Do we need a Roy Keane type captain to knock a few heads together and make sure the players stop putting in half arsed performances against the bottom half teams? Not basing it on yesterday alone, but to use some examples do some people feel we lack leadership in certain areas, I mean who was getting into the ref's face telling him the West Brom players deserved more bookings than they had? Or that his decisions had been poor? You can guarantee Terry/Lampard would make sure the referee's knew, so would Giggs/Ferdinand. And who's the guy rallying us on the pitch after going down to 10 men, instead of fighting back we just crumbled in on ourselves like we did against QPR, Arsenal etc last season.
Unfortunately Stevie G looks a shadow of his form self, the injuries have taken their toll on him. His best attribute as captain was that he would inspire the team to play above and beyond, the past couple of season I cant remember any games where he has dragged us out of a hole like he used to.
I think Shelvey will grow into the role. He is aggressive, dominant, and also extremely talented, just a shame he's been dropped again. I'd rather see a midfield of Shelvey-Lucas-Allen and move Gerrard up behind Suarez and Assaidi.
Gerrard has never been a vocal captain, with his "leading by example" I was shocked in 05, when he was flapping his hands after scoring in the final, as that was the very first, and probably only time, I have seen his do anything Captain like. Looking at how Kelly hated yesterday's performance, I think he show promise for some point in the future.
Should be Gerrard but he seems to have lost that sort of drive in his game. Lucas is the quiet one. Could do with Agger being that man.
Completely agree. Gerrard as a player is struggling but probably more so as a leader. When we go one nil down, our heads drop and we rarely fight back these days.
What annoys me with Gerrard is if a player mis-places a pass. He used to encourage and lead by example, now he just waves his arms in a disgruntled manner and turns his back on the game. That is no way to encourage or lead your teammates, especially when we have so many young players too. I realise players get frustrated and looking at the players Gerrard used to be alongside, I bet he gets extremely frustrated at times, but that is not going to help the cause. I don't think taking the armband off him will help mind. He always seems to perform better when captain (going by England here since it's only happened once at Liverpool)
I used to love it when he lost the ball, he would sprint the player down and put an incredible tackle in to win the ball back. That just doesn't happen anymore. Completely lost his drive, only there for the big games against the scum.
Yeah I noticed that as well but I think everyone is just frustrated nowadays to be fair. It's probably bold but I would like the captaincy to go to Suarez. He's the captain of his country so he is used to the responsibility. He can definately lead by example and with passion and hunger...
Good point from the OP, we seemed to lack a voice on the pitch and there doesn't seem to be an obvious candidate. Gerrard was probably concentrating on the change of play/formation etc and I would imagine he will get more vocal as he settles into the changes but still the question is relevant as shouldn't be looking to him for everything.
It's not just hat game, he's been doing it for a while now, at least two seasons Suarez for captain...? Not sure about that one. If we are going to take it off Gerrard, I'd give it to Agger if we could keep him fit.
I told you it was bold I would give it to Agger as well but then there's the chance he'll be injured during the season.
We definately lack leadership all over the pitch to be fair. The lack of leadership from Gerrard seems to be proportional to his abilities on the pitch; in the past his performance were enough to inspire those around him and gave him the confidence and right to expect the same from others. Unfortunately as his abilities have been declining so too his ability to inspire those around him. Got to be Agger out of the current squad!
We could always sign Barton if you lot want a shouty captain Agger....doesn't play enough to be captain Suarez....needs to focus on his game nevermind captaincy Lucas or Pepe would be my two candidates if not Stevie G... However taking the armband off Gerrard would be like an AVB move...we're only one game into the season lads btw and I really don't think swapping captains at any time this year would be a good move for BR.
to be honest it is a good point but.... every line on that pitch from reina to carragher to gerrard to suarez ought to have had a leader in their pulling themselves together and all i saw was headless chickens. The VERY LEAST I expected when we were 0-1 down and down to ten men was a fight, we fell apart totally. if our game was pass and possession then surely a 4-3-2 as was the substitiion should have meant we could still do that and play a POOR west brom team and hold our own. We capitulated and it could have been 6 but should have been at least 4 and probably 5 would have been fair on the chances. I don't mind a bad day but we just lost it totally and were do all over the place it was really poor from senior pros.
Gerrard annoys me. I do think its time he relinquished the captaincy. In all honesty he's becoming everything I hate...he's becoming John Terry. I don't know if its an English mentality, but when players get older they become full of piss and wind. It happened to Bobby Charlton, Bryan Robson, Emlyn Hughes, Terry and Gerrard. They get too caught up in their own importance. When that happens it has to mean that players must relinquish their title. My tip for captain is Lucas.
Indeed MITO. It shows how fragile our players confidence is at the moment. As soon as moments went against us there was a collective "here we go again" on the pitch. As much as the players should be professional enough to cope, they are human & this infects teams & is really hard to remove without a good run of playing well, getting the luck incident & decision wise just long enough until the voodoo is only a distant memory. I think this does lie with the Manager instructing his players. It's a skill to learn like any other. BR should bring in the man from each line say, Gerrard, Lucas(I think if given the armband in future he'll be louder than you'd think now) or even Allen (he's going to control games anyway), Agger & Reins & say: "I want to hear you're voice loud & clear every match" it only becomes comfortable by doing it often enough. As for Gerrard. I agree that it's too late to officially change captains now but I'd be phasing the amount of time he's on the pitch out. World class or not, if your Captains head goes down that easily so do all the young players who look up to him. With his "lead by example" performances an inconsistent event now; a bad or indifferent Gerrard for 90 minutes is more of a liability than the hope of 10 minutes of him revisiting glory a half dozen times a season (these aren't going to be in games that could go either way. They're going to be in games we're winning anyway.) I'm not slagging him off just saying that if we want rid of the negativity on field we need to get rid of all causes. By all means if he can learn to be more vocal instead with better body language, all well and good!