Why do I have a feeling Gerrard could “win” Liverpool the Premier League if it goes to final day of the season between us and City!
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It’s tough on Rangers but surely they realised a bigger club were bound to come in for him? Stevie even may have had it written in to his contract with them. It’s actually good for LFC as he can now gain exprerience against much stronger opposition, as a prepararion in fulfilling his seemingly ultimate destiny…fingers crossed.
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If there is any Liverpool fan who doesn’t class Steven Gerrard amongst the top 3 players in the history of this club then there is something wrong.
The only person who can rival him for top spot for me is Kenny.
I am 35 so missed out on the Kenny era so for me Stevie G is number 1.
He goes to Villa… shows he can do a job there and then when Klopp decides enough is enough… well, we’ll see how it goes.
Until then I’ll wish him all the best at Villa other than the 2 times a year they come up against us.
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It’s funny how general consensus is that Gerrard needs the Villa move (as a minimum) to possibly be experienced enough to become LFC manager.
But people keep throwing out names like Xabi Alonso and Pep Lijinders.
Lijinders has had less than 6 months as a boss before being fired he’s always been an assistant or involved in youth.
Alonso had had just over two years at a B side, kind of half way between a youth side and a Championship side.
Gerrard has had a year working within our youth teams set up followed by 3 and a half, very successful, years at Rangers. Including not just silverware but record setting/breaking performance and a good style of positive football.
I agree Gerrard isn’t quite seasoned enough to take charge here tomorrow if Klopp left but I just feel surprised there is so much support for those other two.
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I like this by McNulty.
And if he is to eventually end up back at Anfield, he will surely need to be a success at Villa Park to get there.
Everybody wins…
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Me.
I don’t class Stevie as top 3, ever.
To me, absolutely no question he’s top 2, just a toenail behind KK.
No other LFC player to even inch above him for sure. 100%.
ps. I’m from the Keegan era, so…
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People will have their favourites for different reasons, Kenny will top most people’s favourites but Stevie surely has to be in every bodies top few is the point I was making
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I don’t think it’s so unusual.
I personally don’t expect either of them to take over from Klopp when he leaves, but it’s not unrealistic that some fans would be happy to see a boot-room style handover to Pep.
As for Xabi, well, like Gerrard he also started off with youth team experience at Real before going to Sociedad B where just like Gerrard he didn’t just achieve something, he achieved emphatically by gaining promotion for the first time in around 60 years.
I also don’t think it necessarily the case of the two going hand in hand. I think some are saying they want Gerrard but want to see how he does at Villa first and some are saying they don’t want Gerrard irrespective of how he gets on but would prefer one of the other two for whatever reasons. But at least there are some realistic reasons and not just saying they hope Origi develops into player manager because he scored in the Champions League final.
Anyone knows how Stevie set-up his team for Rangers? What was his key strategy; press, possession, counter?
We beat Gerrard’s Aston Villa twice in the league but not so badly we get him sacked.
Having said that, they’ll probably knock us out of the cup…
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Quite right. All three of them are probably not experienced enough at this point. I’d even go so far that Gerrard, even if it goes well for him at Villa during the next two years, won’t still be good enough for LFC. We saw with Rodgers how it goes when a manager with not enough big club experience comes in here: a disaster in the whole (it’s not a question of age btw. Hodgson was an even bigger failure here, for the same reasons).
That’s the last thing I’d wish for Stevie, and why he needs at least another experience after this one, at an even bigger club than Villa. Managing LFC should be reserved for the top dogs, the crowning of a career. Gerrard and Xabi are still far away from it at this point, and I’m sure they know it very well themselves. Lijnders is a slightly different profile than those two, but I’d argue that he isn’t considered and probably isn’t considering himself to be up to the job of taking up Klopp’s mantle when he leaves (hopefully in a long, long time, and then we’ll maybe discuss things differently, who knows).
John Barnes for me.
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It’s wonderful that he’s backed himself to turn things around at villa, big club, big fanbase with expectations and seemingly good owners.
Did very well at Rangers with some notable results in Europe.
My one reservation as I have said before, has he got out of the habit of blaming the players after a bad result? That was a common theme at Rangers.
I think we would all love him to be successful at Villa and put himself in the frame for when Klopp finishes. Personally I just want the best man for the job and I believe (hope) that the owners take a dispassionate view when looking for a successor for Klopp.
Ten Haag, Luis Enrique would be names on my list right now. Who knows though in a few more years.
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A common trend of all great managers is they NEVER blame the players
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Not publically anyway
Absolutely agree 100%. But he has several times. Hoping that it was inexperience but he was at it again when they had a sticky start to the season.
He’s still learning and he has made impressive strides. Going to be very interesting to see how he does and how he has villa playing.
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I think they will “blame” them as a group i.e “we didn’t turn up today” etc. but never single out individuals publicly.
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I don’t know the details of how he criticized the players publicly. If too strong or unreasonable, then yes, that would seem a little off. But if he felt it was warranted, I would trust the manager to know when to wield the stick or the carrot. If it led to an underperforming and dispirited group, then you could argue the method is wrong. If it led to a team that responded to the manager and got results, then that’s the key.
I didn’t follow Rangers week to week, but what I do know from afar is Stevie took to it like a duck to water. Put a suit on. Looked commanding. Assembled a team around him. Led them to the title, for the first time in a decade, unbeaten too.
He definitely has my attention and I can’t wait to see what he does at Villa.
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Think from what I recall. Very similar to how we play. Think their full backs are very involved
If he can get Villa into the europa , or even win a cup for them , he might fit in for Liverpool after Jurgen leaves… will still be a downgrade…
Lot depends on the style of football that he plays at Villa and how close it is to the Liverpool style of play under Jurgen.
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