Steven Gerrard

[Buzzo]

2 goals in 2 games, with him not being the sole focus of our attacking play, and therefor less attention on him I can see SG getting a few goals this season.

[Shaggy]

Steven Gerrard’s rollercoaster ride that almost ended his career last year now makes him treasure every moment on the pitch

Jonathan Northcroft

Steven Gerrard’s new book My Liverpool Story documents the highs and lows of his 14 seasons at Anfield

LAST Sunday he felt something he’d never felt before. Losing to Manchester United brought Steven Gerrard the normal pain but something new washed through him like an anaesthetic. Perspective.

“That’s the most comfortable I’ve ever felt after a Manchester United defeat, because of how we played,” Gerrard reflects. Last October, his only concern was whether he would be able to continue as a footballer. “I don’t think people realise how close I was to not playing again,” he says. “I appreciate anything I can achieve in any game I can play now. I just think back a year.”

It’s hard to imagine a more rollercoaster 48 hours than those that giddied Gerrard then. Just back from an injury that itself threatened his career — when his groin ruptured and peeled away completely from the bone — “a normal graze from an everyday tackle in training by [Daniel] Agger” made his ankle swell.

He travelled for the game against West Brom and was starting an evening meal with the team when Liverpool’s doctor, Zaf Iqbal, rushed in. “I’d thought, ‘Some ice, anti-inflammatories, get the ankle a decent size where I can get my boot on . . . I’ll have a painkiller and play’. But the doctor was unhappy with the colour and size and had [taken fluid from it and] sent the sample for tests. There was a severe infection.” Iqbal ordered Gerrard back to Liverpool. Two hours after sitting down to his pasta, he was having emergency surgery to drain and clean the ankle. “If I hadn’t had the fluid out within 24 hours I wouldn’t have had a cartilage. The bug would have eaten it,” Gerrard says. “I’d probably have never played again, or even trained. In my mind, as the operation began, was, ‘This could be the end’.”

Two nights later, on crutches, going straight from one hospital to another, Gerrard was at the birth of his third daughter, Lourdes. “I was no use,” he grins. “I was on one leg, biting my teeth — but that wasn’t the time to complain about pain to [my wife] Alex! Though, trust me, the ankle was throbbing. “I owe the doc and Chris Morgan, our physio. Last year put my career into perspective. At the beginning of this season I had a couple of disappointing games. A few years ago I’d have been driving myself mad, not sleeping at night. Now I think, ‘At least you’re out there’.”

The changed outlook is among myriad things discussed in My Liverpool Story, documenting 14 totemic years at Anfield in pictures, captions and short chapters. With other players the format would encourage blandness but Gerrard is so honest and sharp that the book is a joy — filled with nuggets such as: “Torres was easily the best player I have ever played with . . . when he wanted out, it was like a knife to the heart.” And another: “As you get older you realise football isn’t about friends. It isn’t about being loved.” (Yes, in a passage on Rafa Benitez).

Gerrard hopes, at 32, “there are a few more chapters” to come. That’s certainly the feeling watching him: England’s standout at Euro 2012, man of the match against United, still No 1, still his country’s best footballer since Paul Scholes. Staying at the top is hard though. He has stepped up his gym time, uses ice baths and yoga, but says: “I think 90% of players do that now. When I go away with England nearly everyone’s at it. I’ve noticed since I came back, in the last year, the game’s getting better, more physical, quicker.

“This week a 16-year-old [Jerome Sinclair] made his Liverpool debut. At 16, I was a YTS lad leaving school, a beanpole. There’s no way I’d have been able to play for Liverpool then. But they’re coming out of school much stronger now. These are coming out like machines, with the Rooney build, you know?

“It’s getting more difficult for older players. It shows how well [Ryan] Giggs and Scholes have done, with the amount of speed and talent now coming into the game. They get managed superbly. You need a manager who’ll play you at the right times — which is what Brendan Rodgers is doing with myself now.

“I think I can play on at this level for quite a while. I’ve got this season and next on my contract. I’m not looking for a new contract but I’m hoping next year will not be my last. I’ll know when I’m ready to go. After every day in training, for Liverpool and England, I assess whether I’m short of anything. But my two best performances this season have been against Manchester City and Manchester United. And coming off the back of the Euros, doing so well . . . My physical numbers in training and games are as good as they’ve ever been.

