Steven Gerrard’s Captaincy – Part Deux
AN ARTICLE BY JERRY
I like these debates.. They really interest me when its about perception and reflection and I appreciate reading how others perceive such subjects. This particular debate is especially interesting as it’s about two players and their respective qualities that I (we all do) greatly admire.
Before I delve though, I want to say that I agree with pretty much every word Jock had to say on the subject. The stuff of legend about Stevie and the deficiencies he helped to mask is unquestionable. As a squad back then we really did struggle in the depth stakes and for far too many times he kept this Club relevant. Yet I do feel there is more behind this story, which for me adds a tad more colour to my thinking of the “what if” we’re debating.
“If Stevie had Hendo’s qualities as a Captain, could he have lifted that elusive Premiership title.”
I guess it’s best to begin with how I saw/see their respective qualities as Captain.
Stevie was the main man, our man mountain leading by example. “Give the ball to Stevie” was both verbalised and mentally willed by practically all of us when we thought a break was on and more often than not the squad around Stevie duly delivered. Cometh the hour, cometh the man” is right, as Jock said, as Stevie accepted this responsibility and bore the weight of our collective wishes and it’s this, his strength, that with the benefit of hindsight and consideration of how Hendo captains, makes me feel that perhaps it was also our or a weakness.
In a bitesize comparison, I saw Stevie as (THE) one that took responsibility, whereas Hendo is one that gives it. He will berate and/or encourage those around him to take responsibility for themselves, constantly motivating them and In doing so, making our whole greater than the sum of its parts.
For the sake of keeping this read bearable I’m concentrating on the 08/09 season that Jock offered as an example of when we came bloody close. Again as mentioned and felt by I guess all of us, we have to accept that we were beat by a far superior squad of players in ManU. To be as close as we were was mainly down to our Captain and the perception that we only performed when either or both he and Torres were up for it is both damning and partly true but I don’t feel it’s the full picture, not in the slightest.
Our squad was a real mixed bag for sure, but for every N’Gog and Voronin (I had to check but we actually loaned him out that season), we also had Robbie Keane and Dirk Kuyt providing 17 PL goals between them. Add the diminutive Yossi with another 8 and that’s 25 in total and not far off Stevie’s and Torres’s combined tally of 30. Our MF had some duds but we also had a trio in Stevie, Alonso and Masch that were the equal of Becks, Scholes and Keane in their pomp.. Even our defence finished the season bettered only by ManU and Chelsea and with that being by a whole 3 goals over the 38 games. We had a lot of talent in the squad too.
The 08/09 season was the epitome of and culprit for the now (really and very) ageing soundbite “we draw too many,” yet we finished 4pts off the winners but with a superior goal difference. We lost only twice but drew an eye opening 11 games. Amongst those draws were Stoke (twice), Fulham, West Ham, Hull, Wigan and um, the blueshite…
The Premiership was growing but it wasn’t the financial behemoth it has become. Those teams I just mentioned didn’t contain the mix of quality we see these days amongst the lower level teams of the Premiership. “Every team can beat any team” wasn’t a saying so much in those days and for good reason. So considering our squad mix and likewise, it being itself a superior squad over those teams, I really do believe that we could have done a bit better if our boys took more individual responsibility and played more as a team. If they ignored us fanatics screaming “pass it to Stevie” and worked the ball a bit more as a unit, I do not think it a stretch to consider we could have taken another 4pts.
I do believe that more of Hendo’s approach to captaining would have seen a more cohesive unit with a team that put the team first and I do reflect and wonder if that could have been enough to win Stevie the medal we all wished for him….. I mean…. 4 points!
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