The OFFICIAL Liverpool FC thread - #DankeJürgen

[laoislad]

Off the top of my head Suarez, Fowler, Torres, Alonso, Reina all much better than Gerrard.

You do Like baiting Liverpool fans.

I'd love see how Rush and Daiglish would perform in the ERL.

I'm not attempting to bait Liverpool fans. As a Liverpool fan myself I'm just giving an honest assessment of a player who I feel held Liverpool back for over a decade. I was glad to see him go, and it's no surprise to see he hasn't been missed at all. Coutinho, even with his faults is a much better player than Gerrard ever was.

He hasn't been missed because he was coming to the end of his playing days. The Gerrard in his prime would have been irreplaceable.

[AZOffaly]

Exactly. Anyone who confuses Gerrard circa 2014/2015 with Gerrard mid to late noughties needs their head examined.When you are considering Gerrard's career and quality, you have to go with him at his peak, and he held his peak for a fair few years, in fairness to him. I think I agree with Maroon Manc's assessment of him. He wasn't a game controlling midfielder like Xabi Alonso, and he wasn't even a tough dominant midfielder like Souness or Keane. What he was was an absolute force in the final third. An advanced midfielder.

[The Stallion]

As a central attacking midfielder, even in his prime, Gerrard was a long way off the best players in that position.

Apart from the occasional 30 yard rocket, his game consisted of little more than embarrassing dives, petulant fouls and stupid misplaced Hollywood passes. Reminiscent of the latest overhyped English midfielder, Barkley at Everton. All running around with no real intelligence.

[Franko]

It was a blatant dive in my opinion, something Gerrard did repeatedly throughout his career.

As usual, your "opinion" regarding anything to do with Liverpool is built on the most tenuous and flimsiest of cherry-picked evidence.

That anyone would dive in that circumstance makes zero sense, even if the footage showing Gattuso clipping him at full tilt were not freely available.

I'm sorry J70 but it's not at all clear.  Watch from about 4:20.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhOK769Fzco

I don't see any clear contact at all.  I don't have a dog in this fight at all but IMO it was a dive.

So there is no pull of the shoulder followed by a clipped trailing leg just as Gerrard, at full sprint, runs on to the flick on the penalty spot?

I sometimes wonder whether some soccer followers have ever actually played the game. It doesn't take very much at all to bring down someone running at full tilt. And it makes zero sense, especially for someone like "Stevie Me", to pass up an easy chance to score a goal in a European Cup final.

The pull of the shoulder is debatable but there definitely was no contact at all between Gattuso's leg and Gerrard's.  Even if we say the shoulder pull happened, he ran (not stumbled... ran) a futher 5-6 steps before hitting the deck.  Dive.  IMO.

[AZOffaly]

As a central attacking midfielder, even in his prime, Gerrard was a long way off the best players in that position.

Apart from the occasional 30 yard rocket, his game consisted of little more than embarrassing dives, petulant fouls and stupid misplaced Hollywood passes. Reminiscent of the latest overhyped English midfielder, Barkley at Everton. All running around with no real intelligence.

You see you damage your persona of clear eyed Liverpool fan when you make stupid statements. You need to have some baseline of credibility to make your other rants somewhat rational. Otherwise you just look like what you are. Poor trolling. 4/10.

[The Stallion]

I'm not trolling. It's my honest opinion. Feel free to disagree but please don't wrongly accuse me of pretending to hold such an opinion.

[tiempo]

As a central attacking midfielder, even in his prime, Gerrard was a long way off the best players in that position.

Apart from the occasional 30 yard rocket, his game consisted of little more than embarrassing dives, petulant fouls and stupid misplaced Hollywood passes. Reminiscent of the latest overhyped English midfielder, Barkley at Everton. All running around with no real intelligence.

You see you damage your persona of clear eyed Liverpool fan when you make stupid statements. You need to have some baseline of credibility to make your other rants somewhat rational. Otherwise you just look like what you are. Poor trolling. 4/10.

Gerrard was world class at spraying the ball to a full back in an advanced position (corner flag) sorrounded by 2 or 3 of the opposition. Commentators would spunk at the pass while failing to mention the futility of the position his team mate was now in.

