Stevie sees himself as a ball-winning gladiator.
He loves Liverpool deeply and is proud to lead his team and he particularly loves the kind of action we see in the Premier League.
Chapter 9 of Gerrard My Autobiography begins thus : Playing abroad doesn’t appeal to me for one dead simple reason. I love the blood and thunder of English football too much. Our league and cup competitions have an intensity and honesty that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
There it is: blood and thunder, intensity and honesty. That’s what this footballer likes.
The road to Istanbul was a long and bumpy one and his description of the semi-final first leg at Anfield reminds us that the Liverpool crowd is influential : Abuse chased every Chelsea player round Anfield that night. Whenever Gudjohnsen got the ball, he got the bird big-time….The Kop cheered every pass, every tackle. The fans’ noise worked on my body like an endless injection of adrenalin.
He says Luis Garcia’s goal was given by Slovak ref Lubos Michel because of the noise behind the goal. He still doesn’t know whether the ball was over the line.
But he knew Chelsea were furious about it: “We were under siege, under attack from every angle. Chelsea had players everywhere, like it was thirteen against eleven. Fuck me, I could hardly breathe I was so busy chasing around, Arjen Robben came flying on. Christ. Big Robert Huth went up front. A towering inferno to put out.
Liverpool’s other English player was his close friend Jamie Carragher : “He kept stifling some of the best centre forwards in the world. He saw off Zlatan Ibrahimovic when we played Juventus. Didier Drogba didn’t get a sniff either.”
In 2005 the other semi-finalists were a Dutch club and an Italian one:
“That night, I met up with John-Arne Riise at the St.Thomas’s Hotel in town to watch the second leg of PSV Eindhoven against Milan. “I hope PSV go through,” I said to John Arne. “We’d have a better chance of beating PSV than Milan.”
In the first half in Istanbul, Milan scored thee goals and Stevie was astounded by Kaka :
“Never had I faced such a good side. Kaka was a great player, I knew that. Anyone who starts for Brazil must be special. But not until I spent that half running around after him, chasing his shadow, did I appreciate how quick he is in possession. Never in my career had I encountered anyone as fast with the ball at their feet. I’m quite quick for a midfielder, and usually I reel in most players if they have the ball. Not Kaka. He was awesome, easily Milan’s best midfielder.”
He says the “theatrical” Gattuso never plays a killer ball, never nicks a goal. And Gattuso was the only player who had a smirk on his face as Milan walked off at half-time.
In the dressing room Liverpool’s skipper was “steaming” but not articulate. After saying seven words, he fell silent:
“These cunts think it’s over,” I said. “It’s not.” All words then left me. I was speechless, enraged by our display, my own performance and that smirk of Gattuso.
He admits that the Liverpool were lifeless, silent, their dreams shredded. Even the indomitable Carragher had settled for damage limitation, saying, “Let’s just stop this being 5-0. Let’s not have a massacre here.”
Then Rafa Benitez, the master tactician, redeployed his troops: “The boss was brilliant, truly brilliant, at half-time.”
Rafa switched to three at the back, bringing Didi Hamman on (for injured right back Steve Finnan) to play with Xabi Alonso, and telling those two to deal with Kaka, and pushing Gerrard further forward:
Rafa helped change our mood from defeat to defiance. Let’s go out fighting, not with a whimper. Rafa kept mentioning the fans. Outside that huge electronic scoreboard that read ‘Maldini 1, Crespo 39,44’ stared at our fans. Proof of Liverpool’s terrible performance was written large up there.
Remarkably, when the players went out for the second half, their supporters were singing You’ll Never Walk Alone. The players looked at each other in amazement, realising that the fans had not given up on them. So Gerrard shouted, “Come on, let’s have a go!”
When Riise’s cross was blocked by Cafu, Gerrard wanted to him to cross again and when he did the skipper headed in from 12 yards. That was the only header he scored that season and it turned Milan upside down.
Vladimir Smicer got a second, then Gerrard was felled in the box by Gattuso. Keeper Dida saved Xabi’s penalty but he followed up to make 3-3. Three goals in six minutes. “It was the sudden impact of the goals that devastated them. Me, then Vladi, then Xabi. Bang, bang, bang. Milan’s players looked like they had been in a car crash. Staggering around. No direction.
In extra-time, keeper Jerzy Dudek made a remarkable double save to deny Shevchenko.
Before the shoot-out Rafa told Stevie to take the fifth penalty and he thought: Thanks boss, no pressure then.
But when Dudek saved Shevchenko’s penalty, Liverpool had won: I don’t have to take one! It’s done! It’s over! Go and party!
Why do I now worry about about Stevie G?
Simply because he’s a working class warrior who thinks like a warrior and plays like a warrior and swears like one as well. Henry Winter’s decision to leave in a lot of swearing in the text makes it more true, more honest and realistic.
The overall message of the book is : Success take time, it’s never easy, it’s a lot of ups and downs, you can learn slowly even as you rise rapidly.
But local heroes are not worldly and playing for the LA Galaxy will not have made Steven Gerrard more sophisticated.
That’s where he is now: a legendary footballer who has decided to stop playing and that is a hugely challenging life-moment for any player, let alone an action hero like Gerrard.
We wish him well in the next phase of his life.
PS : This piece is about Arsenal. I hope you understand what I mean by that.