It took a Frenchman with divided loyalties to offer the sceptics, hypnotised by a season of Gallic glory at Highbury, hope for the Euro 2004 tournament ahead.
‘There are areas in which I think England will be superior to France,†said Gérard Houllier. ‘Do you see anyone in world football better than Steven Gerrard at the moment?â€
The Liverpool manager offered Patrick Vieira at his most imposing as the answer to his own question but, when England venture into Lisbon’s Estadio da Luz in less than four weeks to take on the European champions in Group B, they will have in the 23-year-old Anfield captain a man even France will fear.
Gerrard, with socks rolled to his ankles and his baby daughter in his arms, trudged through the lap of honour on Saturday exhausted by a season of frustration. Yet he has emerged immense from Liverpool’s otherwise fetid campaign. Denied a place in the 2002 World Cup by a series of niggling injuries he has since overcome, he will have a chance in the European tournament to add to the 29 minutes of football he has amassed in major finals to date.
These came courtesy of a substitute’s appearance in the 1-0 victory over Germany at Euro 2000, though they leave the midfielder — for all that the French players at Arsenal and Manchester United are aware of his threat — as something of a secret weapon.
‘He will handle France’s midfield, no question,†said Sir Bobby Robson, whose Newcastle side survived his leggy onslaught, though only just. ‘I wish he’d gone home at half-time because he was trying to kill us out there. I love him, just love him. He’s poetry in motion. He has the early vision of the pass, the dribbling and running ability with the ball, and his final ball is great, always penetrating.
‘When he goes wide you think, as an opposition manager, he is so dangerous and wish he was in the middle. When he’s in the middle you wish he was out wide. He can make an impact at any level.â€
Where that impact will be most telling is for Sven-Goran Eriksson to decide. The England coach has earmarked Gerrard for the left of his diamond midfield.
‘If we start like that we can play our best four midfielders,†said the Swede, who has watched Gerrard play for Liverpool nine times this season.
Gerrard himself craves a central berth, though both Eriksson and his assistant Tord Grip suspect he lacks the self-control to combine defensive duties with marauding runs, their opinions forged by flashes of indiscipline in the 2-2 draw with Macedonia in 2002. Yet marooning Gerrard on the left, with Nicky Butt — not even a regular at club level — or Frank Lampard playing centrally, hardly seems the logical solution.
‘He is awesome on the right and can play in central midfield,†said Houllier. ‘I don’t think he enjoys playing on the left, but sometimes you have to do that for the national team. I think the evolution of his game will be to grow like a Vieira or a [Claude] Makelele, somebody who holds the anchor position. But, with us, he has freedom to bomb forward.â€
Gerrard did plenty of that against Newcastle, though mainly in the second half when he roused himself to spark a recovery. At one stage he made a saving tackle on Darren Ambrose in the left-back position. It was his incisive cross that prompted Michael Owen’s volleyed equaliser.
‘I think I’d play him down the middle where he would get more of the ball, but he wouldn’t be wasted on the left,†added Robson.
‘He’s such an athlete — I hated him.â€
Admiration has even filtered down the M62 to Manchester.
‘If you were looking for the player you would replace [Roy] Keane with, it’s Gerrard without question,†said Sir Alex Ferguson. ‘He has become the most influential player in England, bar none. Gerrard is Keane; he is now where Keane was when Roy came to us in 1994.
‘He’s got that unbelievable engine, desire, determination. You can see Gerrard rising and rising. He could be a very big player for England at the European championship.â€
There is little chance of Gerrard swapping Anfield for Old Trafford, but there is every chance he will make a difference in Portugal. —