Steven Gerrard: My Liverpool Story (24 page)

CHANGING LANDSCAPE

It will be a miracle if I now realise my dream of
winning the title with Liverpool and of hoisting the League Championship trophy towards the Kop. I know that sounds stark when it is written down and read out loud, but I am not soft. I’m not giving up, but I’m realistic and I am honest. Simple as that. Liverpool will rescale the heights one day, but, on a personal note, time is against me now.

One of the first pieces of advice my dad gave to me was that if you always do your best at something then no one will complain if, in the final reckoning, it ends up not being good enough. I would give my left arm for a title winners’ medal, but if at the end of my career I have fallen short I know it will not have been through a lack of trying from me or my team-mates. We have been close and it is not too long ago that the core of the Liverpool team was as good as anyone in Europe.

I’ve spoken about the impact Fernando Torres had on my game, we had Carra at the back, and there was another person who contributed to the success of our partnership and that was Xabi Alonso.

He was a magician in midfield. The hub of everything we attempted. Every time Alonso’s name comes up in conversation, people will instantly say: ‘fantastic passer’, and he is. I would have so much time on the ball because invariably Alonso would find me and do it so quickly that the opposition did not have time to react.

But despite the cleverness and speed of his passing, that was not the most obvious thing that struck me about him. Actually it was his work rate and his toughness. Xabi is a tough, tough boy.

So when you look at the spine of the team we had for a few seasons, you could not help but be impressed. Pepe Reina, probably the best goalkeeper in the world for a spell after he signed; Jamie Carragher, who between 2004 and 2010 was one of Europe’s best defenders; there was Alonso, who has proved himself to be one of the best passers year after year after year; and alongside him was the Argentina captain, Javier Mascherano, clearing up all the mess and doing all the unheralded work.

I was enjoying my football and playing well, and in attack there was Torres at the very top of his game. One chance, one goal. I revelled playing alongside those players. It is open to debate, but in my mind that spine was better than the core group of players who won the Treble in 2000–01. It was just that the overall team wasn’t as strong. If we had been a bit more astute in the transfer market around the time when Alonso was pulling the strings and Torres was scoring for fun, then that team would have won the league.

No doubt about it, we fell a bit short, but I don’t think anyone has an argument with me that the core of that team didn’t deserve, or wasn’t good enough, to win the league. We finished second to Manchester United in 2009, three points off the top, but despite that small margin, it always felt as though it was a struggle to keep up. Rafa used to say to us all the time: ‘Focus on the next game. Just the next game.’ But when you haven’t won the league before, you lack the experience to do that, and you start looking ahead and thinking, ‘If we win this game and they don’t win that and if that happens. . .’

You can’t help but get carried away and dream. That is the difference between, say, Liverpool, and Manchester United and Chelsea. I hate to say it, but you can add Manchester City to that now, too. They have won the hardest title they will ever have to win because they now possess the know-how and the experience to do it all over again. You can’t buy that – even with all the money they have at their disposal.

So it didn’t happen for us again and when you are at the coal face, you cannot blame anyone but yourselves for not pulling it off. We are responsible for getting results and we fell short. There is no use in pointing fingers, but, at the same time, you cannot help but look back and think ‘what if’. Liverpool provided funds initially and you can’t ask a club to go out of its comfort zone in a financial sense just to make a player happy. The sad thing is seeing how that team has fragmented, although to be honest you have to expect it with foreign players and you can’t afford to be too emotional towards them when they do move on. Look at Mascherano. He had the chance to go to Barcelona and I don’t know any South American in the world who doesn’t want to play at the Nou Camp.

Xabi Alonso had his own problems, which began when Rafa wanted to bring Gareth Barry in and move Xabi on in the summer of 2008. I don’t blame Xabi for then getting his agent to see what was out there. It is hard for a Spaniard to turn Real Madrid down, especially when the manager had tried to sell Xabi when he was settled at the club. When some players move they go on about how they are huge Liverpool fans and why leaving is ‘killing’ them. Xabi was genuinely gutted to go. He loved the club and believe me when I say he is a true Liverpool fan. Before every big game he has I will text him and wish him good luck. He does the same to me. A great player, but a great lad, too.

So the owners have tried, managers and players have tried, but we have so far fallen short. We have to accept that. I will never give up on that dream of winning the title. It’s just going to be tough because I know I am running out of time.

“He was a magician in midfield. The hub of everything we attempted.”

Biding My Time

I hate being a substitute for many reasons. For one it suggests that I may be easing my way back after an injury, or that the manager has decided to rest me from his starting line-up. Then there is the fact that when you are warming up on the touchline, the stick you get from some of the crowds in England can be relentless. The best atmosphere, other than Anfield, I have ever played in came against Besiktas in Istanbul in 2007. We lost the game 2–1, but the atmosphere their fans generated was unbelievable. They stood up and were bouncing for 90 minutes. That was a hostile environment.

Gratitude

I’m either pointing towards one of my team-mates by way of thanking him for setting me up with another goal, or I am picking out one of my family members in the crowd. My dad and brother come and watch me all the time. It’s good for me to share my success with them. They have made sacrifices in their lives to help me reach the top.

Keep Calm

The most dangerous part of any game is when you have just scored. Everyone is on a high and concentration can lapse in moments like that. Fernando had just scored against Everton in a Merseyside derby at Goodison Park and I am trying to tell the team that we’ve still got work to do, that we cannot get carried away. That is the role of a captain sometimes. It worked anyway because Fernando scored again and we won 2–0.

Set-piece Specialist

You can see from the shape of my body that I am trying to whip this set-piece right into the centre of the penalty area. Putting pace on corners can cause problems for defenders and open the door for attackers. This corner came at Fulham, a team with players such as Brede Hangeland, Bobby Zamora and Dickson Etuhu – all tall players. They would’ve had a better chance of relieving the pressure if I had just floated the ball across with little pace.

Jump for Joy

We played Everton three times in the space of a fortnight at the start of 2009: once in the league and twice in the FA Cup. We didn’t win any of the matches, drawing twice at Anfield and losing a replay at Goodison Park in which I had hobbled off with a torn hamstring. I scored in both the Anfield games and I always milk my celebrations against Everton because of the amount of stick I get from their fans. But I would rather have won the games.