![\"By](\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Steven_Gerrard_in_2014.jpg\")
<\/a>By Biser Todorov (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>There are a host of names that every football fan knows: Gascoigne, Lineker, Beckham. There are others that are cult heroes to the fans of the club they played for, but aren\u2019t remembered fondly by anyone else: Kyrgiakos, Poborsky, Osgood.<\/p>\n
And there are some that stand astride the world of football like a colossus. One of those exceptional few has just two games left of his career with the club he\u2019s loved all of his life. His name?<\/p>\n
Steven Gerrard.<\/p>\n
Early Days<\/h2>\n
He jogged onto the Anfield turf for the first time as a scraggly little 18-year-old on the 29th<\/sup> of November, 1998. He replaced Vegard Heggem as Liverpool ran out 2-0 winners over Blackburn Rovers, and a baggy shirt with the number 28 sat on his back like it belonged to his dad and he was the work experience kid.<\/p>\n Since then he has made 708 appearances for Liverpool, with 645 starts. He\u2019s scored 185 goals and has a win ratio of 52.54%.<\/p>\n But Gerrard\u2019s career isn\u2019t one that can be explained with stats or numbers; his isn\u2019t a career that will be remembered for any one specific moment.<\/p>\n Steven Gerrard is<\/em> Liverpool Football Club.<\/p>\n Every Liverpool fan will have their own memories of Gerrard: the strike against Olympiakos at Anfield in 2005; the header in the Champion\u2019s League Final that became the Miracle Of Istanbul; the wonder strike against West Ham in the FA Cup in 2006. There is no shortage of classic Gerrard moments when you look back over his career.<\/p>\n Opposition fans have spent the last year relishing the moment that he slipped against Chelsea in last season\u2019s title race, handing the initiative \u2013 and eventually the Premier League crown \u2013 to Manchester City. An odd moment to celebrate if you support anyone other than the Manchester club, as your club, by definition, wasn\u2019t even in the title race when Gerrard\u2019s foot failed to plant itself properly in the Anfield turf.<\/p>\n When the dust settles on his illustrious career, however, no one but the most ardent opposition fan will think of the slip when they think of Steven Gerrard. They\u2019ll remember the moment he ran over and kissed the camera when he scored against Manchester United at Old Trafford as part of Liverpool\u2019s dismantling of the Red Devils in 2009. They\u2019ll remember when he scored a penalty against Fulham at Craven Cottage before taking off his shirt and spinning it over his head in 2015. They\u2019ll remember him lifting the Champion\u2019s League trophy after inspiring an unbelievable comeback against AC Milan in 2005.<\/p>\n Regardless of your footballing allegiance, Steven Gerrard has to be considered one of the finest footballers of his generation, if not of any generation. England may not have won a trophy during Gerrard\u2019s time playing International football, but there\u2019s not much the lad from Huyton could have done about that.<\/p>\n At Anfield, though, Gerrard won every major trophy apart from the Premier League. He turned down moves to some of the best clubs in the world, and whilst some may claim that Gerrard will always regret not moving to Chelsea, for example, those that do simply don\u2019t understand the man they\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n For Gerrard, his entire being has been about Liverpool Football Club. There\u2019s no doubt that he would have won the league had he signed for Jose Mourinho in 2005, and that that would have completed his medal collection. But when he looked back on his trophy cabinet in the years to come it would seem hollow, like he\u2019d sold out.<\/p>\n To let Gerrard say it in his own words, he stated after the recent 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge that, \u201cI would have signed for him [Mourinho] on three occasions if I wasn’t such a big Liverpool fan. He knew why I couldn’t do it because I love Liverpool Football Club. It always means more when you win for your people\u201d.<\/p>\n That\u2019s who he\u2019s played for every time he\u2019s pulled on the Red shirt: his people. Born on the Bluebell Estate in Huyton on the outskirts of the city, Gerrard is a Liverpool lad through and through. He married a girl from the city and he carries the weight of Liverpool fan\u2019s expectations every time he runs on to the pitch.<\/p>\n He\u2019s always been a complex character, too. He\u2019s been driven by a fear of letting people down, of not being good enough. He admitted that he doesn\u2019t sleep well the night before big games, visualizing not just what might go right but also fearing what could go wrong.<\/p>\n Liverpool Football Club was founded in 1892, which means it\u2019s been in existence for 123 years. Steven Gerrard has been playing for more than 15 of them, which in turn means that he has been one of Liverpool\u2019s most important players for a tenth of the club\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n During that time he\u2019s seen Liverpool challenge for the title under Gerrard Houllier, Rafa Benitez and Brendan Rodgers. He\u2019s also seen the club struggle to compete on far more occasions than he\u2019s been happy with. From an FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup treble in 2001 through to the most famous Champion\u2019s League comeback of all time in 2005, Gerrard has been the focal point of Liverpool\u2019s winning teams time and again.