Steven Gerrard

[baitman]

there has been an enormous shift in the stevie g love-in considering what a liability gerrard was as a second dm alongside lucas

[Sarb]

He has always been the man, bait

[baitman]

He has always been the man, bait

i know.

there was a growing mumbling for him to be dragged out the back and shot as he was becoming a liability but maybe lucas being out and steve having to be "redeployed/reinvented" has also allowed him to reassert his control and leadership in the team.

i reckon his drive and determination somehow squeezes another 10% effort from those around him.

[Sarb]

Totally agree. He was absolutely slaughtered by a few mates after the Villa game at home. It was ridiculous. I doubted whether he could play the role myself but he has made it his own big time.

[Fosterbloke]

I was pretty critical of him but he's come back in great style

[baitman]

many were critical of him and imho rightly so. he was struggling and didnt seem to work alongside lucas. there seemed to be no communication or covering for each other.
were we just playing two DM's to try and accommodate steve?
we certainly seem to be doing much better with just the one DM, and it also allows us to be better in the middle/attack.

[Daniel 7]

I hated him and now I love him.

[dww]

I think we changed a lot of things to make Gerrard work in that position - he's not a typical destroyer in the Mascherano/Makelele mold. In fact I think you could argue he's not really a defensive midfielder even if he is a deep lying midfielder. Without the work of the midfielders in front of him defensively (especially Henderson) he would struggle IMO. Reminds me of the way that Real Madrid used Beckham and Macmanaman in deep lying roles for their ball playing and competency in the tackle, rather than because they were expert defensive shielders.

In general though very few teams play a 'proper' DM or the Phil Neville style advanced CB in midfield any more. I think it is part of a general move to more attacking football and a reduced emphasis on organized defending in the PL (by everyone bar Pulis and Mourinho any way).

I think the move from a central twosome has helped - as you point out Gerrard never really clicked with Lucas in the deep areas and even if they did different jobs we still had two midfielders deep.

[Gibbo]

I had a full blown argument in the boozer tonight with a bloke that said that Cleverley had it in him to be better than Gerrard. He wouldn't take anything I said into account.

"Just you wait and see"

Then he started flinging made up facts at me

"Cleverley has the highest pass accuracy of any player in the league this season"
"Cleverley has a higher average rating than Gerrard for England"
"Cleverley has more winners medals than Gerrard, which means in a sense he is already better"

Ffs.

[ChesterDave]

Inspired logic.

Djimi Traore has more CL medals than Cannavaro

DJIMI

[Fierce]

I just looked it up, not because I thought it might be true, just cos I'm bored

The top two this season are Koscielny and Mertesacker!

Followed by Arteta and Flamini

Then The Lucas Leiva

[Roboklopp]

Most of the season ticket Scummers I know hate Cleverley.

[Chazza]

[ame]https://twitter.com/Football_SL/status/454545321100443648[/ame]

[Daffy Duck]

Keane and Berbatov in 2007 were the last players to share player of the month award.

[Shaggy]

Opposing fans absolutely raging!