'He had no impact!' - Fairclough blasts 'ineffective' Gerrard. Drop him?

For whatever reason, Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard is going through a patch of poor form right now. Every player has bad games, and Gerrard has experienced bad patches in the past, but the difference this time is he's making costly mistakes that are costing Liverpool goals. Gerrard is usually exempt from criticism by fans and ex-players, but somewhat surprisingly, Reds legend David Fairclough has delivered a withering assessment of the skipper's performance against Arsenal.

Analysing the Arsenal defeat for LFC TV last night, Fairclough - who won six league titles and three European Cups during his time at Anfield - said:

"I thought Stevie was so ineffective today, and I can't remember him playing so badly. He just didn't impact on the game at all. It pains me to say it because I hate being critical of him, but that was the most ineffective game I can remember Stevie playing".

I disagree with Fairclough that the Arsenal game was Gerrard's 'most ineffective game' - that came two weeks ago against West Brom (!) Some observations about Gerrard's performances recently:

* Passing accuracy (PS): This needs to improve. In every league game so far, Gerrard has had the worst PA of all the midfielders. It was the same against Arsenal: Gerrard's PA was 80%, whilst both Sahin and Joe Allen managed 93%. Shelvey, Downing and Sterling were also well ahead of him.

* Hollywood passes: Tied to PA is Gerrard's tendency to always try the spectacular. Watching the Arsenal game, I counted at least 6 instances where Gerrard tried to play an unrealistic 'Hollywood ball' instead of just keeping it simple and playing to feet.

* Tactical indiscipline: Gerrard seems to be struggling to fit into Rodgers' preferred style. He played on the right of the midfield three yesterday, but constantly kept dropping deep in search of the ball, instinctively trying to get more involved with the play. This meant that he was rarely able to support Suarez and Borini in the box. In the final 15 minutes, Gerrard stayed further up the field, and Liverpool began to create changes.

* Trust: Gerrard has to trust his fellow midfielders; he doesn't have to do it all himself! It's clear that his role this season is as an attacking midfielder, so he should stay further up the field and trust that Allen, Sahin, Lucas, Shelvey - or whoever is playing deeper - will get the job done.

It's hard to admit it but right now, Gerrard is arguably the weakest link in Liverpool's midfield. As Fairclough said, he had no consistent impact against Arsenal, and his sloppy passing allowed Arsenal to counter-attack at pace and score the first goal.

Due to the paucity of experienced options in Liverpool's squad, Gerrard is a guaranteed starter at the moment, but as we've seen with the increasingly error-prone Pepe Reina, this can cause complacency.

Gerrard should not be so untouchable, and the odd rest every now again (to assist with recovery/prolonging his career) would probably do him some good. Blasphemy, you say? Perhaps, but surely all fans agree with the general principle that players should be in the team on merit?

Do Gerrard's performances this season merit continued inclusion in the starting line-up...?

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Jaimie Kanwar