He was unfortunate not to win more but between 2005 and 2009 he was playing for one of the best teams in Europe under a manager who knew how to get the best out of him (none of his internationals managers did). Should have won at least one more CL and a league title just in that period. It's not like he was Le Tissier at Southampton or Shearer at Newcastle and never going to win anything.
That's a very odd way to look back on that era. Either it's so long ago that you've allowed your personal opinions on Gerrard's character to cloud your judgement, or you weren't much in to the game back then?
If you asked anyone with even a passing interest in football back then to make a nice, long list of the reasons we didn't win the league or another Champions League between 2005 and 2009, I think probably 95% of them would've put Gerrard at the bottom of it. We were 37 points behind Chelsea in 04/05, 9 behind them in 05/06 after a great finish (we were 13th after 10 games, never close to challenging), 21 points behind United in 06/07, 11 behind in 07/08 (5 wins and 5 draws after 10, again realistically never in the picture), and then finally we got close once in 08/09, while still needing to overturn a 7 point gap having played an extra game, in the run in.
We were a superb outfit in the Champions League, partly down to Rafa's tactical ability and certainly also because of the likes of Gerrard and Torres who were absolutely world class. But in terms of being one of the best teams in Europe? We never came close to having the consistency domestically. We challenged once in five years, got within 10 points twice, and you think a bloke who everyone in Europe was desperate to buy off us, who consistently made english and european teams of the year, nominated for all the top honours and who improved season on season, should look back on that time and think he should've done more?
The reality is we were miles off, we had next to no strength in depth, no firepower without Torres, a collection of bang average squad players being relied on to compete with the powerhouses that United and Chelsea were in that time. The one time I think you could say that we were truly one of the best teams in europe (not "on our day we could beat anyone" but actually, consistently, one of the best teams in Europe) is in that run between March and May 2009. But we'd given ourselves too much to do by then, we had that draw with Arsenal but even if we'd won every game in that run in it wasn't enough to turn around the gap United gained on us. 86 points was a fantastic effort in that time but it ultimately wasn't enough, and if you're pointing the finger anywhere, again, Gerrard is last on the list. United had Tevez, Berbatov, Rooney, Ronaldo. We missed Torres for 12 games with injury that year, essentially a third of the season, where our reply to that front line was Benayoun, Kuyt, Riera, Babel, Nabil el Zhar, Ngog and Robbie Keane, for half a season. We had cowboy owners failing to invest, and, if we're being totally honest above Gerrard, a manager who, other than those three incredibly exciting months, was never able to craft the team into one that consistently got results in the league.
Honestly, you sound like a United fan or someone incredibly desperate to slander Gerrard at any opportunity by describing him in that era in the way you have there. You go on to say he's not exactly an example of a one club man because you think he wanted to leave in 2010 and would've done if he didn't demand Benitez be sacked for Hodgson (which you don't know, either way), and then say he should've left for his own sake. Well he didn't leave, he stayed because of his love of the club and offered a little bit of shining light in the shitshow of an era that followed. While he could've been out in Madrid winning the lot. And that's somehow still a stick to beat him with.
What more did you want him to do? When did he let us down in that era? Big games he was always there. He scored in every possible final a club player could score in. He scored 16 from midfield in 08/08. What else should he have done? Clone himself? Invest a few hundred million on the squad depth we were crying out for? I'm intrigued what you think he failed to do.
