Gerrard passes the Anfield test as Liverpool love-in is made to wait
Some at Anfield rose to their feet to applaud a returning figure from their past. Danny Ings was back and he was coming off the bench. Meanwhile, Steven Gerrard grimaced in his distinctly damp vigil in the technical area. He has scripted some of the more improbable tales in 21st century football through sheer willpower but a man whose Liverpool career ended amid the humiliation and farce of a 6-1 thrashing at Stoke knows special occasions do not always go as planned.
This didn’t. Not for Gerrard, though his Aston Villa side proved awkward opponents in defeat. Nor, perhaps, for the Liverpool public. Had Villa been vanquished, they could have devoted more time to serenading Gerrard. Instead, Villa’s obduracy afforded little time for sentimentality. When some in the Kop started to revive an old chorus saluting Gerrard in the opening minutes, they were drowned out by a rendition of “Liverpool”. They have still spent longer singing “Ole’s at the wheel” than Gerrard’s name this season.
And so he lingered, seen but not celebrated, until the Villa supporters chanted his name, finding proof in a
committed display that his first return to Liverpool had not been clouded by sentimentality. It was only with the release of the final whistle that his name echoed around Anfield again; for a decade and a half, it was a song that carried the threat that, whatever the other 21 players on the pitch did, Steven Gerrard would win the game for Liverpool. His reputation has been maintained.
Now that talismanic status has been passed on, to the matchwinner Mohamed Salah and to the catalytic Jürgen Klopp. Liverpool’s fondness for nostalgia has not stopped them from savouring the present and Gerrard had gone down the tunnel before a fistpumping Klopp played to the gallery in the Kop. “I did not feel under pressure today,” grinned Klopp. “There is one person it was not easy for and that is Stevie.”
Gerrard lost a game but passed a test. He avoided the trap Gérard Houllier fell into. Gerrard’s mentor erred on his Anfield comeback by acknowledging the Kop, but not the Villa fans, in a telling indication of where his affections still lay. Houllier perhaps never regained his standing with the Villa supporters. The man he made captain at 23 showed more pragmatism and less mawkishness, applauding the travelling hordes from the Midlands before waving to those who idolised him and hugging Klopp, who has tipped Gerrard to succeed him. Gerrard projected a purposeful air. So did his team.
Think of Gerrard the player and the adventurer or the escapologist spring to mind. Perhaps a dozen years under Houllier and Rafa Benítez have made him a defensive strategist as a manager. He completed a Scottish Premiership season with Rangers conceding a mere 13 goals. The finest Liverpool team he played in, the class of 2008-09, were denied the title in part because of Anfield stalemates and, for an hour, this threatened to be another as Villa resisted.
Gerrard’s side have got his combative instincts. Their streetwise streak irritated Klopp. “Nothing will come between him and me but we are both focused,” he said. “You can be best friends with someone and want to beat them. It is the same with me and David Wagner.” He spent much of the first half in constant communication with the fourth official, seemingly about Emi Martínez’s serial timewasting. Presumably the goalkeeper was only following his manager’s orders, but it brought the Argentinian unpopularity at Anfield.
Ings, scorer of four Liverpool goals in an injury-hit spell, some 182 fewer than Gerrard, was saluted. Then, eventually, so was Gerrard. “There is a lot of emotion for me and my family,” he said. “I had to try and deal with it the best I could. I am respectful and thankful for the reception I got. I gave many years to this club.” He gave them when he could have joined Real Madrid instead. In the process, perhaps he cemented his legend.
For Gerrard, staring over towards the Sir Kenny Dalglish Stand, Liverpool’s past remains the constant reference point. There were banners on the Kop celebrating one of Liverpool’s highest scorers and a European Cup winner, the late Roger Hunt and Ray Kennedy respectively. In years to come, they will almost certainly be joined by images of Gerrard.
But for now perhaps their finest ever player will have to wait a little longer to get one over his former club.
There is a Villa manager who has beaten Liverpool 7-2 in the recent past, but it is Dean Smith. Gerrard nevertheless gave the sense he is a coach of some stature, without denting Liverpool’s title push. The hero of Istanbul was a Villan but not a villain.
He played 710 games for Liverpool and has now managed one against them. For him, this was Anfield.