Will Liverpool ever get another Steven Gerrard once the
Anfield legend hangs his boots? May be not. But someone will definitely come
close.
Fortunately for the Merseyside outfit, they may not need to
wait for so long for that someone to come throughs. It may be early alright to point
at anyone in the squad who will fit in the boots of Captain Fantastic but one
player continues to look the more likely.
Signed from Charlton Athletic for an intial fee of £1.7
million in the summer of 2010, Jonjo Shelvey is slowly establishing himself as
one of Anfield’s favourite sons. Managers continually pound on young players to
take their chances when given an opportunity to feature in the first team and
the clean-shaven attacking midfielder has been doing exactly that.
His ascension from being a Championship loanee to a permanent fixture for
Liverpool just shows how much progress the Romford-born lad has made. When you
watch him play for England U21 or against big guns in the premier league like
Manchester City and Chelsea or in Europe, it’s almost unbelievable to think
that he’s only 20 years old.
Against Young Boys in the Europa League on Thursday night, Shelvey came
in as substitute in the 66th minute and it’s his two goals that
helped a young Liverpool squad lock out the game against their impressive
opponents.
His first was a well-worked Liverpool goal. Fabio Borini made a run down
the left channel before squaring the ball to Jordan Henderson who found Jonjo inside
the penalty area. The former Charlton man took his chance guiding the ball to
the back of the net via his right foot to give Liverpool a 4-3 lead.
His second was what fine individual efforts are made of. Collecting the
ball from Hendo in the midfield, Charlton’s youngest-ever first-team
player raced down
the middle of the pack past everyone before unleashing a right foot shot past
Marco Wolfli in the Young Boys goal. And for the second time in the night, he
treated the travelling Kops to his trademark celebration where he mimics
wearing sunglasses with his hands.
Jonjo’s performance at the Wankdorf Stadoim reminded
me of Steven Gerrard’s hat-trick against Napoli in the 2010 Europa League.
Shelvey was on the field that night when the Reds took on the Partenopei at
Anfield. Napoli silenced the Kops when they took the lead at the half-hour mark
courtesy of Ezequiel Lavezzi. But a 13minute hat-trick from substitute Gerrard
saw the Reds claim all the three points.
On Wednesday, there wasn’t Gerrard on the pitch, nor in the substitutes
bench. But there was Jonjo Shelvey who did to Liverpool what they are used to
seeing from their ageing captain.
"He is still only 20 years of age and is developing and
growing all the time and you saw his confidence when he came on," Reds
manager Brendan Rodgers said in his post-match report.
Shelvey has definitely arrived into the scene and Liverpool’s
midfielders should probably be looking over their shoulders. Gerrard may be?
And That's thesteifmastertake!!
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