Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers: Steven Gerrard can “still play” in holding role

Steven Gerrard and Brendan Rodgers

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is remaining stubborn in his attempts to turn Steven Gerrard into the English Andrea Pirlo by insisting he will continue to play him in a deeper midfield role, despite the captain’s self-confessed concerns.

Gerrard started at the base of Liverpool’s midfield against Stoke City and Aston Villa, two games that saw the Reds concede five goals combined. It was the most recent display, against Villa, that worried many as Gerrard was overrun in midfield and put under immense pressure from kick-off.

It resulted in Liverpool trailing by two first-half goals but were fortunate enough to claw it back and claim a point at Anfield.

“It didn’t work for myself or the team,” Gerrard admitted. “Villa put a lot of men around me and every time I tried to get the ball under control in the first half they swamped me. It wasn’t one of my better 45 minutes.”

Rodgers recognised the problems Gerrard was having so replaced Philippe Coutinho with Lucas Leiva at half-time to allow Gerrard to influence the play in a more attacking role. It worked as he supplied the pass to Suarez who then won a penalty.

“We never got the control in midfield against [Villa’s] diamond and could not build our play, so we needed to change the structure of the team,” Rodgers said. “But there is absolutely no question Steven can play the role and I don’t regard it as a setback, not at all.

“It is a mark of his identity as a player that he could influence the game in that offensive area. It just shows his importance to the team, with the pass he played to put Luis in [to win the penalty] and his composure to take the penalty under pressure.

“The system is irrelevant. Our style will always be to control and dominate games and at times this season we have had to be flexible and adaptable in our play. You have to give credit to the players in that they did that and got something from the game.”

Gerrard’s poor performance and struggles were shown in his passing stats. He completed just 30 passes (73%) which was four fewer than Luis Suarez completed.