“I know I’m not going to be bursting into the box every couple of minutes the way I did when I was 23, 24. Experience, and coaches such as Rafa, [Gerard] Houllier, Brendan and [Fabio] Capello have helped me with timing; when to go, when not to go. It’s more I’ve had to tidy my game up rather than I’ve had to change drastically.”

Yet some think he should change it. A few bloggers, even a couple of mainstream analysts, have suggested Gerrard’s dynamic game and love of the bold pass are incompatible with Rodgers’ “keep-ball” philosophy. This view has not escaped him and, typically, it’s addressed head-on. “I’ve enjoyed working with Brendan from day one,” he says. “I’m excited with his methods and philosophy and I think our relationship will grow. There’s an odd few people chirping up and saying maybe I don’t fit into his system but that’s not the message I’m getting from the manager. He’s told me he wants me around to help him move the club forward.

“The past few games I’ve played beside Joe Allen and Joe’s naturally going to play slightly deeper and keep the passes safe and build attacks. But if I get in the final third and I see a ball . . . you know, if I keep playing balls safe and nice and keep the ball and I’m thinking, ‘Shall I get a 90% pass success so Brendan Rodgers likes me?’ the Liverpool fans won’t be happy with my performances. I’m judged on something else.”

[McDermotX]

Stevie on SSN talking about his foundation's golf day right now.

Stop talking about Ryder Cup ****..................

[Shaggy]

James Pearce @JamesPearceEcho
To show support for the Steven Gerrard Foundation, which helps disadvantaged children, follow @SGF08 The captain will be doing the tweeting

Stevie puts little kisses on the end of every tweet. x

[Muddled]

Stevie puts little kisses on the end of every tweet. x

It's the future - I do it on all my text messages.

Perhaps we should do it on the forums, bring the love back between members.

[Gingawaria]

It's the future - I do it on all my text messages.

Perhaps we should do it on the forums, bring the love back between members.

No

x

[Norbs]

Chris Twaddle

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/...se-for-defence

STEVEN GERRARD has been told he is the man to fill the gaping hole left in the centre of Roy Hodgson’s defence by the retirement of John Terry.
Chris Waddle, who won 62 caps between 1985 and 1991, believes that England need to take a more Continental approach to the problem of filling Terry’s shoes – by converting England captain Gerrard from a midfielder into a ball-playing centre-back. It is a tactic that has been showcased by Germany in particular, who used Lothar Matthaus, Matthias Sammer and Franz Beckenbauer in that dual role at international level.
Waddle, now a pundit with ESPN, said: “He’s good enough to convert to a centre-half. He’s competitive, he reads the game brilliantly and he has a terrific range of passing. “The Germans have done it for years – Matthaus, Beckenbauer and Sammer all went back there. We should do that more.
“Instead, we get a player, put him in a position then say, ‘He’s tired now, he hasn’t got the legs, get rid of him’.” You want players who can intercept, who can read the game and nick the ball. Chris Waddle
And having seen first-hand how his former international team-mate Glenn Hoddle switched positions later in his career, he feels Liverpool star Gerrard is the perfect candidate for a move which could extend his international longevity. Gerrard is suspended for Friday’s World Cup qualifier against San Marino after being sent off against Ukraine at Wembley last month, but he was included in Hodgson’s squad and could feature against Poland in Warsaw a week today. While Waddle feels that the 32-year-old may not yet be ready for a permanent switch, he said: “You wouldn’t say Glenn Hoddle is a physical player but he did it.

[Lee]

Great idea, Gerrard for CB.

Waddle.

[danperkins]

It's the future - I do it on all my text messages.

Perhaps we should do it on the forums, bring the love back between members.

I like it x

[Gibbo]

Waddle is such a whopper x

[kingfunk]

It tends to make grown men rather nervous. xox

[banditos]

Stevie doesn't deserve a spot in the starting line-up at the moment. Does BR have the balls to drop him though?

[CAD]

Gerrard isnt half the player he was in 2006 against Hammers. Sad but true. He has way too little impact and our collective problems will not be changed until we get a new general.

Love Gerrard but FFS people. Enough is enough.

[Rich]

Years ago you'd build a team around him, he's too old for that now.

He might not think he's ready to change his style of play but he needs to do that to fit in with BR's schemes.

[Gibbo]

I see Rooney has been made England captain

Is Gerrard not playing?