The New, Old Steven Gerrard

Article by Red Phil

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We are already hearing about who is to be the ‘new Gerrard’ but isn’t that as pathetic as saying any of our latest, relatively poor signings are the new Suarez? You can’t replace talent like Suarez or Gerrard on a one-for-one basis as such talents arrive on the scene every twenty years or so. Let’s get it right, if we are looking to replace truly great players from our wonderful history with players who can match them then, please tell me, who was Kenny Dalglish’s one-for-one replacement? Whoever it was, he failed!

I’m still waiting for us to adequately replace Alan Hansen, Stevie Nichol, John Barnes, John Toshack, Kevin Keegan and too many more to name even a tenth of the great players we’ve enjoyed.

All we can do, as a team, is accept that replacing Stevie with a one-for-one is almost impossible but strengthening other positions whilst welcoming another top-notch player into the position currently occupied by Stevie is the best we can hope for. Do we want any new signing to be labelled as the ‘new’ Gerrard? What boots to fill, almost mission impossible! The new guy would be a gibbering wreck before the first week was out!

We must also be realistic about Stevie Gerrard this season. To me he is the equal of King Kenny in the annals of Liverpool history and I literally couldn’t separate them into a best ever and second best ever player for our club . . . But he seems to have lost a lot of pace this year and his impact on games in nowhere near what it was even a couple of years ago. He is slowly joining the ranks of mere mortals, from being a God on the Kop so we mustn’t expect the usual miracles from him as they, more often than not, won’t be forthcoming and we’d be unfair to expect them of him.

This happens to all great players at some late stage of their careers and, unfortunately, you can’t stop the ageing process no matter how much you’d like to.

Who to go for? Marco Reus would have been the top choice, I suppose, but he’s apparently Madrid-bound. Fabregas would have been good but he’s now pulling up the trees at Chelsea so he is off the agenda. Xerdan Shaquiri is probably the best midfielder likely to be on the market in the next few weeks and would be better than trying for some obscure Italian we’ve never heard of who would fail like all of his compatriots if we plumped for him. God, I hope we never go to Italy for another player during my lifetime!

We don’t want Yaya Toure, he’s too old and slow and, I’m sorry to say, James Milner is NOT Liverpool quality even though he’s a good player. One nice potential opportunity would be to get Vlaar and Delph from Villa and then have Henderson and Delph running round the central midfield like very nippy, hyperactive two-year-olds whilst the defence is helped by Vlaar? This transfer window could be very, very interesting, with some players loving the idea of coming to Anfield but petrified of being called the ‘new’ Gerrard. Let’s see what happens . . .

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