17 Mar 2012

Chelsea Legend: LFC is an 'orphan' without 'untouchable' Star. Is he right?

Has there ever been a more overpraised Liverpool player than Steven Gerrard? After this hat-trick against Everton earlier this week, the hyperbole over the Liverpool captain has snowballed out of control, with Liverpool players past and present grossly exaggerating his status in the game. Now, former Chelsea star Frank Laboeuf has joined the Gerrard love-fest.

Don't get me wrong: I'm a big fan of Gerrard; he's proven himself to be a world class player, and he's one of the all-time Liverpool FC greats, but the deification he's received this week is sycophantic and exaggerated in my view.

Speaking to ESPN on Wednesday, Laboeuf - who won the World Cup and European Championship with France - admitted that Liverpool still rely too much on Gerrard, but he was full of praise for the club captain:

"I love that guy. Nobody can touch him; nobody can say that he became an average player, or that he doesn't influence Liverpool anymore.

"He is a legend, and he showed [against Everton] that he still has the influence and the leadership that everybody is expecting from him.

"He's a fantastic guy, and without him Liverpool seems to be kind of an orphan".


Liverpool are an 'orphan' without Gerrard? Nonsense. The 'one-man team' myth just never seems to die, and perpetuating it is disrespectful to the many top players who've helped the club achieve success over the last twelve years.

It's difficult to see who is going to fill the void when Gerrard retires. With the likes of Keegan, Dalglish, Barnes, Beardsley, Rush, Fowler, McManaman, Owen and Gerrard, Liverpool have been lucky enough to have continuity when it comes home-grown creative players with that 'X' factor, but once Gerrard goes, who is going to pick up the slack?

Jaimie Kanwar


39 comments:

  1. let's be honest without Suarez and Gerrard in attacking areas, the liverpool attack is derisory.  One swallow doesn't make summer.  

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  2. Hmmm, im wondering why all the fuss about Gerrard on this site suddenly....first we have Souness's comments, now we have this article piping up about why Stevie is receiving such praise after the Everton game.

    Makes me laugh really, Liverpool fans are very reluctant to accept how good he is, never really understood that tbh, i recall in Rafas end of reign period some posters suggesting how we should sell him.....how he can't play CM, unbelievable that the fan base have been so cold on Gerrard over the years.

    Yet he has provided us with some of our best football and was the driving force behind anything good thats happened at the Club over the last 8-10 years......

    I don't see whats so wrong about him getting some praise tbh, might be OTT but fcuk me if you want OTT then check out some of the praise for Lucas......now THAT is OTT......

    Funnily enough i read how many fans were more impressed by Suarez's assists.....than they were with Gerrards goals.....very reluctant to give any credit.......

    The irony being that Suarez didn't really choose to set up Stevie for the first assist, he was pissing around with the ball when Gerrrard just came flying in to smash it home...

    LOL, so many LFC fans with agenda's its hardly surprising that we are underperforming with a divided Club like it is atm.....

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  3. The only player to score in every major cup final.
    Strange how with Gerrard being injured for the last couple of seasons we have had no Champions League football is that because we have been missing his 10 to 20 league goals a season he has come back to late to save this season! Or has he?
    But some fans seem to actually miss how important Gerrard and his goals have been.

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  4. Steve G is just irreplaceable, he would have been the best in the world if he'd had played in a good team, if he'd had better players covering different areas. Man, i'm speechless as well as sad that he hasn't got a title medal on his chest. We've definitely not made use the most of this outstanding player! KD get the hell out, ur clueless mate! Bring Rafa back ASAP!

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  5. I rarely agree with you but I do on this.   Gerrard has been above average for most of his career and has had some purple patches in particular games or in a run of a few games in which he was very good especially when he teamed with Torres.  But even in his best times he was never truly world class.  The exaggeration of his abilities began with Houllier.   Gerrard seems to have needed this exaggeration.  When Rafa was a little bit more realistic (and in the process got some of the best performances from him), Gerrard complained that he was  not being appreciated enough.  His commitment to Liverpool is also exaggerated.  He twice was on the brink of moving to Chelsea.  Like Owen before him he is too interested in his international career at the expense of Liverpool.   He is not a strong character.  He is moody and given to long periods when he loses focus and energy.  He was heavily influenced by Owen and then by Carragher.  Carragher over-praises him regularly partly because Carragher has an agenda to exaggerate the role of Liverpool-born players like himself.   Dalglish also overpraises him - for example when he was called as a character witness when Gerrard was on trial for assault - an episode that seriously disrupted the squad in the year everyone expected it to go on to great things.  In that year - Rafa's last - Gerrard and Carragher performed very badly and were one of the main reasons for the great disappointment.  But while the team was languishing those two were very enthusiastic about the English team.   Gerrard has played very badly many times and because of the exaggerated deference paid to him by managers and the media his poor performances have pulled the team down.   His sense of entitlement - reinforced by media exaggeration - has intimidated younger players and foreign players.

