Management is so brutal. I would have been stupid to take a job that I wasn’t ready for
No.1 or a No.2, but I understood that, if you take the wrong opportunity at the wrong time and act on reputation, sentiment or emotion, then you could find it hard.
“Just because you’ve been a good player doesn’t mean you are going to be a great manager.
“I don’t want to name names because that would be disrespectful, but I have seen it so many times.
“Management is so brutal. I think it would have been very stupid and immature to go into a position when I wasn’t ready.”
“I decided there’s no rush. If it takes me five or 10 years, I don’t care because, at the moment, I’m not ready for the jobs I would ultimately want.”
Gerrard will work with players in the 16-23 age group.
He will spend time shadowing Liverpool’s youth managers, but he admitted: “I need to eventually manage a team. I need to be able to pick a team, make subs, choose formations, manage players collectively and one on one.
“I need to get a feel for how management works.
“I can only shadow someone for so long, because there is only so much you can learn before you have a go yourself and see whether you sink or swim.”
Gerrard added: “I have a lot of stages to go through before I enter the Boot Room. “I am about 60 per cent through my ‘A’ licence course and, once I have completed that, the plan is to get on the pro-licence course. “At the same time, I want to get as many hours of coaching sessions under my belt as possible and keep bouncing off as many coaches as I can, from the under-eights up to Klopp ( left).
“I’ve had some great talks with Jurgen.
“There is no pressure and I haven’t set myself any targets.
“It might be a case that, in a year’s time, I am sitting around a table saying, ‘ I didn’t really connect with the coaching’.
“But, then again, I might be sitting here in a year’s time and saying, ‘I feel ready and closer to it now’.”