Manchester United have struggled to ever replace Roy Keane but the Reds, who are unlikely to select their skipper on Sunday, are well placed to avoid a similar conundrum
Long before Sir Alex Ferguson, in a typically needless jibe, declared in his autobiography that Steven Gerrard was “not a top, top player,” the Manchester United manager thought he was. So much so that he tried to sign him. Twice.
So much so that in 2004 he described the Liverpool captain as the ideal successor to Roy Keane. "If you were looking for the player you would replace Keane with, it's Gerrard, without question," he said. “To me, Gerrard is Keane; he is now where Keane was when Roy came to us in 1994. I've watched him quite a lot, and everywhere the ball is, he seems to be there.”
More than a decade on and as Gerrard prepares to face United for the last time, neither Ferguson nor his successors has unearthed a new Keane. Perhaps Liverpool have found two new Gerrards. Mission impossible may have been accomplished before the man with the taste for the spectacular heads for his Hollywood ending at Los Angeles Galaxy.
If no one will ever be able to replicate the full extent of his contribution, as the fan who became captain, the talent who could turn a game single-handedly, the man who orchestrated the greatest Champions League fightback of all, Brendan Rodgers has a pair who can compensate for Gerrard’s decline and departure. One of them is likely to ensure the Anfield idol begins on the bench on Sunday.
Jordan Henderson has been empowered by the armband. He has assumed responsibility in Gerrard’s absence. He has started to draw comparisons with the captain, and not just for his running power. A return of three goals in as many league games is Gerrard-esque.
If the most recent, at Swansea on Monday, was fortunate, the others were fantastic. Long-range shots against Manchester City and Burnley seemed straight out of the 34-year-old’s handbook. The cross Daniel Sturridge converted against the Clarets could have been classic Gerrard, too. Henderson has grown more ambitious in his passing range and more likely to eschew the safe ball. He appeared to have inherited not just the captaincy but the veteran’s priceless capacity to make something happen.
Henderson is 24, just as Gerrard was in 2004. He is approaching his prime. Emre Can is three years younger. He is more precocious, with more potential. He is reminiscent of the early Gerrard in the way his ability seems to equip him to play anywhere. Admittedly, the German is prospering as a centre-back, one of the few roles Gerrard has not occupied, but his second-half showing at Sunderland in January suggested that, like the veteran, he has the tools to be a wonderful wing-back.
Gerrard’s outings as a right-back or wing-back were few and far between but such rarities – extra-time in the 2005 Champions League final, the end of England’s friendly win over Argentina earlier that year – showed he had the skills required to excel there.
Part of the remarkable element of Gerrard’s career is that one who has rarely hidden his preference for playing as a central midfielder was named PFA Player of the Year in a season, 2005-06, when he generally played on the right of midfield and Footballer of the Year for a campaign, 2008-09, when he was deployed as a No.10.
If it makes sense for Brendan Rodgers to sign a centre-back in the summer to liberate Can to join Henderson in midfield, perhaps the reason why James Milner is a target is that the German has transformed Liverpool as a makeshift defender. He makes Rodgers’ 3-4-2-1 formation work with his willingness to carry the ball out of defence and his Gerrard-like capacity to strike long passes. There is no obvious candidate to be colossus, creator and stopper. If Can wants a return to midfield, it may require Liverpool to revert to a back four.
But his swift development, like Henderson’s startling improvement, shows the question of the succession has been answered before the king has even abdicated. That used to be the Liverpool way. In the dugout, they went from Bill Shankly to Bob Paisley to Joe Fagan to Kenny Dalglish with winning continuity. On the pitch, they moved on from Kevin Keegan to Dalglish and then Peter Beardsley with seamless ease.
But as United can testify, it is not always as easy to replace icons. And not just Ferguson, either. November will mark the 10th anniversary of Keane’s explosive exit from Old Trafford. The first seven-and-a-half years after the Irishman's departure were remarkably successful, but there was no new Keane. The emphasis was switched to a deep-lying distributors’ axis of Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick.
The midfielders who were signed to offer energy, in Owen Hargreaves and Anderson, began promisingly but their United careers deteriorated for different reasons. Remarkably, Ferguson went six years without buying a senior central midfielder. Still more damningly, United let Paul Pogba escape from within their ranks.
Belatedly, midfielders have started arriving, in a flurry and at a cost, whether Marouane Fellaini, Ander Herrera or Daley Blind. The Spaniard is the closest to a ball-playing box-to-box performer but Louis van Gaal’s quest for an Old Trafford all-rounder, for someone who offers power and presence, goals and assists in the way Gerrard long did, led him to a Merseysider, in Wayne Rooney.
Now it is clear the captain is United’s finest striker. Van Gaal has belatedly ended Herrera’s inexplicable absence. He has a classy passer, in Carrick, and the ungainly but effective Fellaini. But while Liverpool seem to be replacing the supposedly irreplaceable, there remains a vacancy at United for a dominant, driving force in the centre of the park. For their answer to Gerrard. For their new Keane.
