Sometimes going forward entails a trip backwards. It is the seemingly contradictory theory designed to extend Steven Gerrard’s career.
As Liverpool, who in the past four-and-a-half years have gone backwards more times than they care to remember, hope to make the giant leap forward into the Uefa Champions League, Gerrard has never been deeper.
The seventh-highest scorer in their history now is found in their own penalty box more often than he ventures into the opponents’. Steven Gerrard, anchorman: it is an intriguing reinvention.
It is an experiment that, in its brief period, has succeeded spectacularly and failed dreadfully.
In a chastening first 45 minutes against Aston Villa, he was hassled and harried by the younger, sharper Andreas Weimann – “They swamped me,” Gerrard conceded – and grateful for the half-time introduction of Lucas Leiva to relieve him of some defensive duties. In the 4-0 defeat of Everton, he was a commanding presence, orchestrating Liverpool’s counter-attacks with authoritative excellence.
Yet Saturday brings the stiffest test of the remodelled Gerrard: can he stifle Mesut Ozil?
If it bodes well that manager Brendan Rodgers’s plan worked perfectly against Everton who, with their passing ethos, may present the Premier League’s closest comparison to Arsenal, Gerrard’s job is far harder.
His immediate Everton opponent was a semi-fit Ross Barkley. Now it is Ozil, Arsenal’s elusive orchestrator in chief. Barkley, with his power, is a budding Gerrard, a forceful Scouser who can play off the striker. Ozil is a pure passer, a seemingly frail figure.
This is a clash of opposites. It is the technical against the physical, the man who instinctively keeps the ball against the gambler who surrenders possession in his bid to fashion a goal.
Ozil a short passer, Gerrard likes raking long balls. It is a reason why his pass completion rate as a holding midfielder, around 76 per cent, is low: whereas most of his counterparts focus on ball retention, he tries to split defences.
He is the quarterback, looking to supply the final ball from deep.
“He gives us great variety in his passing,” said Rodgers. It is a passing range that has led the Liverpool manager to compare Gerrard to Andrea Pirlo, a constructive player in a position where others tend to be destructive.
“He has got the personality to play in that controlling role,” Rodgers said. “You need to have charisma and leadership qualities to play in there.” In that respect, Gerrard is less like the languid Pirlo than David Luiz, a colossal presence with a magnetic attraction to the ball.
Yet, in a job with multiple assignments, it pays to resemble Claude Makelele, to have a sixth sense and be able to snuff out danger before it has arisen.
Saturday’s match may prove if Gerrard has that instinct. Rodgers said his switch entailed “reprogramming”, deploying a mechanical word to describe a natural footballer.
Arsenal are particularly adept at using space around the edge of the penalty area to supply the final pass. This is where Ozil is at his best, where Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere can converge.
Subduing the Arsenal inventors requires a shield in defensive midfield. Yet with Lucas injured, Jordan Henderson deployed a little further forward and seemingly suffering from a season of non-stop football and with Philippe Coutinho offering negligible assistance when Liverpool lose the ball, Rodgers’s recalibrated 4-1-4-1 means one man may stand alone: Gerrard.
He has a sense of responsibility which explains why, last week at West Bromwich, he retreated into defence to help a fallible back four. He played almost like a third centre-back.
Now Liverpool’s need is for a high-class holding midfielder, with an uncanny ability to read the game, to track Ozil and halt Arsenal.
sports@thenational.ae
