Steven Gerrard

[Norbs]

Gerrard's best defending comes when he's not defending out of responsibility but choice. He's always struck me as completely capable but ultimately selfish. The defensive midfield role is far too regimented to him and he will end up causing us problems if relied upon.

[G]

Lucas has failings there,Gerrard has failings there so neither of them should be playing there long term.Sign someone who can do what we need,if we can't do that this month than the only option for me is Lucas until the summer when we can sign someone.Even Gerrard Beside Lucas has been poor for the most part.

Our most dynamic midfield this season didn't have Gerrard in it sadly,sign of the times.

[Fredo]

Our two central midfielders were meant to sit yesterday, but it can't work in the current system because it leaves them too exposed. Having one sitting and two pressing, suits us far much better and as soon as we reverted to that yesterday, we started controlling the midfield again.

[Fredo]

Lucas has failings there,Gerrard has failings there so neither of them should be playing there long term.Sign someone who can do what we need,if we can't do that this month than the only option for me is Lucas until the summer when we can sign someone.Even Gerrard Beside Lucas has been poor for the most part.

Our most dynamic midfield this season didn't have Gerrard in it sadly,sign of the times.

Who would you sign?

[RichC]

We certainly need the 3 in midfield, suits the players we have and then allows us to play Suarez and Sturridge up top. I'd suggest on current form the one to miss out should be Coutinho with (if fit) Lucas, Henderson & Gerrard in midfield and Sturridge, Sterling and Suarez up top.

[G]

No surprise in the 20 minutes Lucas was on the field we scored 2 goals and controlled the game.The rest of the time we weren't great to say the least. Lucas injury will probably force our hand in the transfer market

[G]

Who would you sign?

Depends who we can get-out of the names mentioned I'd probably go for Reges/Matuidi but it seems M'Vila is more 'gettable' right now.His headcase status would be a concern though!

[Fredo]

M'Vila does not fill me with confidence. Not in that role.

[Exiled_red]

It's a difficult position to play in. Lucas is our best player there at this point in time, but it seems Rodgers doesn't rate him there long term. I think he sees things in Gerrard that he'd like to see in a player in that position (his vision to switch the play from deep), which Lucas maybe doesn't have. But the things in which Lucas excels at (positional awareness in particular), Gerrard isn't good at.

So again, it's a balance which is difficult to achieve and Rodgers will need to make the decision on whether to stick with that formula or persist with Gerrard in that position. Not sure why he would experiment with it now, rather than wait till pre-season.

I'm not sure that's the issue, personally I think that Rodgers faced the following scenario: In order to accommodate Suarez, Sturridge, Sterling and Coutinho in the same team he decided that we needed to replace a CM with one of those 4, meaning we went down to 2 CMs. Looking at the three that have been playing there Henderson is probably the on form player, while Gerrard is the captain and set-piece taker, following this simple line of thinking it seems that Lucas is the one that has missed out, there has continually been talk about Gerrard's ability to play anywhere so Rodgers decides to give him a go in the DM role. I don't think it's that Rodgers doesn't rate Lucas I think it's more that he finds he would be the easiest of the three to drop.

Of course the problem for me is the decision to drop a CM for one of the attacking four, personally I would leave Coutinho out and go with a midfield/attack of Lucas, Gerrard, Henderson, Sterling, Suarez and Sturridge.

[G]

Spot on.There was no need to fit an extra attacker in.We've been steam rolling teams all season with 3 up there,why change.

[danperkins]

Gerrard's best defending comes when he's not defending out of responsibility but choice. He's always struck me as completely capable but ultimately selfish. The defensive midfield role is far too regimented to him and he will end up causing us problems if relied upon.

[Exiled_red]

Gerrard's best defending comes when he's not defending out of responsibility but choice. He's always struck me as completely capable but ultimately selfish. The defensive midfield role is far too regimented to him and he will end up causing us problems if relied upon.

[Fredo]

Stevie after yesterday's game.

On playing in the deeper role in front of the back four for much of the game, Gerrard said: "I think because of the change, I expect people to talk about it.

"I've played attacking midfield for more than 10 years, so for me to drop back and become more of a controlling player, people are naturally going to talk about it.

"It didn't work today. I hope that doesn't mean it won't work moving forward in future fixtures. We'll have to wait and see what the manager decides to do."

[EwarWoo]

I don't think it's that Rodgers doesn't rate Lucas I think it's more that he finds he would be the easiest of the three to drop.

Well, he did come off injured after 30 mins, so another possibility is he knew he wasn't fully fit and didn't want to risk him unless absolutely necessary.

As you say, a bit too complex to draw the conclusion that Rogers doesn't rate him.

[Fredo]

Well, he did come off injured after 30 mins, so another possibility is he knew he wasn't fully fit and didn't want to risk him unless absolutely necessary.

As you say, a bit too complex to draw the conclusion that Rogers doesn't rate him.

Rodgers said he got a knock on the knee during the game. So there was no injury concern before the game.