Gerrard’s age the least of Liverpool’s worries

The Steven Gerrard free-kick that drew Liverpool level in their must-win final group game against FC Basel jumped straight out of a comic strip. It said once and for all they should stop worrying about their captain’s decline and concentrate on improving the rest of this side.

Europe will not be the stage for that recovery. One win in six group games, at home against Ludogorets, stirred no ghosts from great continental adventures.

They are out — and deserve to be. Gerrard, meanwhile, could be out of the Champions League for good, if he moves to America or Liverpool fail to reach a top-four place in May. The Europa League, though, awaits.

The talismanic footballer in his prime makes all around him look better. The talisman at 34 shows up the failings of a team incapable of compensating for his rise in age. At the end, you thought: Liverpool needed more like Steven Gerrard.

A local hero of advanced age, he played in advanced midfield in a game that gave Liverpool the kind of shot they tend to like. A last shot.

In a season of mediocre and sometimes rank performances, the hope was that the terrifying threat of early eviction would force Brendan Rodgers’ team to sparkle again. Gerrard, as ever, was appointed game-changer, rabble-rouser and redeemer.

Having Gerrard behind 32-year-old Rickie Lambert was the formula Rodgers opted for to achieve the great leap into the second round. The salutary beatings delivered by Real Madrid would be filed away for another night of banners and magic and unquenchable spirit, with Gerrard as torch-bearer.

Well, this was a night of clarity.

Liverpool’s problem is not Gerrard’s middle-age creep but the paucity of resources around him. Though his passing deteriorated as the first-half wore on, a troubleshooter would not place him in the top 20 issues to be addressed at Anfield. Ragged confidence would be high in that report.

From the moment Basel elected to make a real game of it, you could see that Rodgers’ men resigned themselves to 90 minutes of struggle.

Forward moves broke down, Raheem Sterling, the team’s young star, was continually barged off the ball, and Joe Allen and Lucas Leiva became weighed down by chasing Basel’s strike runners.

A swift, technically good counter-attacking team with a fine record against English opposition was bound to present a challenge, but few expected the jerkiness of Liverpool’s play to be exposed so quickly.

Sterling was shouted at by the Anfield crowd for playing a terrible ball across the Basel penalty box and the already meagre patience of the Kop was worn to see-through thin.

Since the fabled Olympiakos win in 2004, Liverpool have spent £116 million (S$239 million) on 12 central midfielders, with only Javier Mascherano reaching the level of Xabi Alonso. In other words, Gerrard has been doing the work of many men for a decade.

The team who came from behind to beat Greece’s representatives that night were: Kirkland, Finnan (Josemi 85), Carragher, Hyypia, Traore (Sinama-Pongolle 45), Nunez, Alonso, Gerrard, Riise, Kewell, Baros (Mellor 78).

In his programme notes, Gerrard praised Florent Sinama-Pongolle and Neil Mellor for their efforts 10 years ago. Often, the past loses its glamour when you disinter the fine details.

Yet Liverpool went on to win that season’s Champions League, with the greatest of all their comebacks, from 3-0 down, against AC Milan in Istanbul. Rodgers allowed himself to ruminate on those events, perhaps in the hope that history would wipe away Liverpool’s unconvincing form.

“In terms of Steven — we can’t just be reliant solely on him, this has to be about a team performance,” he had said.

Amen. Yet Gerrard is locked into the saviour’s role.

In his 130th fixture in European competition, he trotted out first and alone for the second half, in front of spectators sore at having to pay £59 for the privilege.

Rested until the 67th minute against Sunderland at the weekend and confined to the bench against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, of all places, he knew this was potentially his last Champions League outing in the red jersey he has worn with such distinction.

Rodgers was decisive, withdrawing Lambert and Jose Enrique at the break in favour of Lazar Markovic and Alberto Moreno. A good plan, until Markovic flicked his fingers at the pursuing Behrang Safari, drew an exaggerated reaction and was dismissed by referee Bjorn Kuipers.

Gerrard’s fluorescent armband glowed through the murk as he tried alternately to keep pace with and initiate Liverpool’s attacks. His main accomplice, Jordan Henderson, was a picture of eagerness without the killer touch to go with it.

With Liverpool down to 10 and half an hour left to play, the Kop struck up a brief Gerrard tribute as he found himself playing centre-forward by default.

Galloping through like the rescuer of old, he drew Basel’s goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik into a save that looked like a foul until the replay showed his palm meeting the ball before Liverpool’s captain went down.

But the saviour was not finished. Gerrard’s 80th minute free-kick from outside the penalty area not only cancelled out Fabian Frei’s first-half strike for Basel, but floated the idea that he is still Liverpool’s glory boy when it really matters. They need a lot more of what he has.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Paul Hayward is chief sports writer at The Daily Telegraph.