Steven Gerrard will reportedly fly out to Los Angeles today to finalise his 18-month deal with LA Galaxy, and it puts question marks over whether the skipper will be back in time to face Sunderland on Saturday lunchtime.
The Mirror reports that Gerrard will fly out to America today, which makes sense given the fact he was seen at Martin Skrtel’s 30th birthday celebrations on Tuesday evening. On the flip side, if he is spotted in England at some point today or Thursday, the reports will be erroneous.
Given the fact the 34-year-old’s flight will take around 11 hours to and from Los Angeles, and if the reports are to be believed, the chances of him returning in time for the trip to the Stadium of Light look extremely slim.
Brendan Rodgers and his squad will travel to the north-east on Friday, and even if Gerrard has flown back on Thursday, which would be pretty full on given the distance, he would not be in prime condition for such an important Premier League away game.
Rodgers will have to look at switching his side around somewhat because of this. The likely thing to do would be to bring Alberto Moreno back into the team at left wing-back, with Lazar Markovic occupying Gerrard’s ‘number 10′ role behind the returning, and hopefully refreshed, Raheem Sterling.
Sterling could equally start behind the striker, with Mario Balotelli given a chance in place of Rickie Lambert, after a relatively promising cameo against AFC Wimbledon on Monday evening. It would be a risk though, given the Italian’s unpredictability.
Rodgers often seems desperate to include Gerrard one way or another, which has backfired a few times this season, and selecting him for Saturday’s game, given the captain’s rumoured travels between now and then, would be madness.
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petikan dari Liverpool FC, This is Anfield, Teamtalk
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