Steven Gerrard is more than a player for Liverpool. He is Mr. Liverpool. He can pick the team up from the brink of defeat and propel them to victory. Just ask AC Milan… and Olympiakos… and West Ham. But with concern and worry abound at his absence at the weekend, despite the Anfield outfit playing at home against basement dwellers West Ham, has his injury in fact been a blessing in disguise for Liverpool, and particularly their much maligned midfielders?
I’ll set the record straight, I am not in any way suggesting that Liverpool can do without Gerrard. If they lost him to long term injury, or heaven forbid, a transfer, it would devastate the side in more ways than one. However, with the way Liverpool ably swept aside West Ham at the weekend, with their midfield personnel including Maxi Rodriguez, Christian Poulsen and Raul Meireles (all players who have been strongly criticised), Has the absence of a man so heavily relied upon by Liverpool FC, in fact been beneficial to these characters? In my opinion, in the short term, yes, for both club and the aforementioned players.
West Ham were awful, there is no hiding from that fact, but you can only beat what is put out in front of you and Liverpool applied themselves to the task with vigour, especially in the first half, and brushed the east Londoners aside. The lack of Gerrard’s presence affected the other midfielders in one of two ways; first it put more responsibility on to their shoulders, there was no hiding behind captain marvel, and second, it allowed them to play their own game with some freedom. Understandably the Liverpool midfield is based around Gerrard. So in his absence they could play with a freedom rarely afforded to them, and Poulsen, Maxi and Meireles grabbed the opportunity with both hands, with all of them performing ably.
So while Gerrard’s long-term absence would be deeply felt in a team not exactly brimming with confidence, his short-term absence may well be beneficial for those around him.
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