Steven Gerrard

[EwarWoo]

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

Fair enough, I missed that

[Chazza]

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

We only scored 1 goal when Lucas was on.

[baitman]

if rodgers sees that using gerrard as the DM isnt working will he then try and rest mig and give ged a go in goal, just to keep him in the team

[Fredo]

We only scored 1 goal when Lucas was on.

Think the momentum we were gathering in the second half, had he stayed on the pitch, we would have went on and won the game. When he hobbled off, Villa got back into the game again and it was more even at that point thereafter. But it was nowhere near the levels of woefulness we reached for 40 mins in the first half, as the system in itself was working.

[G]

We only scored 1 goal when Lucas was on.

Yeah sorry,Sturridge was first half.He made us better than we were with Gerrard in that role because he's better at it and it pushed Stevie away from our goal and nearer their's where he's better placed. We kind of dropped off again when he got injured.

[Sarb]

Agreed. We dropped off when Lucas went off injured .

[Shaggy]

Brendan Rodgers’ plan to reinvent Steven Gerrard as a deep-lying playmaker in the Andrea Pirlo mould will not be put on hold despite the self-confessed disaster his captain suffered in the role before Liverpool salvaged a point against Aston Villa on Saturday – with the aid of a disputed penalty won by Luis Suarez.

“It didn’t work for myself or the team,” Gerrard admitted. “Villa put a lot of men around me and every time I tried to get the ball under control in the first half they swamped me. It wasn’t one of my better 45 minutes.”

Liverpool recovered from a 2-0 deficit to draw 2-2 after Gerrard reverted to a more familiar attacking function, with Lucas Leiva coming off the bench to take his place in front of the back four. Yet Rodgers believes that 33-year-old Gerrard is capable of flourishing late in his career in the way that 34-year-old Pirlo still pulls the strings at Juventus. The plan, he says, will not be shelved.

“We never got the control in midfield against [Villa’s] diamond and could not build our play, so we needed to change the structure of the team,” Rodgers said. “But there is absolutely no question Steven can play the role and I don’t regard it as a setback, not at all.

“It is a mark of his identity as a player that he could influence the game in that offensive area. It just shows his importance to the team, with the pass he played to put Luis in [to win the penalty] and his composure to take the penalty under pressure. The system is irrelevant. Our style will always be to control and dominate games and at times this season we have had to be flexible and adaptable in our play. You have to give credit to the players in that they did that and got something from the game.”

Yet the fact remains that in a game and a half with Gerrard on his learning curve, Liverpool have conceded five goals and only a week after the 5-3 win at Stoke led Rodgers to talk about a title challenge, the gap between themselves and the leaders has been stretched from six points to eight. Should Everton win at West Bromwich Albion tonight, Liverpool will no longer even be in the top four.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/brendan-rodgers-will-stick-with-new-steven-gerrard-role-at-liverpool-9070735.html

[Fredo]

It's a strange one this. If it wasn't out of necessity, I'd wait till the summer to experiment with it.

[BigChief]

If that truly is Gerrard's role then at 33 he doesn't have the luxury of waiting. It's now or never.

Hopefully he'll bed in quickly after this shot in the arm and we'll make that top four. Then Stevie will lift the premiership trophy in his final hurrah season. It's written.

[wiw]

It's ridiculous to be experimenting like this now, we're dropping points because of it. Especially with Toure and and Cissokho in the team who are **** on a stick. We should shore up defensively with Sakho and Flanagan back but I'd still rather we played Allen there.

[Slinky Skills]

It's a strange one this. If it wasn't out of necessity, I'd wait till the summer to experiment with it.

What, when the school holiday's are finished?

[Pablo]

One thing you have to say about Gerrard is he's honest and self-aware. Great to read in those quotes that he realises and admits he had a stinker of a game. I love his interviews, he's always so refreshingly honest.

Now that Lucas is out I think we're going to see him in that position for a run of games. Gulp.

[PTP]

It would be ok trying this experiment or whatever it is, if one of the other centre mids was mascherano...someone who major asset was his ability to spot danger, cover ground quickly and stop it...he'd be great alongside gerrard as he would give gerrard the cover/protection needed to then play his pirlo role

But none of Lucas/allen/Henderson offer that...so until we have someone who does, IMO it's suicidal trying it at this stage of the season...especially when are back four are consistently leaking goals

[Lecter]

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

How do you define dynamic??

Fact is that Gerrard is still one of the most if not THE MOST creative midfield players in the league

Last time I looked he had something like 6 assists

Gerrards performance levels might have dropped but his contribution is still extremely significant and far greater than the vast majority of his teammates who play in midfield

[Daniel 7]

I don't think anybody would dispute that Lecter. Most people are concerned with shoehorning Gerrard in as a DM, a role he doesn't seemed suited to. Look at when he was pushed forward against Villa - he had an impact straight away. He's a marvellous attacking footballer, just not a marvellous deep footballer.