VOTE: Should McLaren risk Steven Gerrard?

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5th, September 2007

8 Comments

76498202.jpgIt’s a club vs. country fight that’s been simmering all week as England waits to see if Liverpool’s Stevie G will be ready for our decisive Euro qualifiers.
In the red corner is Rafa Benitez who insists that his club captain needs more time to recover from a fractured toe and is adamant that he shouldn’t be forced to play with a pain killing injection – despite handing him a hypodermic when Gerrard last played for the ‘Pool against Chelsea.
And, in the red, white and blue corner, is an increasingly desperate Steve McLaren who seems prepared to offer the midfielder a foot transplant as long as he can take England through to the Finals.
Who will be the last man standing?
We’d be particularly interested to hear the views of any Liverpool fans


Posted in Liverpool

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8 Comments

  1. Mark H says:

    I know how influential Stevie G is.
    But my question is:
    What message does it send to the world when one of the supposed top class international teams goes into a panic frenzy when somebody from the ‘starting XI’ isn’t healthy?
    Where’s the confidence in the English players who will replace them that they want to risk a guy like Stevie G in a game that our B-Side SHOULD be able to win?
    This isn’t the World Cup finals, it isn’t Brazil, Italy, France, Argentina or Germany…
    It’s Israel and Russia for heaven’s sake!
    If he can play, fine…if he’s not 100%, I still love our midfield.

  2. Jeff says:

    As a Liverpool supporter im biased, but, if he ends up playing, he plays, we can’t help that. I don’t think he should of played against Chelsea really, the longer you play with a niggling injury surely the worse it can only get, injections or not. Also agreeing with Mark, doesn’t show much faith in the rest of the english midfield which is a pity

  3. Kipp says:

    No, just no…there’s quality enough in the team that doesnt get the chance

  4. LJ says:

    First he insults him by making Terry (The ppor man’s Carra) captain, then he maroons him on the right so that Fat Lampard doesn’t have to run too much in midfield, and now he’s going to have him possibly augment an injury? What a Berkshire Hunt, that McClaren.
    But then again, we already knew that.
    My pick (4-3-3 of fit and available players): Carson, Richards, Terry, Ferdinand, Baines, Hargreaves, Carrick, Reo-Coker, Wright-Phillips, Owen/Johnson, Joe Cole

  5. Clayton says:

    Shows the immense might of McClown’s imagination and the tenuous position that he needs a crock player to help him. Gerrard will want to play, but the manager should want to win, playing unfit players is not a good sign.

  6. Matt says:

    One thing to remember here guys, Stevie G is big enough and ugly enough to decide if he is fit enough to play! I’m sure he won’t be pushed into playing by Steve ‘David Brent’ MaClaren if he doesn’t want to. We might have some good midfielders in the ranks, but Stevie G isn’t just ‘good’, he’s a match winning player which is what we need considering the chance of us avoiding qualifying (and yes we are avoiding it if we don’t!) are pretty high.
    We’re just too easy to play against, it’s easy just plonk 11 men behind the ball and we’re stuck!

  7. joe says:

    Rest him, you’re fucking up my epl fantasy side!

  8. Anonymous says:

    ‘It’s Israel and Russia for heaven’s sake!’
    Yeah, but our attacking play is so inepth that we struggle to score goals against the likes of Andorra, so Israel and a Hiddink-coached Russia might not be able to score against us but will both be very capable of keeping a clean sheet, dooming us to a humiliating absence from euro 2008…