Have the Liverpool players - and Rafa - started to believe they're just a two-man team?

By David Maddock

Published 13:54 09/03/10

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Here's what Steven Gerrard’s two-fingered gesture towards the referee at Wigan wasn’t saying:

“You’re perfectly correct referee, that was a cynical two-footed challenge and I’m lucky to have received only a yellow card for that offence.”

“On this performance I reckon any player in this Liverpool team will be lucky to get more than two out of 10 in tomorrow’s ratings.”

“A table for two my good man, and a bottle of your finest Nuits St George from the sunniest slopes.”

“Only two? Nah, I reckon you can times that by at least 200 with John Terry, he’s seen more action that a squaddie’s mattress.”

Here’s what he also, clearly, wasn’t saying: “**** *** referee.”

What we witnessed on Monday evening from the Liverpool skipper wasn’t an Anglo-Saxon gesture in its distilled form. It was an expression of frustration from Gerrard about what was going on around him.

For what it’s worth, I reckon the latest England skipper did swear, but only in support of his suggestion, via that gesture to the match official, that it was his second offence, and therefore warranted a warning, rather than a booking.

But that’s missing the point, so don’t start writing in just yet. Gerrard was booked for a wild challenge which expressed his anger much, much more strongly than any two-fingered insult could. He deserved a booking for that tackle and he knows it, no matter his protests to the ref.

He was frustrated, not with Mr Marriner, but with his own performance, and that of his team. That sparked a fury which induced a foul that would have provoked an outcry, had it been committed on him.

And he wasn’t alone. Fernando Torres too, in the closing moments of the defeat by an impressive Wigan side, chased back deep into his own half and then committed a foul on Emmerson Boyce that was bordering on the manic.

So here we had Liverpool’s two best players chasing around at the end of the game like mad-men, scything down opponents in an almost blind fury at what was happening to them. And here lies the biggest worry for all supporters of the Reds this morning.

How much longer are the Anfield club’s two best players going to continue subjecting themselves to this sort of frustration and anger at yet another substandard performance from their team?

Liverpool were woeful at Wigan, and both Gerrard and Torres were chief amongst those players who performed substantially below the level they are capable of. Yet they were the only two who sensed that, and reacted to that.

It was as if both players knew that if they didn’t pull the team out of the s**t, them nobody would, and that is a massive burden for even the best players to carry throughout a long season.

When you know that if you don’t perform then your side is likely to lose, it can be an unenviable pressure, and it can quickly to lead to disillusion about that team.

Gerrard and Torres must look around at the 20-odd internationals in their squad and wonder what responsibility they are taking. The rest of the squad are good enough, but do they have the required character to deal with the expectation of being a Red?

Here lies the crux of the matter. Too often this season it seems that the rest of the players have passed the responsibility onto the shoulders of their two talisman all too readily, have somehow come to believe the publicity themselves that Liverpool are simply a two man team.

And I reckon Rafa Benitez suspects that too. After the game he tore into his side and questioned their attitude, their character and their commitment. And he has NEVER done that before, in his six years on Merseyside.

To put it bluntly, Liverpool haven’t shown enough bottle this season, and on Monday night, we saw evidence of the frustration of both Torres and Gerrard at that fact. The pertinent question is though, what do they do next?

Do they sit it out and continue to be part of a squad that has proved itself not good enough – mentally – this season? Do they hope for the change in key personnel that could bring about a transformation of a side that quite obviously has talent, even if it is badly under-achieving?

Or do they decide that enough is enough? In which case, here’s one more interpretation of Steven Gerrard’s gesture on Monday night:

“I’ll give it two more months maximum mate, then I'm off.”

Liverpool's signing of Raheem Sterling shows they are finally ready to challenge for the top British youngsters  

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