Former Liverpool captain was a Villan but not a villain on his return to the ground where he made his name
Some at Anfield rose to their feet to applaud a returning figure from their past. Danny Ings was back and he was coming off the bench. Meanwhile, Steven Gerrard grimaced in his distinctly damp vigil in the technical area. He has scripted some of the more improbable tales in 21st century football through sheer willpower but a man whose Liverpool career ended amid the humiliation and farce of a 6-1 thrashing at Stoke knows special occasions do not always go as planned.
This didn’t. Not for Gerrard, though his Aston Villa side proved awkward opponents in defeat. Nor, perhaps, for the Liverpool public. Had Villa been vanquished, they could have devoted more time to serenading Gerrard. Instead, Villa’s obduracy afforded little time for sentimentality. When some in the Kop started to revive an old chorus saluting Gerrard in the opening minutes, they were drowned out by a rendition of “Liverpool”. They have still spent longer singing “Ole’s at the wheel” than Gerrard’s name this season.
