The end of an era for most football fans, even if you hate Liverpool football club, most people will still remember the club with one player, at least in this generation of football maniacs. Steven Gerrard will close his almost 20 year association with the club as he leaves the shores of England to play in Los Angeles in the MLS. He was offered a contract extension in November but he chose not to sign it with the club, after he was offered a ‘curtailed’ role to remain at the club, while a lot of people did say that was the right decision to slowly phase out the legend, the Liverpool hierarchy has come under fire for dealing with the situation in such a poor way.
Gerrard has carried Liverpool for most part of the 2000’s and till recently he almost got the elusive Premier League medal last season but he missed out. Gerrard is a living legend of the club, especially after having rejected a couple of advances from Chelsea and remaining at Liverpool, that move would have ensured a couple of Premier League winners medals for the Englishman but his desire to stay at Liverpool is something to marvel at. Liverpool might rule from their head and not their heart when it comes to their decision on Gerrard but it was a rather stupid decision by the club to let him leave.
First movers advantage
The point that sticks out when Gerrard made the decision to join the LA Galaxy was that he said; had Liverpool provided a contract to him right after the shambolic performance of the English team at the World Cup, he would have signed it without a doubt. Gerrard, after the tournament had decided to retire from the International scene and was willing to sign a contract, but Liverpool took way too long to offer the contract extension and that has hurt him.
Gerrard might be 34 years old, but he can still provide a lot of magic for the club, he obviously cannot play as many games as he would have done around 5 years ago but he is still one of the better midfielders on display in the Premier League. He has lost a lot of his pace and dynamism, but that was something that Rodgers would have been able to deal with, as he has shown by changing not only the way Liverpool play this season, but also the way he has shuffled his pack around to ensure that players can adjust to various roles.
Gerrard could play almost in any position at the club, apart from wingbacks, he could even play as a centre back but that is just my FIFA game mode speaking. Gerrard, like Lampard deserved better from the club, football might not be the game it was a few decades ago, but Gerrard could certainly have given Liverpool a lot to work with, experience being one of his biggest fortes. The sheer number of big games he has played in could have been huge for the development of the younger stars and of course, having an older head does help the players to calm down.
Gerrard’s association with the club might come to an end now, but there could be a faint chance of him coming back to the club in the role of a coach, that is something that most Liverpool fans would love and hopefully Gerrard could win that Premier League medal as a coach for his boyhood club.
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