“Benitez is friendly, but I am not sure he is interested in his players as people. He rarely communicates with us on a personal basis. We are cogs in a machine for Benitez. Fair enough. I’ve no problem with that. We’re all professionals. Benitez’s task is to win games, not popularity contests.” — Steven Gerrard, My Autobiography.
“Steven was playing in the middle for part of the second half and we didn’t create many chances. We need to improve as a team and not think about one or two players.” — Rafael Benitez, post-match interview, Arsenal 3 Liverpool 0.
There are two things that weary Liverpool supporters beyond irritation to the threshold of rage. One is the outpourings of a certain José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix. The other is the debate whether Steven Gerrard should be playing wide or in central midfield. Gerrard returned to the middle against Middlesbrough yesterday but he has never been anywhere except at the fulcrum of analyses when people discuss his football club. It drives Rafael Benitez crazy, privately, despite the mask of equanimity he wears.
Benitez is shrewd enough to realise that Gerrard-mania stems from nothing more sinister than the fact that his captain, alongside Wayne Rooney, is the only English footballer esteemed universally in this country and, unlike Rooney, is liked by just about everyone, too. Yet Benitez is stubborn enough for this not to make a shred of difference to how Gerrard, and questions about him, are treated.
“I am a central midfielder, it’s as simple as that,” Gerrard reiterated in midweek. Deafness, not deference, is that with which Benitez receives Mr Popular’s remarks.
By first using Bolo Zenden alongside Xabi Alonso in the wake of Momo Sissoko’s injury Benitez has suggested Gerrard in the centre is no better than his Plan C. Instinct suggests it should be Plan A, that the spine of the team is where Liverpool’s best footballer can have maximum impact, that Gerrard’s rare command of all the game’s disciplines — tackling, passing, running, heading, shooting — means he should be deployed in the area where versatility is at a premium. The stats say something different. Benitez, the scientist, will go with evidence over instinct every time. A breakdown of their significant games over the past two seasons shows that Liverpool won a far greater proportion when Gerrard was on the right. His personal contribution, in goal terms at least, does not depend on his position particularly.
The percentages are a testament to Gerrard’s consistency and character — but even more so to Benitez’s judgment.
“I understand a lot of people want to talk about it ’s position but I can’t do anything about that. The only thing I can do is focus on improving things with my team and if I think we can do that with Gerrard on the right side or on the left side, I will use that,” said the manager. “Maybe he prefers to play in the middle, but he needs to understand — and he does understand. He is clever.” But is he happy? Benitez would regard such a question as moot. Gerrard is right about being seen as a cog. It is nothing to do with a culture clash because at Valencia the players also felt Benitez aloof. But Gerrard, reluctantly, recognizes another truth: “Friends ask whether Rafa’s cold attitude pisses me off but it honestly doesn’t,” he wrote in his autobiography. “That indifference is one of the million reasons why Rafa is top man in the coaching world.”
There are some who feel Gerrard is so important Benitez should just do whatever it takes to keep him smiling. But not Liverpool fans, weaned on the boot room philosophy that the club is greater than the individual; not the Anfield dressing room, dominated by the down-to-earth viewpoints of such as Jamie Carragher; not even, in his heart of hearts, Gerrard himself. He is an honest lad who admits he sometimes sees the game in terms too personal for his own good (“the humiliation kills me,” he says of being substituted) but he does not expect special treatment. There may have been a time, when he was less mature, that was less the case but since re-signing for Liverpool in 2005 he has been absolutely loyal. Last month when Gerrard learnt newspapers were preparing stories about a “rift” between him and Benitez, he moved indignantly to quash them. Not that it stopped some titles running the tale, and the gossipy nature of Liverpool (“Rumour City” Gerrard calls it) means reporters will always receive wild “tip-offs”.
Gerrard is not responsible for the Give-Stevie-What-He-Wants campaign. It comes down to how people have gone soft on footballers. It is as if our stars are precious ornaments that cannot be mishandled or moved: when Andy Johnson played as wide attacker for England the reaction was as if Steve McClaren had removed one of the striker’s legs rather than placed him slightly out of position. Other countries are less cosseting; Dirk Kuyt has spent most of his Holland career on the wing to no outcry from the Dutch. Louis Van Gaal suggests English players lack tactical understanding. At least Gerrard has proved more flexible in his career than Frank Lampard who embodies the English phenomenon of the footballer who can play brilliantly — but only one way.
“If I ask you to play five-a-sides, you don’t say ‘what position?’ You just play,” Benitez observed. He is not stupid. He knows fine that Gerrard is his best player, a unique talent in the Anfield ranks, and admits as much when his guard is down. But it would go against all he believes regarding team ethic to say this publicly or — worse — to Gerrard himself. It is because he believes in Gerrard so much he shifts him about. His reference points for Gerrard are Ronaldinho, Luis Figo. “We need to put Steve where he has freedom,” Benitez said. To him, the wing is a starting point from where his matchwinner can seek out space and he has statistics demonstrating that even when Gerrard plays on the right he gets most of his touches in central areas. He never refers to Gerrard as a winger rather someone who “plays between the lines”.
He doubts his captain defensively, it must be said. Here is Benitez’s analysis of Zenden in the Arsenal defeat. “Bolo was playing really well. In the first half (Cesc) Fabregas was not there. By the end he had a big influence on the game. He started having an influence when? After 2-0 — we changed Zenden to the left side . . .” It was Gerrard, of course, who moved into the space Zenden vacated. When Benitez first played Gerrard on the right (see panel) Liverpool switched from crisis to a record-breaking run of victories and clean sheets.
It is a problem that wide players depend on the core of their team for supply and Gerrard has suffered more than anyone from Alonso’s poor form. Gerrard on the right makes least sense when Liverpool are struggling and most when everything flows. Many picture Alonso and Gerrard as a central partnership but Liverpool went 3-0 down in the Champions League final with precisely this spine; only when Didi Hamann came on alongside Alonso and Gerrard went “between the lines” were
AC Milan stemmed. Benitez reminisced proudly of his acumen in Istanbul. “I like,” he said, “playing chess.”
Steven Gerrard might be king but while Benitez is at Anfield only one hand gets to move the pieces in the game.