In later years Brendan Rodgers said Gerrard was the best midfielder in Europe at controlling the tempo of a game, he never had that in his locker at any point in his career. He had a swashbuckling style, the same as Rooney, which is why they struggle to refine their game as they got older. Players like Xavi, Pirlo, Alonso and Scholes got better with age and mastered the art of controlling a game, Gerrard aged badly getting his position in the Liverpool and England teams too easy long after he should have been considered first choice.

[AZOffaly]

As a central attacking midfielder, even in his prime, Gerrard was a long way off the best players in that position.

Apart from the occasional 30 yard rocket, his game consisted of little more than embarrassing dives, petulant fouls and stupid misplaced Hollywood passes. Reminiscent of the latest overhyped English midfielder, Barkley at Everton. All running around with no real intelligence.

You see you damage your persona of clear eyed Liverpool fan when you make stupid statements. You need to have some baseline of credibility to make your other rants somewhat rational. Otherwise you just look like what you are. Poor trolling. 4/10.

Gerrard was world class at spraying the ball to a full back in an advanced position (corner flag) sorrounded by 2 or 3 of the opposition. Commentators would spunk at the pass while failing to mention the futility of the position his team mate was now in.

In later years Brendan Rodgers said Gerrard was the best midfielder in Europe at controlling the tempo of a game, he never had that in his locker at any point in his career. He had a swashbuckling style, the same as Rooney, which is why they struggle to refine their game as they got older. Players like Xavi, Pirlo, Alonso and Scholes got better with age and mastered the art of controlling a game, Gerrard aged badly getting his position in the Liverpool and England teams too easy long after he should have been considered first choice.

Well you see, apart from that first hyperbolic paragraph/sentence, I agree with a lot of that. He was never a controlling midfielder, no matter what Rodgers, or the English media said. He was a swashbuckling attacking midfielder, but I disagree his style is similar to Rooney. They are different players too.

But to say he wasn't a very, very good player, in some very average Liverpool sides, is just untrue.

[muppet]

Off the top of my head Suarez, Fowler, Torres, Alonso, Reina all much better than Gerrard.

You do Like baiting Liverpool fans.

I'd love see how Rush and Daiglish would perform in the ERL.

ERL?

Equine Reality-distortion League.

[JoG2]

It's a blatant dive. And if you watch the whole game back without rose tinted spectacles you will see Gerrard did not play well.

Viera was a very different player from Gerrard but I don't see how anyone could put Gerrard ahead of him. Liverpool had much better players than Gerrard over the last 20 years.

No, it was not a blatant dive.

And I didn't comment on his performance. He played well second half and extra time. He was overrun in the first half. I would agree that Rafa's half time work changed the game, but then that demands the question of how he got it so wrong first half. Was it HIS fault the midfield was overrun?

As for which Liverpool players were better over the past 20... who, exactly?

Suarez, maybe, although he left just as he was sustaining world class performances. (Suarez is, for me, probably the most talented Liverpool player ever, but how can he compared to someone like Dalglish in terms of club history?)

Xabi Alonso was very good, but was relatively poor for two seasons in the middle of his five. Fowler, perhaps.

No one else in terms of impact and influence.

Rafa made a pigs ear of team selection tbh.  Kewell should never have started,  Didi should have been one of the first names on the teamsheet to help  stem Milans obvious attacking threat.  With his inclusion at ht,  it allowed the rest of midfield to weave a little magic and help make an incredible and highly unlikely comeback a reality... A great night of sporting drama

[Gabriel_Hurl]

Cou is fucked

[TabClear]

Cou is fucked

Doesn't look good.  Poor half in general with very few chances.

[Gabriel_Hurl]

Made tough work of that. Far better 2nd half.

[laoislad]

That was a hard fought win. Didn't look like they were ever going to score.
Worryingly now though the squad is all of a sudden starting to look a little thin with Coutinho,Lallana and DS15 all injured.

[J70]

Important thing is they stuck at it and got the break. There's going to be plenty of days like that, and they just have to keep working it around, making the bus parkers work. United won plenty of games late under Ferguson by sticking to their game plan.

Coutinho injury is worrying, but that's what the squad is for. How long are Sturridge and Lallana out for?