Liverpool won’t keep Steven Gerrard for sentiment, says Brendan Rodgers

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/nov/02/liverpool-steven-gerrard-sentiment-brendan-rodgers

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Brendan Rodgers believes Steven Gerrard has been a made a scapegoat for Liverpool’s recent stumbles and says his desire to extend the 34-year-old’s contract is not based on emotion.

“It’s certainly not sentimental,” said Rodgers after revealing he had opened talks with his captain’s agent about renewing a deal due to expire in June. With Liverpool’s manager having also informed the Anfield board that retaining Gerrard ranks among his top priorities and a potential player-coaching role not having been ruled out of the equation, the midfielder seems unlikely to leave Merseyside next summer.

By then Gerrard will be 35 but Rodgers, whose side lost 1-0 at Newcastle on Saturday, does not doubt his enduring capacity to continue as Liverpool’s midfield cornerstone. “As manager of this club you can’t afford to be sentimental,” he said. “But both on an off the field, as a leader and as a captain, I want to ensure that Steven is very much part of this second curve we’re on in terms of group development.

“Maybe the team hasn’t played so well this season and maybe there’s a focus on Steven but he’s been absolutely brilliant for me.”

Rodgers is clearly irked by recent theories that the the ageing Gerrard’s reduced dynamism represents a key part of Liverpool’s current problems rather than a big element of the solution to their transition to life after Luis Suárez.

“When you see some of his passes and his influence in the changing room he’s still an outstanding player,” said a manager whose team currently trail the Premier League leaders, Chelsea, by 12 points and travel to Real Madrid on Champions League duty on Tuesday seeking to avenge last month’s 3-0 Anfield reverse against Carlo Ancelotti’s side.

“Steven will be 35 in May but he’s still fresh and he still looks after himself very well. Technically he’s a big player for us and he offers the perfect example for a lot of our players to learn from.”

Although suggestions that Manuel Pellegrini is keen to transplant Gerrard to Manchester City appear overblown, the former England captain’s status as a free agent would be unlikely to leave this quintessential one-club man short of offers in January when he could sign a pre-contract agreement elsewhere.

Rodgers – who said the possibility of Gerrard combining playing with coaching was a topic for “another day” – is anxious to deter suitors. “I came here when Steven was 32, had struggled with injury and hadn’t played consistently over a number of years,” he said. “But I sold him the idea, the philosophy of how we wanted to work and his importance to it and, on and off the field, he’s been absolutely brilliant.”