Steven Gerrard, Liverpool’s last 20th century player, stood out as if from a different era

‘Anachronism’ was true to Steven Gerrard's Liverpudlian roots, writes Richard Jolly.

As a player and as a personality, Steven Gerrard represents a Liverpool more fitting of the past. Oli Scarff / AFP

Some suggest the 1950s lasted 18 years and began, the theory goes, when the Second World War ended in 1945 before stretching through to the start of the Swinging Sixties in 1963.

In the same vein, perhaps, the 20th century ended at Liverpool on Saturday.

Not just because Anfield’s antiquated main stand is finally being expanded and improved, but because it marked the last appearance on home soil of Steven Gerrard.

Gerrard is the link with the past — a throwback to the days when locals grew up to be captain of their hometown club.

His departure, following Saturday’s game at Stoke City, will mean Jon Flanagan, who is on crutches, is the only Scouser left in Brendan Rodgers’s senior squad.

But it is not only that Gerrard made his debut in 1998 that renders him Liverpool’s last 20th-century footballer.

He is the Merseyside Matt Le Tissier, a specialist in spectacular feats of escapology.

Stylistically, he bears similarities to Bryan Robson, the Manchester United dynamo who was nonetheless an influence on a Liverpool-supporting youngster.

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In an era when the division between predominantly attacking and defensive midfielders renders the box-to-box player an endangered species, Gerrard’s all-action approach made him stand out.

Robson was the embodiment of the captain with the capacity to do everything on the field and Gerrard had similar qualities, which made him a very British player in an increasingly global game.

He displayed a leader’s willingness to take responsibility for everything from snapping into tackles to scoring the crucial goal on the field to his programme notes. (The sense is that few in the modern game write, read or care about their programme notes: Gerrard thought about his.)

He took responsibility for his mistakes and misdemeanours, too. His prompt apology after his recent red card against United may have been a smart public-relations move, but it was also indicative of his character.

Compare and contrast that with his former colleague Luis Suarez, forever insisting he was innocent of his crimes, or those who try to pin blame on opponents or officials as they propagate conspiracy theories.

Not Gerrard, who has an essential honesty to him that meant he rarely made excuses.

He was that rarity in 21st-century football, an anti-tactics player.

A paradox of Gerrard’s career is that he spent the majority of it playing for managers, in Gerard Houllier, Rafa Benitez and Rodgers, with tactical fixations.

Yet Gerrard had a propensity to roam everywhere and anywhere and an ability, at his best, to win games regardless of the tactics.

Some of his triumphs were superhuman, not strategic.

Even in his look, he stood out. His aversion to bling made him unusual and, as one social-media verdict said: “709 games, one haircut”.

Added to that could be “no tattoos”, which puts him in a minority in recent Liverpool dressing rooms.

Indeed, looking at the Liverpool programme reinforces the impression that Gerrard is the anomaly.

His furrowed brow, the lines on his forehead showing the strain of captaining and, at times, carrying the club during a dozen years, makes him look older than Rodgers which, in itself, can be a reflection of the manager’s ever more inventive attempts to reverse the anti-ageing process.

In appearance, as on the football field, there is a natural element to Gerrard.

The willingness to be the midfield enforcer showed he still had something of the street footballer inside him.

That those streets were in Huyton is significant, too, because, as Gerrard heads for Los Angeles Galaxy, it is likely English audiences will always regard him as a one-club footballer.

Unlike others, such as his friend Jamie Carragher, he had offers to leave: Chelsea tempted him, but Gerrard said no.

In a similar situation, Raheem Sterling seems certain to say yes.

They were the actions of a man out of time, citing neither Uefa Champions League football nor winning silverware as reasons to leave and not looking to the biggest bidder.

They are reasons why Gerrard goes as Liverpool’s glorious anachronism.

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