Liverpool legend, Steven Gerrard has told the High Performance Podcast that he would have stayed at Anfield for one more season if he hadn’t been dropped by Brendan Rodgers for two of the most important games of the Reds’ 2014/15 season.
Nobody needs reminding how important a player Gerrard was for Liverpool.
He’s up there with the Reds’ greatest ever, but as his playing career wound down, he was seemingly unable to come to terms with a reduced role.
Gerrard said that Rodgers’ decision to drop him for the vital games against Real Madrid and Manchester United that season ultimately sealed his fate.
“I was aware of my age and stuff, but I still believed that I could have contributed in a strong way to that team and to that club and I think if them sitiuations, Madrid away and Man United at home.
“I think if things were different, or went different for me I believe I would have stayed for another year,” Gerrard said.
The Rangers manager was then asked to give further reasoning by Jake Humphey, to which he replied:
“I just do, I think them experiences and them disappointments push you towards maybe it is time to move on and do something different whereas if you’re starting them games and you still feel like you’re an important player and you’re starting and stuff, maybe you think it’s not time, and maybe you stay.”
It’s interesting to hear that Gerrard would have stayed if he’d have started those two games, and the more we think about it, the more we wish that was the reality.
Let’s be honest, Gerrard should have been a one-club man and one season at LA Galaxy is something of a blemish on his record, while a 6-1 defeat to Stoke City was an abhorrent way for a true Liverpool legend to depart the club.
However, Rodgers may have known best, Gerrard wasn’t the player he once was, and the decision to drop him in those games was probably justified at the time.
As much as every Liverpool fan loves Gerrard, Rodgers has since proven that he’s a top-class manager via his successes with Celtic and Leicester, and it’s hard to argue that he wasn’t making the right choices at the time.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
