Poll Gerrard decision

[rurikbird]

The FA rule is that if a player is booked 10 times between the opening day of the season and the second Sunday in April, he will receive a two-match ban. Gerrard has accumulated 9 bookings – 7 in the league and 2 in the FA cup. If he gets one more booking in any of the next 3 games – Sunderland, Spurs, West Ham away – he will be suspended for 2 games. This means if he gets booked vs Sunderland he will miss Spurs and West Ham; if he is booked against either Spurs or West Ham he will miss the following game vs Man City.

As far as I understand, if 10th booking comes in the Man City game, which is on 2nd Sunday in April, he will be suspended for one game, not two – so he would miss Norwich away and be back for Chelsea. And if he were to get a red card in any of the next 2 games, it would still trigger a two-game suspension just like a yellow card would. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

What should Rodgers and Stevie do? Please vote – and since we already seem to have like 1000 threads about the said topic, please only use this thread only to vote and/or to correct any confusion about the rule.

UPDATE: According to Guardian, the potential 2-game suspension is "up to and including April 13th." So if Gerrard plays vs Man City and is booked, he will miss the home game vs Chelsea. This makes it even more clear-cut for me. Suspension is all but unavoidable, so he must get a yellow card in the Sunderland game in order not to miss one of the title-decisive games. I also don't want our DM to avoid tackling people in those decisive games because he's afraid of getting suspended. Just do it now and sit out the next two games.

 

[keniget]

Heh, I think the best thing we can do is to have at least three threads about it!

 

[Dreambeliever]

Lol another thread?

Play him and play his natural game, if he gets booked so be it

 

[rurikbird]

Well, this one is a poll. The discussion can go into earlier threads.

 

[ILD]

Rurick you surreptitious swine you, trying to steal my thread.

If Gerrard got two yellows against Spurs, he'd only miss one game against West ham. Is this a loop hole into avoiding two games?
90th min second yellow when we are up by three.

 

[rurikbird]

Rurick you surreptitious swine you, trying to steal my thread.

If Gerrard got two yellows against Spurs, he'd only miss one game against West ham. Is this a loop hole into avoiding two games?
90th min second yellow when we are up by three.

Are you sure about that? Any proof?

This would be very much against the spirit of the rule and I would be surprised if they allowed such loophole. I would think the 10th yellow card would trigger the suspension no matter what happened later – another yellow or red card would not in any way "cancel out" the 10th one.

 

[ILD]

Oh ive no clue man. That's why I was wondering if it was a loop hole. My intentions were to pose the question not state it as fact.

 

[Spaghetti Legs]

Play him in all games and if he picks up a booking, so be it.

We have some other good midfielders, im confident that they will step up again without him.

 

[gkmacca]

Tony Barrett, Gary Jacob


Brendan Rodgers has ruled out the possibility of taking special measures to prevent Steven Gerrard from picking up a suspension, even though the England captain would receive a two-match ban if he is booked in Liverpool’s next four games.

Gerrard received a ninth yellow card of the season during the 6-3 win over Cardiff City on Saturday, and the amnesty for players reaching ten bookings does not apply until the second Sunday in April, the day Liverpool host Manchester City.

Though aware that his captain is walking a disciplinary tightrope, Rodgers said it would be best for Gerrard to show caution rather than leaving the midfielder out of the team with Liverpool bidding for the title, starting against Sunderland tomorrow and Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

“I have spoken to him about it and we just have to be that extra bit more careful,” Rodgers said. “He has been very unlucky. The booking against Manchester United should never have been. He won a header [against Marouane Fellaini], and he was unfortunate at the weekend because he committed a foul, which also should not have been a booking.”

Rodgers has confirmed that Fabio Borini will return to Liverpool at the end of this season when the striker’s loan spell at Sunderland ends. “He has shown with the goals he has scored against the big clubs, including in the Capital One Cup final, the quality he has,” Rodgers said.

