No hard feeling from his team-mates
After getting sent off against Manchester United before most people (players included) were even aware he was on the pitch, you’d think the last thing Steven Gerrard’s team-mates needed to hear after they slumped off after a valiant defeat with 10-men was a speech from the club captain.
But that’s what they got.
We can only assume that it wasn’t delivered with as much gusto as Gerrard’s famous on-field battle cry after victory against Manchester City last season.
The Telegraph’s Henry Winter, who was the ghost writer on Gerrard’s autobiography, gives the following account of what took place.
‘The first thing a contrite Steven Gerrard did when arriving back-stage at Anfield on Sunday, having been dismissed for that disgraceful, inexcusable stamp on Ander Herrera, was to ask Liverpool officials how many games he would miss (three). Gerrard then asked to be left alone, sitting in the dressing-room, gathering his thoughts, away from where Adam Lallana, whom he had just replaced at half-time, was receiving treatment.
‘He showered, donned his match-day suit and waited for Brendan Rodgers and the players to return. As they trooped in, and sat down, smarting at a damaging defeat to such bitter foe, Gerrard stood in the middle and addressed them. He apologised to the manager he’d let down badly with his recklessness. He expressed remorse to team-mates he’d left to take on United without him.’
Not that any dressing room were letting slip exactly what he said.
“That’s what he is about,” goalkeeper Simon Mignolet said. “He spoke to the team after the game inside the dressing room and what was said exactly shall stay in there, but it shows who and what he is off the pitch.”
Rumours that he said ‘we need to stamp out any indiscipline’ are, as yet, unproven.
Hat tip to The Telegraph and The Mirror.
