I hope DF, but do not expect. There was a very telling moment in the WHU game where BR asked Gerrard if he was alright. BR had obviously noticed Gerrard was doing sweet FA and moving like a slug enough to warrant asking him if he was OK. Gerrard gave him the thumbs up though, and that was that. BR will not drop him, doesn't have the balls to and Gerrard will not let him. If he does drop him, regardless of results, any slight notion of something going wrong will prompt the "bring back Gerrard" hysteria. As you say, it would be suicide if he dropped him, but could also be suicide if he doesn't.
i REALLY do not believe there will be such hysteria. this is not like when he was taken off in the derby a few years back. i feel 99% of stadium going at 90% of general fans will go along with it. particularly if gerrard started coming on in maybe an am position with 20mins to go..... i think "Dropping" aint the same as saying you will start less games mate
But by giving Gerrard his time and quota for substitute appearances will hamper the chances of other squad players and give less opportunity to bleed-in youngsters.
I hope it goes that way Mito. I'd even setlle for a one full half starting Gerrard high up and see how it goes. I still dont believe he has the discipline for the DM role no matter how you shorten his minutes played and that has disrupted our back four as much as the chopping and changing. Tell him he can bust a gut for 45 rather than pace himself over 90. My only worry is its psychological with him as much as physical after last years disappointment. He looks broken from it it mentally as he knows there's no league championship this year or next which means never going to happen for him. And we aren't winning the CL this year either so....... I honestly do sympathise with that but we can't do anything about that now and we can't let these young players stagnate along with him.
only one sub... coutinho off him on.... after all markovic can be another sub for another day. again did utd stiffle cleverly cos scholes was playing 10/14 games or is it cos he's gash.... we can't say he would but i could imagine some bit of a lift at anfield on 65mins when he comes on for example
Ach, it's not the only issue. But if we bought a specialized DM or a couple of box to box General types he could be an option up in AM when Coutinho disappears. Gut says we need another striker in January and hopefully an older keeper coming in will help Mig develop. It's frustrating having another year of transition lol....
I can understand why Gerrard is coming under the spot light right now with our fans but I still think we are being undone by pathetic miss-kicks and poor marking rather than being opened up because Gerrard's not in the right position. One thing that is concerning is that Rodgers has said he will manage his minutes this season and the only example where this simply had to be done was when we were crushing Spurs 0-3 on 60 minutes and he played 90 minutes still - that was a big question mark for me.
yes you are right in that. pathetic errors that are stopping us having at least a chance of a clean sheet. the last two games were shockingly poor efforts. I do agree on less minutes but i think... ffs why in cl? why?
Rodgers doesn't need to drop him completely. What he does need to do is give the other players an opportunity to play without him and prove to everyone that we can function without Stevie. Problem at the moment is that both Can and Allen are out injured so we can't do it. But once they return, I do expect Rodgers to try Can Allen and hendo out - if they perform well, then we'll see a lot more of them, and it makes it easier for BR to rest stevie more frequently. I have another concern with Rodgers though in that I don't think he fully understands defensive ability. The fact he rates Skrtel and Lovren so highly is one thing, but Stevie is not a DM. It's as if Rodgers thinks that anyone who can pass and control the ball at the back is good enough. He probs trust Stevie more than say Lucas because Stevie is better offensively, disregarding the defensive aspect of the role.
Me La will no doubt roll back the years and give a Roy of the Rovers display on Saturday, and you'll be singing his praises again and hoping he gets an extension
I'm sure that he'll then be f'd for the next two games but stand on the pitch anyway. last year round christmas he got injured but our squad was bare and we were trying all sorts to cope in terms of formation. this year with him we are trying all sorts of formations to cope. simply put we failed to buy what a lot of guys were pointing out to in fairness to them they were right.
Thing is, he can still that type of display.....but for 20 or 30 minutes. Anyone else see Xavi come off the bench with 20 to go yesterday? IMO, that's how we should use Stevie.
While Allen and can are out... Brendan MUST give Lucas his DM role back and Gerrard his CM role back. Fixed. And I reckon both will be happier.
I think Rodgers wants Gerrard to be some kind of hybrid between an Alonso/Sahin style pass master and a Mascerano style bossman. But players like that dont really exist. The are either to light in a tackle or not nimble enough for the crazy passes. When one does exist they will cost around £50m. I wonder if Tiago Ilori could become one. His ball skills and passing are near incredible and he's very quick to. But I'v wondered if he's quick hard enough to be a PL CB.
