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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  England never saw the best of Steven Gerrard
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England never saw the best of Steven Gerrard

The Three Lions captain played 114 games for England. But, never really reproduced his Liverpool form for his country

Steven GerrardPremium
Steven Gerrard

“After a glittering 14-year career representing his country, Steven Gerrard has retired from international duty," says the official statement on the English Football Association (FA) website. This marks the end of a career that spanned 14 years and 114 games for the national team. Unfortunately, the country never really saw Steven Gerrard, lovingly known as Stevie G., replicate his Liverpool form.

Gerrard’s statistics, when in an England shirt, would look impressive for almost any player from most other countries—114 games, 21 goals and a passing accuracy of 80%. But they weren’t enough for the standards Gerrard set for himself or for the expectations of fans. Many factors played a role in relegating Gerrard to the supporting cast, rather than a Pirloesque “string-puller".

Gerrard and Lampard can’t play together

There was the famous observation that Gerrard and Frank Lampard could never play well together in the same midfield. The reasoning was simple, and correct to a certain extent—they are very similar players who tend to occupy the same areas on the pitch and tend to go for the same balls. So, it became a case of one, not both, being picked. The fact that only one could play meant neither could ever really get a run of games in the starting 11. The constant chopping and changing didn’t help the team, or either player. Still, Gerrard played in 71 competitive games that included the world cup qualifiers and finals. In comparison, Lampard played 61 but he returned with a goal tally of 20, against Gerrard’s 16.

Too many cooks...

Along the way, different managers had an influence. Some envisioned a certain type of midfield, while others tweaked the system in an attempt to make the Gerrard-Lampard axis work. Manager Sven-Göran Eriksson pushed Paul Scholes out to the left, and deployed Gerrard in a more holding role. Scholes retired, in apparent disgust, whereas Gerrard could never curb his attacking instincts to be a shield for the defence. Italian Fabio Capello asked him to play in wide positions, which again restricted his ability to make the trademark forward runs from the midfield. When Roy Hodgson played Gerrard as the anchor in a two man midfield, this was a sort of return to the role that Eriksson had asked him to play, but with legs that didn’t have the pace for that role.

At Liverpool, Gerrard had a midfield work around him. He was the main man, bombing forward to support the attackers.

Not for the lack of effort

His best game came in an England shirt in a 2001 match in Munich, at the end of which the Three Lions had put five goals past the normally disciplined Germans. Gerrard scored a trademark long-range screamer, but the highlight of the day was Michael Owen’s hat-trick.

Gerrard was a part of the “Golden Generation" which included David Beckham, and it was believed England had a genuine shot at the UEFA Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup. However, Gerrard cannot alone be blamed for the colourful generation logic blowing up in the FA’s face.

Nothing compared to the heights he touched with Liverpool. The 2005 UEFA Champions League final in Istanbul, immediately comes to mind. AC Milan had given Liverpool a footballing lesson in the first half, and headed into the break with a seemingly unassailable 3-0 lead. What followed in the second half was 6 minutes of football madness—Gerrard gave Liverpool fans a glimmer of hope with a goal in the 54th minute. Liverpool came back to equalize, the game went to penalties, and Liverpool left Istanbul as the Champions League winners.

Anyone who saw the press conference after England’s exit from Brazil in 2014 would have had an inkling from Gerrard’s demeanour that he was bound to leave. Gerrard played 39 games for Liverpool last season, and knows that with the club returning to the UEFA Champions League for the forthcoming season, the demands will be much greater.

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Published: 23 Jul 2014, 08:13 PM IST
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