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  6. We have never won the league while Gerrard and Carragher have been in the team and we never will as long as so exaggerated deference is paid to Gerrard.  It would have been better for LFC as a club if he had gone to Chelsea the two times he almost did.

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  7. who will replace SG? KK love boy Henderson!

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  8. KK is gay...he loves jordan henderson

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  9. Theycallmemrburt2:48 pm, March 17, 2012

    Fantastic post.  well said.

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  10. Where was SG when we played great the 2nd half of last season???, injured..................Liverpool are no one man team, Gerrard, Bellamy, Suarez, Carroll, Adam, Downing etc......................hardly!!!!!

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  11. Too the muppets who are down grading gerrard in there posts il just say this. About 3 years ago zinedine zidane said "Is he the best in the world? He might not get the attention of [Lionel] Messi and Ronaldo but, yes, I think he just might be," Zidane said. "If you don't have a player like Steven Gerrard, who is the engine room, it can affect the whole team.
    "When we were winning league titles and European Cups at Real, I always said Claude Makelele was our most important player. There is no way myself, [Luis] Figo or Raúl would have been able to do what we did without Claude and the same goes for Liverpool and Gerrard.
    "He has great passing ability, can tackle and scores goals, but most importantly he gives the players around him confidence and belief. You can't learn that – players like him are just born with that presence."

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  12. Where is your prove he intimidates young players and foreign players? Libellous accusations! You seem to know a lot about Gerrard should go to the papers with it! Blaming the players for 09/10 season?Nothing to do with Rafa buying an injured player to replace Alonso then? No cover for when Torres injured? Spending £17 million on Johnson? 
    Not giving Hypia a 2 year contract.Rafa's last season went wrong because of his failure in replacing Alonso we could have had Van Der Vart and Sneijder they could have been part of the Alonso deal to put pressure on Gerrard to perform like when Rafa brought Alonso and Sissoko and Mascherano .

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  13. Chi Bai lu, me Ashfah says the club is not a one man team.

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  14. Who did Gerrard up set in your family then? Far to much of a personal attack on a player who has rarely let the team down.

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  15. You want to change this thread to a discussion of Rafa.  Briefly, I disagree with your analysis for the relatively "bad year" which was no worse than Hodgson or Dalglish have managed with substantial more funds at their disposal and better owners.

    We hit hard times because of the actions of the former owners and Purslow. But when Rafa was under pressure in that year, Gerrard did not speak out in his defense - as Rafa had for him in the summer - and Gerrard and Carragher became willing tools of Purslow in his attempt to split the dressing room.  They supplied much of the anti-Rafa gossip to their friend Danny Murphy (rightly sold by Rafa) and their mouthpiece, Bascombe 

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  16. Using your line of argument, who in your family is a friend of Gerrard that you would make such a silly statement that he rarely let the team down.  He has let the team down this season and every season he has played.

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  17. lets be honest without gerrad and suarez...wed have signed other players.  no one can match gerrard, but wed have signed a good att mid, if we didnt have suarez we may have signed a striker who likes to score goals, which would be nice.  maybe without the legend of gerrard to carry the team wed have a better squad cos previous owners/managers would have had to work harder on signings if they hadnt had gerrard to  carry the dead weight.  no one knows, but the point is we have got gerrard, and do have suarez.  im proud to say i remember gerrards debut, and many huge performances since.  im honoured to have grown up watching such a legend week in week out, and im gonna enjoy watching him run games hopefully for years to come.

    give a sh*t about suarez, skillful but sh*t finisher, to much drama, and depending on the truth of quotes, not enough loyalty.  psg offer us £40 mill id jump at the chance.

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  18. Agreed with every word

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  19. Players are always over-praising each other.  They share agents, sponsors, do favours for each other and sometimes praise a player to please the audience of a particular TV or Radio station or interviewer.  Players are not necessarily wise, disinterested judges.  

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  20. fk you you conspiracy theory bellend, to critiscise gerrad and carra in defence of rafa, your a joke.  benitez did well at times, but was no messiah.  stevie and jamie deserve more respect, oh, and danny murphy was a hero, rightly sold? fair enough, not the greatest footballer ever, but certainly deserved an 05 CL medal more than some who got one.  and kenny hasnt had more funds than rafa you numpty, he sold so much that we have spent about £30 mill out the bank, even when rafa was doing shite he spunked cash.  £20 mill for a broken italian doesnt make you better than someone who spent £20 mill on a shite winger, it makes you just as bad.

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  21. I'd jump at the chance of selling Gerrard for less than half of that!  But he will never leave.  He is far too well-paid and would never get the exaggerated adulation anywhere else that he gets in Liverpool.

