Crouch on Wednesday

[dww]

Rafa has tried to accomodate Gerrard as best he could in our big games, unfortunately the skipper has gone missing in the vast majority of them, anyone who disagrees is clearly deluded.
Lets hope he plays a blinder next weds.

I really think people expect the wrong things from Gerrard at times. This season he was awful against United but generally he has been good in the big games. His problem is that he tries to do too much and as players like Ronaldo prove one of the most important things an attacking player can do is to stay free and open in an attacking position giving his team an outlet. The influence of doing so is not always felt and people often say things like 'Ronaldo had a quiet game apart from...' generally that is because big games are tight and what is important is to be in the right place when opportunities arise.

Gerrard actually did the former part of that well against Chelsea he was denied by a good save from Cech on one occasion and we had a good shape all match.

There is a case that he is not ideally suited to the way Rafa approaches big matches but to say he goes missing in big games is at best overly simplistic.