I would love to say that I have been inspired to start this blog by England’s heroics against France during the friendly they played at Wembley last night but I’m not. I’ve been inspired by the same thing that almost made me start it during the World Cup in South Africa and Steven Gerrard. But wait. Don’t vomit all over your keyboard and click away to football365.com . Give me a minute to explain. When I say inspired I mean infuriated. If Gerrard was in my team I’d be offering the coach my kidney to drop him. He’s lazy, he’s negative, he’s selfish (there’s a reason he’s nicknamed “Stevie Me”) and because of his reputation and record he sets the tone and the work rate for the team. Every time he comes off, England’s work rate picks up. Their passing improves and their movement off the ball jumps two levels. All of a sudden they remember to play like a team again.
And fundamentally that’s my problem with him. A football team should be exactly that- a team. Just like any other team. Gerrard has become the lazy colleague who bitches all the time and spends all his/ her time on facebook. Everyone’s happier when they're not around and they perform better as a result.
I could speculate about why he’s there. Maybe it’s because of the paucity of options that England have in central midfield, maybe there are so few English players who have any kind of decent touch that his laziness and selfishness are tolerated, who knows? Whatever the reason, it’s not a good enough justification. If he’s as strong a negative influence off the pitch as he is on the pitch I wouldn’t even want him in the England squad. Only Maradona has ever really been good enough to win games on his own and although I will admit that Gerrard can kick, pass and control a ball well, Maradona he ain’t.
It is extraordinarily harsh to blame one player and his influence for what was a pretty dismal performance by most of the team. You could argue that the other players should shoulder their share of the blame, that Barry was (again) ineffectual and that Gerrard got more involved in play when he was dropped back to a deep lying centre-mid. All accurate, all fair and if I spent more time thinking about it I imagine I’d come up with one or two more points. But Barry being useless (again) does not mean that Gerrard wasn’t, getting more involved as a low centre mid doesn’t help if you only only try to play hero passes and move at a snail's pace. And I cannot get away from the fact that the team always seem to work harder, play better together and have more confidence in themselves when he goes off.
Should the other players be ‘professionals’ and not let his egotistical, lazy performance affect their own. Absolutely. Can they? Clearly not. Does this mean they are to blame? No. You may well be a professional banker, lawyer, plumber, teacher or one of those wanker tube drivers who seems to be going on strike for no reason but I am pretty certain that you’ve had a crap colleague or two in the past. And I’ll bet it got to you and I’ll bet your performance suffered. Why should you work your arse off, do what you’re told, follow policy, pick up the work they are always ‘too busy’ to do while they swan around thinking they're the dog's bollocks.
Unless of course you are that person, in which case you won’t understand what I’m talking about.
It takes eleven men playing their hearts out and working together to win a football match. it only takes one to kill that spirit and work rate and then you don’t have a chance.