Jan Vertonghen, the Tottenham Hotspur defender, will face Luis Suárez, his former Ajax team-mate, at Anfield on Sunday. The Spurs player said: “He is difference between the sides, up there as one of the best strikers in the world, [Daniel] Sturridge obviously is doing well and those two are very hard to stop.” Suárez scored twice when Liverpool beat Tottenham 5-0 in December, leading to the dismissal of André Villas-Boas as the side’s head coach.

Tottenham expect Emmanuel Adebayor to return from a heel injury and still hope to leapfrog Arsenal to claim a top-four place. “We will not give up until it is mathematically over,” Vertonghen said. “We will try to get as far as possible. With the mentality in the team, there is nothing wrong.”

 

[rurikbird]

That might be just a plausible denial. If they made a decision to get booked in the next game, he is never going to say it publicly.

 

[ILD]

Okay, just to get this straight. If Gerrard makes it to the City, does the amnesty apply before kick off or does he have to get through that game without a booking?

He is 7/2 to be booked any time against Sunderland with PP. Worth a bet?

 

[Glock21]

Whatever it is, he must fucking play against Chelsea at Anfield. I couldn't care less about other games.

 

[gkmacca]

Of course you couldn't.

 

[6TimesaRed]

Cometh the hour Cometh the man...

Wonderman

 

[Silver Sean]

Just play. what happens happens. A midfield taken from Allen, Henderson, Lucas, Sterling and Coutinho should be fine.

 

[localny]

Lucas scares me when he comes back from injury. Takes a long time to be halfway decent. Really slow, and lets players get away so easily.

 

[King Binny]

Just got reminded about this 'issue'. Looks like Gerrard won't be taken out of the XI to prevent being yellow carded? Hopefully for the next 2 matches, it'll be like yesterday's case where he gets withdrawn after the result is second to avoid being booked.

 

[Clubmac13]

All he has to do is avoid booking v west ham and he's ok for remainder?that right?

 

[tombrown]

Just got reminded about this 'issue'. Looks like Gerrard won't be taken out of the XI to prevent being yellow carded? Hopefully for the next 2 matches, it'll be like yesterday's case where he gets withdrawn after the result is second to avoid being booked.

Defeatist 😉

 

[King Binny]

Defeatist 😉

Ah, what was I thinking. Meant secured instead. 😳

 

[King Binny]

All he has to do is avoid booking v west ham and he's ok for remainder?that right?

The cut of date is apparently (inclusive of) 2nd Sunday of April, i.e. the Man City match.

 

[#roadred]

All he has to do is avoid booking v west ham and he's ok for remainder?that right?

If he gets booked against West Ham he misses Man City & Norwich and if he gets booked against Man City he misses Norwich & Chelsea. After the Man City game he is free to get booked 5 more times before a suspension.

 

[Mersey86]

Unless 2 of them are in the same game, of course.

 

[#roadred]

Darn Binny beat me to it by a mere 5 hours

 

[rurikbird]

Okay, just to get this straight. If Gerrard makes it to the City, does the amnesty apply before kick off or does he have to get through that game without a booking?

He is 7/2 to be booked any time against Sunderland with PP. Worth a bet?

Like I said, the penalty is up to and including Man City game. So if he get YC vs City, he'll miss Chelsea.

 

[Dreambeliever]

Hes more likely to get booked against west Ham

 

[Glen C]

Personally I'd bench him for the west ham game. They will be tough but we should still be able to beat them without gerrard.

 

[FoxForceFive]

I suspect there's a chance, although not a great one, that he does play Lucas instead of Gerrard.

Not cos of the card, but cos we'll want to line up very differently against West Ham.

 

[hamstrung_pigeon]

Given West Ham's aerial game, we should play Gerrard. The strength, height and heading advantage he has over Lucas will come in useful during set pieces, assuming he doesn't take his eyes off his man.

 

[Glen C]

Given West Ham's aerial game, we should play Gerrard. The strength, height and heading advantage he has over Lucas will come in useful during set pieces, assuming he doesn't take his eyes off his man.

Its possible to beat west ham without gerrard. but no way can we beat city if he's suspended. It's just not worth the risk. Have him on the bench against west ham just in case.