Steven Gerrard - A Tribute

Steven Gerrard - A Tribute

After a 25 year affiliation with his boyhood club the Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard is to leave the club at the end of the season to join MLS side L.A. Galaxy.

 

Where does Steven Gerrard stand in the list of Premier league and Liverpool greats? How good was he in his prime? Will we ever see another player quite like him ever again?

 

We have been blessed with some outstanding midfield players during the premier league era. How do you compare different players? It is very easy to point at statistics and say Lampard scored more goals or say that Scholes won more trophies.

 

It’s just as easy to overlook the countless matched throughout the years that Gerrard dragged what was a pretty average team through. It’s easy to forget the impact he had in a genuinely quality side under Rafa Benitez in a midfield three alongside Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano. Surely if Fernando Torres didn’t have hamstrings made of Jelly I’d be sitting here today writing that Gerrard had won everything.

 

I’ve seen a lot of articles lately describing Gerrard as overrated, to which I have to wonder did the people writing these articles even see the guy play? It is easy to point out misplaced back passes to the like of Henry and Drogba or fateful slips to gift the ball to Demba Ba. However if that’s all you can think of to state that player is clearly overrated then I think to be polite that you’re trying too hard to criticise.

 

I’ve also read a lot of articles that say for Liverpool’s sake this is a good time for him to leave. This also perplexes me. Sure there has been a noticeable drop in his performance levels this season but the same applies to every single player to wear a red shirt. Despite this I think we all know which player we would want to lead our side in a big game.

 

It wasn’t long ago that Gerrard was playing a pivotal role in Liverpool’s title challenge, a challenge that contained some of the most exhilarating football seen in recent memory. Yet everyone just likes to talk about the slip. We wouldn’t have even been in that situation to win the title in the first place without Gerrard. But it’s all forgotten because of one moment, one slip.

 

The thing is though is that it’s even easier to point to the truly great moments, the ones that will go down in the history of this great club and use those to judge whether Steven Gerrard was a great player or not. Let’s think of Istanbul and Cardiff. Let’s remember the goals and the signature 50 yard passes and the countless tackles. Let’s remember all those times this one man lifted the Kop.

 

In Steven Gerrard, what Liverpool fans such as myself have had for all this time is a leader, an inspiration, one of the best players of his generation and a true modern day legend. It was always going to be sad the last time we saw Gerrard in the red of Liverpool but I always thought that would be because he was about to retire. What’s sad now is that he would’ve stayed if given the opportunity. But now we have to say goodbye to a player who despite everything else is still out top scorer so far this season.

 

Steven Gerrard will unfortunately never attain a premier league winner’s medal. He may always think about what might have been if he’d joined Chelsea or Real Madrid. One thing is for certain though for all us Liverpool fans. We will always remember everything Steven Gerrard did for our great club and he will never walk alone.