Steven Gerrard is expected to sign an 18-month deal with LA Galaxy in the next 48 hours, news that will be greeted with mixed feelings among Liverpool supporters, some of whom are happy to embrace a future without him, others of whom believe he is still the best player at the club and should have been offered a more enticing deal to stay.
That he is expected to be given a basic salary of around half of what he is currently earning and that he has admitted he would have signed a new contract last summer will lead detractors to wonder why he was allowed to leave so easily.
With this in mind it is simple to see why Brendan Rodgers’ joy at having emerged unscathed from a testing third-round FA Cup tie against AFC Wimbledon may have been tempered by the realisation that it fell to that man again, Gerrard, to rescue a positive result from another dispiriting Liverpool display. The timing could not have been worse for Rodgers.
After Liverpool announced the previous day that their captain would be leaving for MLS, Rodgers’ feelings about the source of the rescue act must have been bittersweet: could it not have been someone, anyone, else?
With sceptics wondering what Liverpool will do without their talismanic captain, Rodgers needed a player to step up and give them a positive glimpse of the future. Instead, Gerrard’s stooping header and match-winning free-kick only gave them more ammunition to suggest that the club is not yet ready to sever ties with a player who, more than anyone else, links them to the best of the recent past.
There are obvious arguments that can be made for why Liverpool could have done more to keep Gerrard. He is Liverpool’s top scorer on nine goals, three ahead of Raheem Sterling. Four of those have been scored from the penalty spot but his ability from 12 yards should not be overlooked. Neither Luis Suárez nor Daniel Sturridge proved themselves capable understudies from the spot last season and among Liverpool’s other players, could anyone else be quite so unerring so often and under such pressure?
A criticism of Gerrard – and often a valid one – is that he often tries to force play. But Opta statistics show that he is still the club’s most accurate passer. Not only has he made the most for them, 1,065, but he has also been more efficient than many would have you believe, with 916 of those finding team-mates – putting him ahead of any other Liverpool player.
He ranks 12th for successful passes in the Premier League. Not bad considering Liverpool’s less than impressive start to the season and the sense that Gerrard has been playing under a cloud after that slip and the soul-sapping failed Premier League title challenge that was followed by England’s dire showing in Brazil.
And while many think his legs have gone, he is still Liverpool’s third-most successful tackler after Jordan Henderson and Alberto Moreno, getting around the pitch and closing down space diligently for a player who will be 35 in May.
Tactical indiscipline is regularly cited as a reason that Liverpool would be better off heading into the future without their captain but in the right positions, Gerrard has proved himself effective. He has had the fourth-most shots in Liverpool’s squad this season, behind Philippe Coutinho, Sterling and Mario Balotelli. With Gerrard’s shooting ability, it is not hard to imagine who would be most likely to score if he could be played in a position where he was allowed greater licence to influence the attacking third more often. Rafael Benítez understood this more than most when he played him behind Fernando Torres and also on the right.
Frank Lampard, at 36, is a telling example of an experienced player’s talent being managed expertly for the greatest reward. The only surprise is that it took Manuel Pellegrini, not José Mourinho, to recognise this given the latter’s fine handling of John Terry in his twilight years at Chelsea.
Of the players Gerrard will leave behind, Sterling, Sturridge (when fit), Coutinho and Henderson would appear to be the four who will be expected to do most to make up for his loss. They will all have to be at their very best to be successful. Because Gerrard’s collective influence, in open play, from set pieces and in the dressing room, amounts to much more than just one player. Which is why the decision to let him go without an obvious fight has been questioned so vigorously.
Perhaps Rodgers feels his best work can be done without such a colossus in the ranks. He is a manager who gives the impression that he is more comfortable in the schoolteacherly role, telling younger players what to do rather than those who have been there and done it before.
If this is the case, then Rodgers will have to hope that he can find a way to deal with the departure of the current head boy. He will be sorely missed.
