Steven Gerrard: the Liverpool captain who never won the league

Steven Gerrard was a midfielder who seemed to carry Liverpool on his own when it mattered. He could win the ball, hit a pass of forty yards and shoot from distance, and the biggest nights of his career, in Istanbul and in Cardiff, were the ones he turned himself.

He won nearly everything a Liverpool captain could win. The one thing missing from his list is the league title.

The numbers

The curve has two peaks, in 2005–06 and in 2008–09, the second the best of his career, with a dip in 2006–07 between them. After that it falls and recovers, with a late bump in 2013–14. In his mid-30s most of his goals came from free kicks and penalties as he played deeper in midfield.

Liverpool: the early years

Gerrard made his debut as a late substitute against Blackburn Rovers on 29 November 1998. He was versatile from the start: a right-sided midfielder who committed too many careless fouls in his youth, he was moved to a holding role, where he thrived as a ball-winner, and later became a box-to-box midfielder.

His first major honours came in 2000–01, with a cup treble of the FA Cup, the League Cup and the UEFA Cup, and he scored in the UEFA Cup final. In 2003 he scored the opening goal of a 2–0 win over Manchester United in the League Cup final on 2 March, at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. That October he replaced Sami Hyypiä as Liverpool's captain, after a year as vice-captain.

Istanbul, 25 May 2005

The 2005 Champions League final against AC Milan is the match he is remembered for. Liverpool were 3–0 down and came back to draw 3–3 after extra time, with Gerrard scoring a header from John Arne Riise's cross and winning the penalty that led to the third goal, which Xabi Alonso converted after Dida saved his first attempt. Liverpool won the shoot-out 3–2. He was Man of the Match, and was later named UEFA Club Footballer of the Year.

Cardiff, 2006

A year later he did it again, in the FA Cup final at the Millennium Stadium. Liverpool and West Ham drew 3–3 after extra time on 13 May 2006, and Gerrard scored twice, including a 35-yard equaliser in injury time. Liverpool won on penalties. The following year they were back in a Champions League final, in Athens, but lost 2–1 to AC Milan.

2008–09 and the title that got away

In 2008–09 he scored his 100th goal for Liverpool, played his 100th European match and scored twice in a 4–0 win over Real Madrid, and got his first Premier League hat-trick, in a 5–0 win over Aston Villa. On 13 May 2009 he was named the Football Writers' Footballer of the Year, the first Liverpool player to win it in nineteen years.

The league title is the one that escaped him. Liverpool came closest in 2013–14, when on 27 April 2014 Gerrard slipped as he received a pass from Mamadou Sakho and Demba Ba scored in Chelsea's 2–0 win. Liverpool finished second. He was the league's leading provider of assists that season.

On 1 January 2015 he announced that he would leave at the end of the season. His last match at Anfield was on 16 May against Crystal Palace, a 3–1 defeat, and his last game for the club was on 24 May at Stoke, a 6–1 defeat in which he scored Liverpool's only goal.

LA Galaxy

He signed for LA Galaxy on 7 January 2015 on an 18-month contract, and joined in July. On his MLS debut, on 17 July against San Jose Earthquakes, he scored and set up a goal for Robbie Keane in a 5–2 defeat. His last game was in a playoff penalty shoot-out loss to the Colorado Rapids on 6 November 2016, in which he scored his penalty. He announced his retirement on 24 November 2016, aged 36, at the end of a 19-year professional career.

England

He made his England debut against Ukraine on 31 May 2000 and scored his first goal in the 5–1 win in Germany in a 2002 World Cup qualifier in September 2001. He finished with 114 caps.

Roy Hodgson named him the permanent captain before Euro 2012, where he provided three assists, won two Man of the Match awards and was picked in the team of the tournament. He announced his retirement from international football on 21 July 2014.

The trophies

At Liverpool Gerrard won the Champions League, the UEFA Cup, the FA Cup twice and the League Cup three times. The honours in one table:

Records

What the others said

Gerrard played as a central midfielder, a holding midfielder, a second striker and even right-back, a versatility that came with a set of qualities that were consistent: leadership, determination, long-range shooting and a tactical reading of the game that let him break up opposition attacks.

"He's as creative as a Xavi at Barcelona, with something extra... greatest player I have ever played with."

— Fernando Torres on Gerrard, as quoted on Wikipedia

"A modern, complete player... personality, technique, he could set the play and also defend, and he could score goals."

— Paolo Maldini on Gerrard, as quoted on Wikipedia

After the pitch

Gerrard became a youth coach at Liverpool in 2017 and was appointed manager of Rangers in May 2018. In 2020–21 Rangers won the Scottish Premiership without losing a league match, clinching it on 7 March 2021.

He was appointed Aston Villa's head coach on 11 November 2021 and dismissed on 20 October 2022. On 3 July 2023 he became the manager of Saudi club Al-Ettifaq, and left by mutual consent on 29 January 2025.