Steven Gerrard - Water Carrier?

Gerrard converts a "Uruguayan" penalty.

Now I appreciate that quoting Eric Cantona might not go down too well, but with Brendan Rodgers playing Steven Gerrard in a deeper role in recent games, it looks like that might be the way things are going.

So far he seems to be struggling. Liverpool were over-run in the first half yesterday and I don't think it's a coincidence that Liverpool's best period during the match came with the introduction of Lucas at half-time. That he was only on the pitch for 20 minutes was one of the factors behind us not winning the game in the end. In the end another soft-ish penalty helped us out.

In modern football, you need a holding midfielder. A player that makes the rest of the team tick. Lucas can wobble on occasion, but when he's on form he is excellent at this job.

You almost don't really notice how much they actually do when they are playing, but it's when they aren't and it all turns to shit that you realise that they are what hold's it all together. Didi Hamann was a good example of
this.. didn't seem to do all that much. Win the ball, pass it 6 yards.. well that's pretty much it. But when they aren't there and the opposition is strolling through your midfield at will (1st half yesterday) that's when the alarm bell's start ringing. Gerrard isn't immediately suited to this role (1st half yesterday). He has spent his career on the front foot. He's been the player the "water-carrier" looks to to make something happen.

Gerrard is one of the best players of his generation. I have often made the pub argument that a keeper plus 10 Steven Gerrard's would beat a keeper plus 10 anyone else's. Certainly in his prime that was true. But he isn't in his prime anymore. He's 34 now. If he's going to stay playing regularly then he is going to be less dynamic and the deeper midfield role is an obvious way to prolong his career.

However, so far it doesn't look like he's very good at it. This frankly comes as something as a surprise. In the last two games where he's been asked to play in this role Liverpool have conceded 5 goals and on reflection getting 4 points out of 2 games when you let in that many isn't too bad.

Perhaps getting him used to the role whilst we've still got Luis Suarez making things a little easier isn't such a bad idea. You can get away with letting a few in if you've got the best striker on the planet demolishing teams at the other end.

However, whilst that might work more often than not, you don't win trophies like that. Just ask Kevin Keegan. If your plan is just to outscore the opposition then ultimately you will fail. It makes for entertaining football, if your winning (or losing) every game 4-3, but when it get's to the pointy end of the season you will come up against teams who know what they are doing, who can defend properly and they will pick you off.

You don't win games by outscoring the opposition, you win games (and more accurately trophies and titles) by controlling games.

And this is where your water carriers come in.

Is Steven Gerrard good enough to play in this role? Certainly, although he's taking some getting used to it.

Do we have an effective alternative? Not really. Beyond Lucas, we don't have anyone who is going to play there long term.

So what is the solution? Persist with Gerrard and hope he get's the hang of it? We might not have a choice depending on the extent of Lucas' injury. If the rumours of him being out for the season are to be believed then we only really have one option.

We must strengthen the squad in the next couple of weeks. We were in need of back-up in this area anyway and if Lucas is out then this becomes vital.

We do not have enough strength in depth. Part of the problem in recent years has been employing players in that role who aren't familiar with it when Lucas has been injured. Charlie Adam being the prime example of this - I mean seriously, he has the tackling ability of Paul Scholes, although not quite any other Paul Scholes abilities which is probably why he is at Stoke now.

We're conceding too many goals and part of the problem for this is in the midfield. When Arsene Wenger found he had this problem he signed Patrick Viera and Emmanuel Petit and that seemed to work out quite well for them.

This shouldn't be too difficult. Signing a player of Vieira's standard is admittedly unlikey, but it's not like we need to sign a goal-scorer. We have the bases covered on that score.

There are rumours Yann M'Vila, but the asking price seems to be the sticking point, as it usually is with these things. I don't know too much about him, but signing a bit of muscle for the midfield shouldn't be too taxing and if Lucas is out and Gerrard effectively out of position, they need for new blood is vital.

Basically we need to sign a beast to strengthen things up a bit - that shouldn't be too much to ask.