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  22. You mentioned Carragher and then Rafa. Yes we did hit hard times ,so you don't buy injured players then do you if your transfer funds are tight and seeing Aquilani cost £17 million you would have thought Rafa would have been more careful with his spending.
    In the end none of the players backed Rafa, he had up set the owners beyond repair the club was in open warfare, players knew Rafa's time was up, you don't take on business men and try and paint them as the enemy to the fans if you want to stay in a job he backed himself into a corner he couldn't get out off.

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  23. Honestly, its kinda true. I dread the day that Gerrard retires, all the memories of him, who can match that? And if you say Gerrard has missed games this season and we have been able to handle it, it doesn't apply because we were always expecting him to come back and into the starting lineup. To me, Gerrard and Liverpool are one of the same, and I can only hope that a player can step up and express what Liverpool is. 

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  24. Such nonsense!   Many players backed Rafa at the time and subsequently.   H&G were the enemy!  Rafa was the only one with vision and courage to stand up to them.  Where have you been?  Don't you know about the debt, the hiving off of money, the appalling decisions such as making the unqualified Purslow a kind of Football Director/Coach. 

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  25. The only 'orphan' without Gerrard is Torres, plain and simple. They formed Liverpool's deadliest attacking pair EVER - as seen on LFCtv.

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  26. Yes H&G were the enemy but they were still the owners no one in a job can take on the owners and expect to win,he had already seen the back of Parry now he was doing it to Purslow.
    He played himself into a strong position with a new contract and should waited it out he had the fans on his side.
    Reina talked about relegation Torres said it was best Rafa had left hardly ringing endorsements of Rafa.

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  27. Reina said that he came to  LFC because of Rafa and his vision and that he was disturbed by the events and that it was best Rafa left for Rafa's sake.   Torres said that Rafa was the best manager he ever had and had taught him so much.  The remark you referred to was to the effect that the events were hurting Rafa.  He subsequently asked to leave because Rafa and his vision was not there and Reina said something similar last year when he was considering leaving.

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  28. i wonder if half you lot actually understand the logic of the game. totally cluless comments. gerrard is a one off breed, and there wont be one for liverpool or any other british club in a long time. he is that comic guy roy of the rovers, no fancy panzie dan.
    the only problem he has had is injurys, give me a player that has played at the top for ten years plus in centre mid that has been blindingly consistant not one average season. they dont exist.
    so all the knockers get in the real world of football

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  29.  you spout utter drivel "He's let the team down every season he has played" and "He's average at best"
    You're either a bitter Manc\Chelsea fan or a single celled protozoa from Pluto that knows f**k all about football.What a total tw@t you are.

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  30. Chris Rossington1:21 am, March 18, 2012

    I cant believe what your saying, over gerrards liverpool carear he has been nothing less than spetacular. Who cares if praise has been ott. He has been a great player over the years and when people around you at anfield have been questioning after his injury has he still got it, well after the everton game the answer is yes, he still has got it. we have to realise he is going to lose his powers but over the years he has been an amazing idol for me personally that never say die attitude and the goal against olympiakos and the winner against west ham in the fa cup final will forever live in my memory. Fellow football proffesionals who praise our captain should not be negatively disclaimed, they should above anyone else understand what it takes to be a top player and nobody can deny that gerrard has been and will continue to be a top player for the next couple of years

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  31. Sorry, but Gerrard is a legend. He bailed us out last season against Napoli, FA Cup final against West Ham, Champions League final against AC Milan, scored the winner against Olympiakos and nearly guided us to a 1st place finish alongside Torres. It's a sad state of affairs when we still rely on him to put three past the Toffees, because no-one else can put the ball in the back of the net. 
    He's one of the most naturally gifted Englishman of his generation, and one of the few who've been able to look terrificly un-english when playing alongside Spaniards, Argentinians and Brazilians. 

    Dalglish has got us in a right mess, and unfortunately, all Gerrard's hat-trick did was paper over the cracks of a really crap season and a really crap squad. He's a legend, and it's not his fault we are regressing into a dire state of English mediocrity. 

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  32. Nice one pal. They are footballers. Not machines. Show me a footballer who has consistently played every single game for club and country winning MOTM displays for 10 years?. Stupid illogical Comments from wankers who probably never played football. lowee78 I am with you.

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  33. That mantle has now passed to Lucas and Gerrard and Suarez have become our Zidane and Figo.

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  34. By "home-grown" you mean "British"? Why is that important to Liverpool's history? Scouse may be important but Scottish or Welsh (or Jamaican - Barnes)? I don't have any idea of the point you are trying to make about Liverpool being "lucky" to have these "home-grown" replacements?

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  35. You have no idea mate.....

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  36. Has there ever been a more overpraised player than Gerrard? 

    Right from the top of my head I can give you at least three; Kuyt, Lucas & (on this site at least) Martin Kelly!

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