Sky Sports pundit says Steven Gerrard could still get in any Premier League team
Wednesday 1 October 2014 18:51, UK
Wednesday night sees eight live Champions League matches on Sky Sports, including a big game for Liverpool at Basel and a crunch clash for Arsenal at home to Galatasaray. Graeme Souness will be in the studio and expects Steven Gerrard and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to be at the heart of matters…
Basel v Liverpool, 7pm, Wednesday, Sky Sports 5
I still believe Steven Gerrard is a real threat for Liverpool.
There has been a lot of negative talk about him in the last few weeks and I think he is finding it hard to come to terms with his new position as a holding midfield player.
To play in that position you need to have a completely different mind-set. Steven has been the outstanding player in the Premier League for close to 10 years and whenever he picked the ball up anywhere in the past, his first thought would be to make a clever pass, to get forward or to get a shot off.
Previously his role has been to do damage to the opposition, but now he needs to act completely differently and when he watches play develop in front of him he needs to be thinking ‘danger’ all the time instead of looking to be the one to get on the ball and make the difference going forward.
He needs to be a more thoughtful player now and it will be a very different mind-set for him. However, I still think he has a very obvious goal threat, as we saw at the weekend against Everton.
And I still believe he is a fabulous player and he would still get in the starting XI of any team in the Premier League right now. He’s got to get in the Liverpool team – and I’d still say he can get in any starting XI.
Like many people, I was surprised by how hard Liverpool found it to get past Ludogorets in their previous Champions League game.
They needed an injury-time penalty to beat a team that doesn’t come from a particularly strong league and they really made hard work of what I think will turn out to be their easiest group game. Wednesday’s match at Basel will certainly be no pushover either.
They are missing Luis Suarez – and not just his goals. It’s also the energy he brings to the team and the way he makes other people play. They are missing that and they need Daniel Sturridge back as quickly as possible.
Prior to the Ludogorets game I would have backed them to get a result in Basel, but they are stuttering at the moment. They need Sturridge back, scoring goals, and that will lift the confidence right throughout the camp.
Arsenal v Galatasaray, 7.30pm, Wednesday, Sky Sports 1
I really want to see more of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain at Arsenal.
Arsene Wenger has a lot of very similar midfielders at the moment, but he is the one player in that area who is quite different to the rest of them. I would like to see him utilised more because he could be a star both for Arsenal and England.
I really like Oxlade-Chamberlain. He’s explosive, he’s quick and I would love to see him played regularly as one of the two central midfield players.
Long term I think he could develop into more of a holding player, but at the moment he is so dynamic and so explosive that you’d be cutting his legs off to simply ask him to be a support player.
Ultimately he could play there because he has the strength, the technique and the ability to deliver on the picture that he sees in front of him. That’s too early for him now because he’s so energetic and he can do the box-to-box stuff, so I want to see him more involved by being more in the way.
I really want to see him in a central role, using his strength, pace and power, rather than being used in the wider areas.
Galatasaray are struggling at the moment and I believe this is a really good time for Arsenal to play them.
They may have won on Friday night, but even with all of the injuries in the Arsenal team I can only see Arsenal winning this match on Wednesday evening. They should have too much for them.
Graeme Souness will be joined by Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher and Jeff Stelling in the Sky Sports 5 studio from 7pm on Wednesday evening.
