Saint Domingo
Player Valuation: £90m
Gerrard was an idiot for all that. Benitez indulged him no end although he really didn't have to. After seeing how slefish and undisciplined Gerrard was in centre mid over the course of a season Benitez paired Alonso and Mascherano together virtually allowing Gerrard to do whatever he wanted behind Torres, no responsibility whatsoever but all the glory. He then demanded a bit of a better goal return fromt hat position so moved Gerrard to the right where surprise surprise he had his most fruitful season. Gerrard being Gerrard though was not happy not being the main man so moped around until he was back in his favoured position and a goalscorer like Kuyt was on the graveyard shift. Even in that Birmingham game Torres was unfit and Ngog came on and looked dangerous. But that has always been Gerrard, ego over the good of the team. Wants to be seen surrounded by what he would call his peers like Suarez and Torres regardless of what form they're in and is happy to openly disrespect the rest of his teammates because he feels he is untouchable. The irony is its probably Gerrard who has held Liverpool back from winning the league. Not just with his slip, but if Benitez had been given full reign and full control he could well have done it with the midfield he had back then. Had another striker partnered Torres in 08/09 perhaps they would have won it. Instead it always had to be Gerrard and it always had to be the style that suited him, the style that every Liverpool manager has had to implement to accomodate Gerrard and win matches: every man back in defense, high pressure, long balls up, Gerrard can either hit the quarter back pass or get onto the knock down to lash in. Rodgers wanted tiki taka, Gerrard binned it off for kick and rush, Hodgson wanted 4-4-2 Gerrard sabotaged that by just not turning up to any match Hodgson managed, Rafael wanted to control games with possession similar to a Mourinho style, but Gerrard was too interested in playing Roy of the Rovers, spraying hollywood balls and orchestrating the team around his wanting to hit long rangers from the edge of the box. Yes it has been succesfull at times but considering they've had two of the world's best midfielders (Alonso and Mascherano) and two of the world's top strikers (Torres and Suarez in their peaks) plus the huge amount of money they've spent, they really should have won a lot more including league titles. A roll of the dice the other way on penalty shoot outs and Liverpool would be looking at a massive trophy drought. Don't get me started on England, to think we retired Scholes and under utilised Lampard just to accomodate Stevie Me is sickening. he was totally found at international level but in true Gerrard style threw a few managers and team mates under the bus to come out scot free. At the international level he had absolutely no idea how to operate in a world class midfield, the game would pass him by embarassingly and we'd resort to going long to Crouch or Carrol. Surprise surprise Cappello moved him to left mid - another top manager seeing his flaws, but Stevie Me's old mate the English media soon hounded Cappelo out of that one and Gerrard was rightly instated as Captain for two of England's most miserable world cup campaigns (none of it Gerrard's fault of course)it was the location of the training ground, the suits they wore to fly over, Cappelo's training regime, Hodgson's formations. nothing to do with the fact we couldn't put a ass together and got dominated in midfield eveyr match because we had an impotent showboater strolling around. One of the most overrated players who built a career on having a good swinging shot and arriving in the right places. Lampard won more than him, scored more goals than him, scored in just as many big games as he did, made just as many trophy saving goals, did more with England, and proved he could complement not inhibit other top class players. Yet one is adored by the RS media as probably the greatest English player of all time, no, in the world possibly, and the other is just seen as a good servant, a good premier league player, who didn't do much but score goals. How Gerrard has managed to skate by all his career I'll never know.
