SLOWLY BUT SURELY, a new Liverpool is emerging. It took Brendan Rodgers the best part of three-and-a-half months to sift through the wreckage left by Luis Suarez’s summer departure to Barcelona and Daniel Sturridge’s unexpected injury crisis. But a 10-game unbeaten run stretching back six weeks has produced encouraging — if scattered — flashes of the intensity and dynamism that so nearly ended Anfield’s long wait for a Premier League title in spectacular style last season.
It’s a shame, then, that whatever Liverpool’s fortunes on the field between now and May, the story will be Steven Gerrard. Countless eulogies have already been written and spoken about the 34-year-old in the days since he announced his decision to end an 18-year professional stay at Anfield, and it now seems inevitable that the achievements of one of England’s biggest clubs will play second fiddle in the public consciousness to its legendary captain’s long farewell.
Beating Chelsea in Tuesday’s League Cup semi-final at Stamford Bridge would be viewed by many through the prism of Gerrard gaining an opportunity to sign off in fittingly glorious fashion at Wembley. But for Rodgers the achievement would carry much greater long-term significance, and particularly if those who tormented the Blues at Anfield a week ago were to shine again.
Trailing to Eden Hazard’s expertly won and converted penalty and with the Premier League leaders in cautiously obstinate mood, Liverpool’s moment of salvation in the 59th minute didn’t involve Gerrard.
Jordan Henderson fed a sharp vertical pass into Raheem Sterling on the half-turn some 40 yards out. The 20-year-old surged into the space vacated by Nemanja Matic and straight at Gary Cahill before finishing nervelessly with his left foot.
It may have been the only explosion of breathtaking quality in an otherwise scrappy game, but it wasn’t entirely without warning. Sterling, refreshed after his winter holiday in Jamaica, was the busiest attacking threat on a pitch heaving with creative talent. Henderson, meanwhile, ran the Liverpool midfield from deep, completing 89 per cent of his 83 passes as the home side clocked up a commanding 62% share of possession.
Perhaps most important of all, he also demonstrated his captaincy potential by holding his own in a running battle with Chelsea’s bruising striker Diego Costa. As Gerrard’s vice-captain and obvious heir to the armband, Henderson’s leadership qualities are being subjected to a startling level of scrutiny. The more pointing, shouting and snarling he can muster, the better.
But whatever he does, Henderson is simply the latest victim of the succession myth that surrounds great players on the wane. Liverpool will never find a replacement for Gerrard, and looking for one would be folly. Even if a midfielder blessed with a similarly broad skill set and match-winning ability existed, one suspects he might have better footballing and financial options than joining a tentative rebuilding project at Anfield.
Clubs don’t replace their greats. They simply move on, re-modelling new teams around new stars with different qualities to varying degrees of success. They normally have more leaders than just the man who wears the armband, too.
“We have enough leaders in that changing room that will now step up and hopefully grow into the type of captain a successful team needs,” Rodgers insisted earlier this month, while backing Henderson to succeed Gerrard and adding: “I see leadership qualities even in the likes of young Raheem Sterling.”
Sterling is a transcendent talent, the one player at Liverpool with Suarez-level potential. His contract negotiation is one of the most important in the club’s recent history but if he stays, Rodgers could once again have an elite match-winner who leads by inspiration.
Henderson, the unglamorous figure mocked and written off repeatedly since his breakthrough at Sunderland, long ago acquired the steel to lead an ambitious club by example.
It’s highly unlikely that either will be able to engender the same level of affection from the Kop as Huyton-born Gerrard, or single-handedly contribute as much all over the pitch to their team’s fortunes as Liverpool’s greatest ever captain. But for Rodgers to achieve his primary objective and build a team capable of bringing major silverware to Anfield, they won’t need to.
The only thing required of Henderson and Sterling is to build on the performances that so troubled Chelsea at Anfield a week ago. Stamford Bridge will be ringing with chants about Gerrard and that slip, but earning a place at Wembley by inflicting Jose Mourinho’s second home humiliation in the space of three days would speak much louder of Liverpool’s emerging leaders.
By Liam Twomey
