Now I can safely say well done to a man of so much passion
WHEN I became Liverpool manager my first job was to travel to Portugal where England were competing in Euro 2004 and speak with Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher, who were all in the squad.
I was telling them about my ideas and my tactics and they were incredibly attentive, analysing everything I said. And then I remember asking them what they could bring to the team. And Steven’s first word was: ‘Passion.’ That was his first thought always. And for years he has provided that for Liverpool, almost a representative of the Kop on the pitch.
And, of course, it is the first word most people will come up with to describe him now that he has announced that he is leaving Liverpool at the end of the season. But important as that was to his game, it shouldn’t be allowed to overshadow the superb technical qualities, passing abilities and the physicality that he had.
He is a complete player, which is evident in the number of positions in which he played. On his most famous night, the Champions League final in Istanbul, he started in midfield before moving to be a second striker with Luis Garcia when Harry Kewell was injured.
Then AC Milan manager Carlo Ancelotti put Serginho on the pitch and Steven played almost as a full back or a wing back.
I know that he has had hundreds of great games for Liverpool and even in my time managing the club there were plenty. Everyone talks about the Olympiakos game in the group stages of the Champions League and the FA Cup final against West Ham in 2006. But it’s difficult to look beyond Istanbul when I’m choosing my favourite.
Even when we were 3-0 down at half-time, the message was that if we can score one goal, we were back in the game. It was typical that it should be Steven who got us that crucial first goal on 54 minutes.
In football, sometimes, there is a moment when something happens to change the dynamic — and that was it. Maybe if the goal had been scored by another player, it wouldn’t have had quite such a galvanising effect. But you can see from his reaction — cajoling the players and the crowd — that he was an inspiration for everyone and he started the feeling that the team could come back to win.
After that final we were fortunate as a coaching team that we could work with him for another five years, as he almost left that summer for Chelsea. Eventually the pull of Liverpool proved too much and we had long meetings trying to explain our plans and ambition and how important he was to us.
After that final in Istanbul he said to us on the coaching staff: ‘You have to make me the best midfielder in the world.’ That showed how ambitious he was — but also how hard he was willing to work.
And he was as much an inspiration in training as he was in games. We were introducing some new ideas, with a more Spanish style of playing, more passing and maybe less direct football. He was always keen to absorb and learn.
I know Steven has joked about how difficult it was to get a compliment from me in those years. But I think he realises now how highly I regarded him.
If you have a very clever son or daughter and your other child is not so clever, you would be telling the one who is not so clever: ‘Oh. That’s fantastic!’ But the one who is clever, you would be pushing all the time. That’s how they will improve.
Of course, we did encourage him and say: ‘Well done’ — just not every day. In the end, it was Steven who made the most out of his ability and we were just the coaching team lucky enough to be in place at that stage of his career.
It got to the point with Steven that even if he was having a rare bad day you would still be thinking: ‘He’s not playing well but still I have to keep him on because he can score inside or outside the box or from a free-kick.’
Whatever he does next, I’m sure he’ll be a huge success. And now that he is approaching the end of his career at Liverpool, I can safely say a huge: ‘Well done!’ And hopefully he knows just how much I appreciated him.