#360view: Steven Gerrard eclipses Liverpool greats

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  • Kop idol: Steven Gerrard.

    They played in different eras, in different teams and are different types of players, yet the argument is still one of the most contested when it comes to Liverpool Football Club – who is the greatest ever, Steven Gerrard or Kenny Dalglish?

    When you look through the modern history of the club it begins with Bill Shankly, working through the boot room to Dalglish before reaching Gerrard. All made their mark on the club’s history. 

    But Gerrard does not just deserve to be alongside Dalglish in the list of the Reds’ finest players – he sits above him.

    A sprawling banner on The Kop provides the most fitting testament to that argument: ‘The best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be.’

    The player lifted by those words, just like he did his team in that Champions League final in 2005, is Gerrard. It is triumphs like we witnessed against Milan in Istanbul that see him eclipse even Dalglish as the club’s most supreme player.

    Liverpool snatched a top-four spot at the end of the 2003-04 campaign almost entirely due to Gerrard’s influence. They won it a year later because he provided the competition’s defining moments.

    Their FA Cup win in 2006 was won in similar circumstances. 

    Quite simply, if Gerrard was not a Liverpool player, the club’s trophy drought would be similar in length to neighbours Everton.

    There is not a single player who has been as important to Liverpool as the skipper since his debut in 1998.

    That’s no slight on Dalglish, quite the opposite, as no one should ever doubt his genius.

    But when he arrived at Liverpool, they were European champions and the need to carry a succession of lesser mortals was non-existent.

    During that era they were a dominant force and Dalglish was nearly always surrounded by quality in most areas of the pitch.

    The spine of the 1982-83 title-winning side included legends in their own right like Alan Hansen, Graeme Souness and Ian Rush.

    Gerrard has rarely been afforded that luxury. In 2005 he lined up alongside the likes of Djimi Traore, Milan Baros and a physically shot Harry Kewell.

    There have been periods during his 17-year career with the Reds when they didn’t deserve a player of his calibre.

    Many Liverpool teams, like an uncut diamond, had a rough exter-ior but at the core of the mediocrity shone a world-class midfielder. 

    And with Gerrard around there was always hope as he regularly dragged his team from the depths of despair to the stuff of legend.

    From Istanbul to Cardiff, Dortmund to Wembley, he’s delivered on the grandest stages. 

    He is the only player to score in a UEFA Cup final, when Liverpool beat Alaves in Germany in 2001, a League Cup final, when they won 2-0 against Manchester United in 2003, an FA Cup final and a Champions League final. 

    All were Liverpool triumphs – and all with decisive Gerrard contributions.

    There are players who have secured more trophies, most notably the league title, but his greatness is forged out of adversity.

    When the team needed him most, Gerrard delivered. 

    And with it he has become the standard by which all Liverpool players are judged.

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