<\/p>\n He has had to drag some mediocre Liverpool teams through the doldrums and on to victories that few expected them to achieve. He\u2019s also been the captain of the club during one of its most turbulent periods. As Rafa Benitez made Liverpool one of the best teams in Europe on the pitch, he also waged war against the owners off it.<\/p>\n Under Hicks & Gillett, the Americans who bought Liverpool in 2007, the Reds went close to going into administration and had the soul ripped out of the club. There were protests outside Anfield, fans turning against fans and civil war erupting on the terraces. Steven Gerrard, as a local lad and a Liverpool supporter, would have felt the dissention more than most.<\/p>\n Imagine, for a second, being a local lad at a club whose fans have expectations that far outstrip the reality of the situation the club itself is in, having to carry the weight of those expectations on your shoulders year after year after year. It\u2019s no wonder he occasionally had a sleepless night!<\/p>\n Yet even without a full night\u2019s rest before the biggest games of his career, Gerrard has gone on to be a living legend. He\u2019s re-invented himself time and again, changing the player he is to fit in with what\u2019s needed. He\u2019s played in every position on the pitch apart from goalkeeper and has been the mainstay of every different iteration of team that each of the different managers has come up with.<\/p>\n He spent most of his career as a box-to-box midfielder, a powerhouse of a runner whose bursts of energy and thunderbolt right foot caused defences nightmares for years. Under Rafa he was re-invented as a right-winger who linked up with Fernando Torres to perfection. Together they were the best attacking force in world football for a time.<\/p>\n When Brendan Rodgers set up the diamond formation he used Gerrard at the base of it, sitting in front of the defence like a footballing quarterback; spraying the ball out wide and forward and protecting the defence. It was a re-invention that few thought would work but that nearly won Liverpool the title.<\/p>\n Time and tide wait for no man, though, and whilst he repelled attacking teams last season he can\u2019t stop the aging of his bones. This season he has found himself on the bench more regularly than in the starting line-up and it\u2019s more than he\u2019s been able to cope with. He\u2019s not arrogant; he knows he\u2019s getting older. But he still wants to be making a difference, he still wants to feel the buzz of getting ready to face an opposition team and he knows that that won\u2019t be the case if he stays at Liverpool.<\/p>\n So the fans, players and staff at Liverpool FC are gearing up to say goodbye to one of its greatest ever servants. It will be a tough day at Anfield on Saturday when the Reds play Crystal Palace. There will be 38 thousand people in the ground but millions more there in spirit, wanting to bid him adieu.<\/p>\n Anyone born in the 1980s hasn\u2019t known an LFC team without Steven Gerrard in it during their adult years. He\u2019s not just a player, nor is he just the captain of the club. He\u2019s an icon, a living legend, a hero.<\/p>\n Liverpool Football Club will miss him. Not just on the pitch, but off it. Virtually every player who signs for the club talks of Steven Gerrard; of wanting to play with him, of how welcoming he is. He\u2019ll be back at some point, of course, and it shouldn\u2019t be put beyond him for him to manage the club in the future.<\/p>\n But when they\u2019ll miss him the most is when backs are against the wall and things aren\u2019t going well; when trouble rears its ugly head and Steven Gerrard won\u2019t be there to shine a light in the darkest corners of the pitch. Time and again Gerrard has been the person to drag Liverpool through the difficult moments.<\/p>\n After Saturday, he won\u2019t be there to do that any more. There\u2019ll be a Steven Gerrard sized whole at Anfield, at Melwood and in the city of Liverpool. It will take a while to get used to. It may never be the same again. For now though, let\u2019s not mourn what we\u2019re about to lose but celebrate what we\u2019ve had. Steven Gerrard has been one of the greatest players football has ever seen.<\/p>\n Steven Gerrard is our captain. Steven Gerrard is a Red. Steven Gerrard plays for Liverpool. He\u2019s a Scouser born and bread.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll let the man himself have the final word:<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I die, don\u2019t bring me to the hospital. Bring me to Anfield. I was born there and I\u2019ll die there\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are a host of names that every football fan knows: Gascoigne, Lineker, Beckham. There are others that are cult heroes to the fans of the club they played for, but aren\u2019t remembered fondly by anyone else: Kyrgiakos, Poborsky, Osgood. And there are some that stand astride the world of football like a colossus. One of those exceptional few has just two games left of his career with the club he\u2019s loved all of his life. His name? Steven Gerrard. Early Days He jogged onto the Anfield turf for the first time as a scraggly little 18-year-old on the 29th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions\/43"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Memories<\/h2>\n
One Of The Best<\/h2>\n
A Lad From Liverpool<\/h2>\n
\u00a0Captain In The Tough Times<\/h2>\n
Changing Roles<\/h2>\n
Oh Captain, My Captain<\/h2>\n