Steven Gerrard made his 600th appearance for Liverpool in the 1-1 draw with Newcastle United on Sunday which puts him tenth on the list of all time appearances for the club. To reach such a high level of appearances for one club is very rare in modern day football, which makes it a very big achievement.
That's not to deny that Gerrard has almost left the club on a few occasions, but thankfully for Liverpool fans he decided to stay at the club. For me, Steven Gerrard is the best player to ever play for Liverpool. For years, his all-round ability meant he could influence games from any position and he usually did. At times Steven was playing along side some pretty average players, and he often won games for Liverpool almost single-handedly. He has scored some of the greatest goals in the club's history both in terms of quality and importance and his importance to the club should never be underestimated.
As Gerrard has entered the later stages of his career and injuries have become more frequent, his influence has decreased slightly, but he is still hugely important to Liverpool in the short term. I believe that Gerrard is
the best finisher at the club and I think that is the reason why he should be playing on the right hand side of the front three instead of playing as one of the midfield three.
There are a number of benefits that Liverpool will get by playing further up the pitch; firstly he will be closer to the goal, and hopefully this will lead to him getting more chances. Secondly, it will get him closer to Luis Suarez. These two men are by far the most likely players to score goals, and by getting them closer to each other they will be able to link up play and create chances for one another, in a similar way to the Gerrard/Torres partnership that worked so well a few years ago.
Also, Steven's body would also find it easier to cope with the workload if he no longer had to be the 'box to box' midfielder. His recent injury record isn't great, and with Liverpool's widely-reported and well-known lack of goalscorers, we can't afford to lose him for a long period of time.
Liverpool fans of my generation will always hear stories of how good the team was in the seventies and eighties and tales of the great players from years gone by such as Keegan, Souness, Dalglish, Rush etc. The next generation of Liverpool fans won't get the privilege of seeing Gerrard play, but I'm sure they'll hear plenty of stories explaining why many believe he is the club's greatest ever player.
