‘It was a moment of madness’.
Jamie Carragher said about Steven Gerrard today, following the Liverpool captain’s sending off for stamping on Ander Herrera.
Carragher knows Gerrard better than most, the two are close friends and spent the overwhelming majority of their career playing alongside each other.
So no-one should really expect the Sky Sports pundit to publicly slate Gerrard, but Carragher made allowances for the player that were hard to fathom.
‘I think the frustration of not playing, of being on the bench,’ Carragher said, ‘and that tackle flying in, has made him do it’.
If another player had done what Gerrard done today there would have been outrage. Carragher and Thierry Henry went out of their way to make allowances for the most experienced player on the pitch acting like a rookie on his debut.
Angel di Maria has moved from Madrid to Manchester, has had his house burgled and is currently living in a hotel and, until recently, been part of a stuttering team. Granted Di Maria has underperformed, but no allowances are ever made on his behalf.
Gerrard made a fatal mistake, but instead it has been twisted into focusing on the player’s perceived qualities.
‘You think of some of Steven Gerrard’s best games for Liverpool,’ Carragher said. ‘The cup final against West Ham, Istanbul, that is not him playing with his head, being calculated and calm. That is him playing with his heart. He is an emotional player’.
The fact that Gerrard is ‘an emotional player’ is exactly the problem. He is still, at almost 35 years of age and a career spanning three decades, allowing his heart to rule his head. Carragher cites the Champions League final win in 2005 as a time when Gerrard won the tie through ‘playing with his heart’, but that’s simply not the case.
Rafa Benitez’s tactical switch got Liverpool a foothold in the game. Gerrard was excellent from the second-half onwards, but if he had have been playing with his head, the team wouldn’t have been 3-0 down at half-time.
Today Gerrard was clearly subbed in to get Liverpool some type of grip on the game. They’d stood off Manchester United during the first-half, struggling to deal with their compact midfield when in possession and were in desperate need of a spark.
What they didn’t need was someone running around like a headless chicken, charging into tackles like a rookie fresh out of the youth team. Gerrard needed to keep his emotions in check and perform like he’s the most experienced on the pitch. Charging into tackles might appease the Anfield fans, but it’s not going to help his team.
Once again the Liverpool captain allowed his heart to rule his head.
After he slipped in last season’s infamous game against Chelsea, Gerrard bombed forward in the second-half, shooting, over-hitting passes, doing anything he could to try amend for his error. Admirable, but unnecessary and ultimately costly.
Gerrard’s sending-off conveys exactly why the player’s Liverpool career is coming to an end. He can’t perform the lung-busting, all-action, Roy of the Rovers, heroic saviour role, so he has chosen to leave. At a stage in his career when players such as Andrea Pirlo, Paul Scholes and even Frank Lampard, rely on their game intelligence, discipline and nous, Gerrard is still trying to channel the spirit of his twenty-five year old self.
The final stage in a world class player’s career must be difficult, and Gerrard has seemingly struggled more than most. The reluctance to accept a reduced role, in both the squad and the reduction of his physical attributes, clearly weighs heavy on him.
In MLS, in a few months, surrounded by significantly weaker opponents, he can be a version of his former self.
After the game, Gerrard said: ‘I need to accept it, the decision was right. I’ve let down my team-mates and the supporters. I take full responsibility. I’ve been in the game long enough when you do something like that. I take full responsibility. I don’t know what caused it. I don’t know’.
One may say Gerrard showed admirable qualities to come out and apologise after the game, but, even after the event, Gerrard can’t explain what went wrong.
Carragher may feel Gerrard’s emotion may have been helped Liverpool in the past, but it’s costing them now and the player seemingly still can’t see it.
