Steven Gerrard – ‘The what ifs, buts, and maybes?’

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Steven Gerrard has been the centre of attention in the footballing world last weekend. His Liverpool side’s 1-3 disappointing loss to Crystal Palace was overshadowed by Gerrard’s emotional farewell to the Liverpool fans as he had just played his final game as a Liverpool player at Anfield. This brought an end to Steven’s 16 year love affair with the Liverpool faithful. However, the aftermath of the final farewell entailed a lot of controversy on social media about whether he was the best midfielder to play in the Premier League. Was he?

Ask any footballing fan who was the best midfielder to ever play in the English top flight and the same names will pop up, Vieira, Keane, Lampard, Scholes and Gerrard. Now Steven divides the footballing world when this question pops up. And on social media over the past few days, it has been no different. Facebook status’s have been overloaded with (mainly) Liverpool and Man Utd fans hammering away at one another saying why or why not he was not as good as their beloved Paul Scholes or whoever. But here’s what I think.

Yes Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira, Frank Lampard all have won premier league titles for their different clubs and Steven Gerrard as we all know hasn’t won any, sound familiar? According to some this rules Gerrard out of the running to be considered the best midfielder. But the reason the Scholes, Lampard etc have won the title is because they were apart of great, successful teams. Gerrard wasn’t. Even Liverpool fans would admit that Gerrard was apart of terrible, terrible Liverpool sides.

Steven has had to carry his team through the thick and thin to win the trophies  that Liverpool picked up over the last 10 years, Champions League 2005 and FA Cup 2006 are prime examples. He basically won them on his own and the sole reason that Gerrard doesn’t have a Premier League medal today is because of his love for Liverpool. Jose Mourinho said last week he tried to sign Gerrard several times with Chelsea and other clubs. And if he had left all those years ago, it’d be certain that Steven would have that medal by now.

But lets say he did leave to join Chelsea when he could of, what sort of player would he be? I believe yes, Gerrard would have his premier league medal but he wouldn’t of been the player that we know today. I feel Gerrard would of failed to express his impact and presence in games if he had been apart of a  great team. He would of been a pawn on the chessboard.

Lets take the England national team for example. Gerrard has over 100 caps for his nation, a wonderful achievement. But the England national team during Steven Gerrard’s playing days with England should of been a great team and a successful team at that. He had players alongside him such as Frank Lampard who played next to him, a world class midfielder. There was John Terry playing behind him, a world class centre half and there was Wayne Rooney, a world class striker. If you had a spine across the middle of the pitch like those four names that were just mentioned, there’s no excuses why that England team couldn’t do well and be successful.The reality was, they were lacklustre and whose fault was it, was it the management? I don’t think so. I feel Gerrard looked like a lot more mediocre player whilst watching him in an England shirt and never really grabbed a game by the scruff of the neck when playing for his country.

So to sum this up in a nutshell, if Gerrard had ever left Liverpool, he would of been successful but would never been considered a great player like he is today. I for one am delighted he didn’t leave. THANKS STEVIE   Y.N.W.A