupidity. The sort of stupidity that allowed slippy G to make Alonso seem dispensable. To sell Mascherano.

They have had a number of world class players over the last 15 years, what’s great is they were never recognised as such. Alonso, Mascherano and Reina spring to mind, all binned off because of kopite revisionism.

As for Stirling how he has become the greatest hope of a generation over Barkley I’ll never know. The “build your team” around him shouts, from a player who is inherently selfish and unintelligent is completely stupid.

And when you look at the statistics they bear that out. Just because Liverpool fans and the media label their players world class doesn’t make it so. A few on here would do well to remember that. Anyone would think Sturridge had scored 15 league goals more times in his career than Lukaku with the way people go on.

That's defo true about Alonso and Mascherano. They were just about as good as any player in Europe at what they did. If you look at Gerrard though he's never been a specialist at anything and never, therefore, excelled as a footballer. He's an all-rounder - something the English in general in sports are fascinated with but what continentals scratch their head at and see as a Jack of all trades, master of none. They see someone like Scholes as a player of note, because Scholes was the heartbeat and fulcrum for a dominant United every time he played. Someone like Gerrard, who had the odd cavalier flourish in a major game or two, wouldn't get that respect.

 

[Prevenger17]

Gerrard was a great player in his day, but I'd say even if you narrowed it down to their best midfielder of the PL era, you would have to go with Xabi Alonso. As for Sterling and Sturridge, they are definitely good players lads. The idea of Welbeck being a better player than Sturridge is a pretty wild statement, even for Davek.

 

[davek]

Gerrards best season was 05/06 when FSW played him on the right wing for most of it. He was great that season, because he had the engine, could run with the ball dead fast in a straight line and could put a great delivery in.
That was the season they started in the CL first round after uefa buckled and let them in despite not qualifying. He scored about 20+ from the wing, and set up another boat load.
But steeeevies ego made him demand he was back in CM, where he was actually much less effective.

He's no doubt been a very good player. Scored some excellent goals and was a nightmare for defences with his energy and unpredictability. But his ill discipline and lack of tactical nous has been shown up over the last 2 seasons when he's been asked to play a defensive role. He only looked decent last season when Henderson did his dirty work and he had easy out balls to the rat and sturridge.


He's nowhere near the awesomely official title of "best PL CM ever".
Scholes, Vieira, Keane and Lampard were miles ahead and their trophy cabinets back that up.
If you then think about player like Henry, Rooney, Bergkamp, Ronaldo, Drogba, Giggs; then starfish boy is nowhere near "de bestest premier leeegue player eva" either.



And he's a knobhead.

I'll tell you why Gerrard gets the big over the top plaudits: pure and simply because Liverpool have been an utter embarrassment as a 'top club' in the PL era, but conferring status on Gerrard allows them a pat on the head as a club of note capable of keeping hold of 'perhaps THE best PL player'.

It's a load of old bollocks. Basically a bone thrown to them so that they wont be seen as the irrelevancy they would be to the nu-fan SKY generation.

 

[Pienaar's gloves]

I can think of dozens of better midfielders than him to have graced our league. It's purely because he plays for them, that they always go on about him.

Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Yaya Toure, Claude Makélélé, Thomas Gravesen, Cristiano Ronaldo - played in midfield for United, Xabi Alonso, Cesc Fabregas, Patrick Viera, Frank Lampard, Luca Modric...

All better or in the same ball-park as Gerrard.

 

[ste d' indica]

Oh come on, he was an outstanding player at his peak, no question at all he is defo in the top 3 of Premiership Era midfielders, sorry like, but he was an actual real player. Nothing close to the player he was the last few years, but still won matches on his own at times, I for 1 am counting down the days until he leaves.

I won't deny he's a good player mate, but he's not as good as Alonso in my opinion.

 

[LinekersLegs]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/17/liverpool-lazar-markovic-four-game-european-ban

Lazar Markovic has been handed a four-game ban from European football following his red card against Basel in December.
The Liverpool winger was sent off in his side’s final Champions League group game for catching Behrang Safari in the face with a flick of his hand.

Markovic has been given an extra game on top of the normal three-match ban for violent conduct because he was sent off playing for Benfica in a Europa League match last May.

 

[bol-uk]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/17/liverpool-lazar-markovic-four-game-european-ban

Lazar Markovic has been handed a four-game ban from European football following his red card against Basel in December.
The Liverpool winger was sent off in his side’s final Champions League group game for catching Behrang Safari in the face with a flick of his hand.

Markovic has been given an extra game on top of the normal three-match ban for violent conduct because he was sent off playing for Benfica in a Europa League match last May.

His behaviour is suited to his snidey rat face.

 

[BoysInBlue]

 

[roydo]

lollol

 

[Tommy Chong]

What the hell goes on behind the doors at Melwood?!

 

[Neiler]

"Captain Steve Gerrard and centre back Mamadou Sakho will miss the Reds next league fixture against Crystal Palace with individual itch complaints".

 

[MikeH72]

I can think of dozens of better midfielders than him to have graced our league. It's purely because he plays for them, that they always go on about him.

Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Yaya Toure, Claude Makélélé, Thomas Gravesen, Cristiano Ronaldo - played in midfield for United, Xabi Alonso, Cesc Fabregas, Patrick Viera, Frank Lampard, Luca Modric...

All better or in the same ball-park as Gerrard.

Had to laugh at this. I absolutely agree with the rest though, all comfortably better than him

 

[Pienaar's gloves]

Had to laugh at this. I absolutely agree with the rest though, all comfortably better than him

If Gravesen had played for a regular top four team then he would be considered a top drawer player!