Interesting as I hear this ad nauseum from Giles re: Gerrard: For those of you who don't know him, or are too young to remember, John Giles was an Irish midfield player who played for a very successful Leeds team in the early seventies, as well as with Man Utd and Rep of Ireland, whom he also managed for a period. Giles was a brilliant midfielder, one of the best of his generation. Hard, vicious at times, but he had finesse as well, and could see a pass. Most of all, he could boss a game, like Robson, Souness or Keane, just with his perception and footballing brain. I came across a quote from Graeme Souness about Giles. Their careers overlapped by a few years and Souness tells the story of his first game playing against Giles. He says he went into a tackle on Giles, looking to really cement him and it was like tackling dust. Five minutes later, Souness went in for a ball, and came out of it with Giles' studs all down the back of one leg. As he looked up, Giles winked at him and said "you will learn". And Souness says he did. What has this to do with Gerrard? Well, the last two times Liverpool have been on Irish tv, Giles (who does the studio pundit job, with Liam Brady and Eamon Dunphy) has been saying the same thing - Gerrard is not a midfielder. Now, Giles makes no bones about the fact that Gerrard is a wonderful player (and Giles doesn't use the word "wonderful" a lot!). But he thinks Gerrard does great things from midfield, as against being a great midfielder. Giles is quite certain Gerrard doesn't have the ability, or more accurately, the inclination to be a proper midfielder. He doesn't knit things together (although he can), he doesn't cover his back four (again, he can), he doesn't set the tempo. He can do all these things, just as he can tackle and track back. He just doesn't, or at least not all the time. Now, Giles comes from a time when "midfielder" meant central midfielder - those other guys were wingers. But you can see his point. It's interesting to hear because Giles has no particular axe to grind. He's not a polemicist, like Dunphy, or a Gunner, like Brady. Also, as anyone who watches the Irish coverage knows, they aren't beholden to the money men, like Sky, always trying to make out everything is sooo exciting. Nor are they timid, like the BBC, fearful of opining on anything controversial, where the most radical thing you'll hear is "he'll be disappointed with that, Gary". They tell it like it is, so when Giles says Gerrard is not a proper midfielder, and then shrugs his shoulders, as if to say "well, there it is, what do you want me to do about?", well, you tend to listen. I know, Giles doesn't have the market cornered on football insight. But I think he's right on this one. And if Gerrard isn't a proper midfielder, well, what is he?
