Liverpool's greatest ever player can lead club to a top four finish

 

So just who is Liverpool's greatest player? Steven Gerrard got the nod from his best pal Jamie Carragher, and Ralph Ellis can see where the Reds defender is coming  from...

 

If you are asked to speak about somebody at a tribute dinner, then you're hardly likely to get up and say: "Yeah, he's ok." So when Jamie Carragher agreed at the last  minute to give a speech about his mate Steven Gerrard he was always going to be fulsome in his praise.

 

Gerrard was being honoured last night by the Football Writers' Association at their annual tribute dinner at The Savoy. Carragher stood in to do the talking after  Kenny Dalglish had to step down because of a family issue.

 

"Kenny not being here makes it easier for me to say this," said Carragher. "But in my view Steven is the greatest ever player to play for Liverpool Football Club."

 

Now that's some statement, especially given that while Dalglish hadn't made it there was Ian Rush in the room. But his argument was that while the likes of Rush,  Dalglish, Kevin Keegan or Graeme Souness had played in top teams, Gerrard had pretty much carried the club on his own for a decade.

 

It's a fair point. The West Ham fans in the room shook their heads with bittersweet memories of how the Liverpool skipper was the only man who stood between them and  winning the FA Cup at the Millenium Stadium in 2006. If there had been any AC Milan people there, they would have had just the same feelings about the European Cup  final in Istanbul a year earlier.

 

Gerrard is still the driving force this season. He hasn't missed a minute in the Premier League at the age of 32 and his goal against Norwich on Saturday was his  fourth in Liverpool's last seven games. So while there will be plenty of debate over his mate's assessment of exactly where he stands in the pantheon of Anfield stars  there's no argument he is up there somewhere.

 

What will provoke debate is what Gerrard himself then said, when he was invited onto the stage, about Luis Suarez: "The best that I have played with." And in that  assessment he included not just those at his club but his international team mates too.

 

He said he would be voting for the Uruguayan as the PFA Player of the Year and that he expected plenty of others would too. (Suarez is currently a lay of 26.0 in that market while Robin Van Persie is now 1.32 favourite).

 

Gerrard also believes the arrival of Daniel Sturridge will help Liverpool's team improve significantly in the second half of the season.

 

If he's right then Liverpool have become a significant betting opportunity because they remain odds against at 2.04 for a top six finish. It's a generous price when they are sat in seventh, and Arsenal above them are on the same number of points yet 1.25, and Everton are three points above that and also odds on at 1.62. I felt it would take time for Sturridge to settle in and that his role as a central striker might reduce the number of goals that Suarez scores. But if between them they make the team stronger - and the signs on Saturday were certainly promising - then maybe Liverpool could start to return to the top echelons.

 

Who knows, it might give Gerrard one more chance to justify his mate's verdict that he should be regarded as Anfield's greatest of the greats.

 

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