I have seen a lot of thinkpieces over the past few days on Steven Gerrard’s legacy. Here’s mine.
The 34-year-old had his hopes for a dream send-off in the FA Cup final in Wembley Stadium against Arsenal on his birthday dashed by Aston Villa. Aston Villa, as most traditional football minds think, is nowhere near as good as Liverpool. This defeat has seemingly called into question various parts of Gerrard’s legacy.
How clutch can a player be, after all, if he never won the Premier League? If he couldn’t succeed on the biggest stage, how can we verify his status as a superstar, or, more accurately for the present situation, a superstar-in-waning?
His career-defining moment, then, is the famous slip against Chelsea. This one moment clearly showed that Steven Gerrard is unable to get it done when it counts. He is an unmitigated choker and has been for his entire career.
That sounds harsh, but let’s consider the facts. Fact one: he never won the Premier League. Fact two: he slipped against Chelsea last season. Fact three: his team couldn’t even hack it against Aston Villa in the semifinals of the FA Cup. AND LET’S NOT FORGET HE GOT A RED CARD AGAINST MANCHESTER UNITED. This, to me, decries a blatant lack of leadership.
Steven Gerrard, it can be concluded, is not a good leader. His teammates will not answer when he calls, will not follow in his lead.
That is, of course, if Gerrard is indeed making a lead that is worthy of following. It’s hard to be inspiring when you’re a one-dimensional midfielder with questionable pace who only shoots long balls.
People don’t really go in for that sort of thing, least of all professional footballers. It takes dazzling skill to be a superstar, and is anybody else questioning whether Gerrard has that?
He has consistently shown to be a serviceable center-mid who can pass the ball around, take a long shot every now and again, and send in a decent corner kick. Is he more than that? I would say no.
He does not raise his play to the level of the occasion like actual superstars.
He is mired in the muck where all the other superstars can fly above it.
It is, perhaps, a blessing that Gerrard is hanging up his cleats this season. Liverpool will be better off re-tooling without him. He cannot lead younger players and help develop them, so there is no use for him.
He will do much better in Hollywood, where the regular citizens are used to superstars with so little substance.
