Liverpool look to dynamic duo against Inter

Martin Samuel,

Chief Football Correspondent

Having been the source of so much head-scratching for England managers over the years, Steven Gerrard is on the brink of solving a serious problem for Fabio Capello. If Gerrard can establish a role as the main supporting presence to Fernando Torres in the Liverpool team, a world of possibilities will open up with England.
Tonight at the San Siro, on what could be an historic night for English football with a fourth Barclays Premier League club vying for a place in the Champions League quarterfinals, Gerrard will resume a partnership that has produced five straight wins for Liverpool, yielding 15 goals. If they aim to do more than merely defend their 2-0 first-leg lead against Inter Milan, it is Gerrard and Torres who will again be relied upon to create havoc through the middle of a makeshift defence, with Marco Materazzi suspended, Iván Córdoba and Walter Samuel injured and Cristian Chivu and Nicolás Burdisso, the full backs, ready to deputise as centre halves.
Gerrard's understanding with the prolific Torres has revitalised Liverpool's season and so rattled Inter at Anfield three weeks ago that Materazzi was sent off before half-time for a second bookable offence. Torres feeds off Gerrard's intelligent passes, Gerrard exploits the space created by Torres's runs to get beyond the striker and threaten goal. It is a blueprint of how the England of Capello's dreams would play, but he knows he is short of one key ingredient: a goalscorer with Torres's immense class.
It is no secret that Capello is auditioning strikers for England's World Cup qualification campaign. Clearly, unlike his predecessors, he does not see Michael Owen as the solution. Gabriel Agbonlahor, of Aston Villa, is a possibility but is inexperienced and untested, while Peter Crouch needs to make more of a mark in club football before he can seriously be considered. Capello's initial instinct was to play Wayne Rooney as a striker, but while the manager has concerns about him in that role, the scarcity of his options means the plan is far from abandoned.
What he needs is for Rooney to be more ruthless in front of goal, to become the kind of level-headed finisher that Rafael Benítez bought in Torres. There is little worth in Gerrard creating six chances per game if Rooney needs that many to score.
Capello can only have been alarmed at Rooney's success rate in a recent Champions League match with Lyons. With so few alternatives, however, he remains the best way forward for England. In every other area he is the equal of Torres: technique, movement, physical presence. He just needs to learn to finish. The target must be his performance for Manchester United in the 4-0 FA Cup demolition of Arsenal, when Rooney scored and turned in a display that Alan Shearer claimed was the epitome of the lone striker's job. Even Capello applauded him off the pitch. Playing Gerrard behind the striker would at least allow Capello to attempt to accommodate him in the same team as Frank Lampard. Gareth Barry could also play, while retaining a semblance of the shape that the manager first envisaged for his England side.
Gerrard's conversion to this new task is remarkable, considering his resistance to change under Steve McClaren, the former England head coach. Perhaps it is symptomatic of the more businesslike relationship he enjoys with Benítez, the Liverpool manager - to McClaren he was always “Stevie G” - that he is now open to playing farther forward and enjoying his best form of the season in partnership with Torres.
Benítez prefers Gerrard behind the striker as it takes away many of his defensive duties and allows him freedom to roam. In a two-man midfield, the Spaniard was always worried by Gerrard's tendency to desert his position in search of the action, leaving space for the opposition to exploit. Capello is cut from the same cloth. His preference is for two holding midfield players and two wingers, one to give width and the other cutting inside, almost as an auxiliary striker.
This may have to be adapted slightly to include Lampard, who would be negated if used beside Barry purely as a defensive screen, but the Chelsea man certainly plays a more disciplined midfield role than Gerrard, whose greatest successes have all been as a marauder, as he did so brilliantly in the 2006 FA Cup Final against West Ham United. And as he may do tonight if Benítez is not content to sit back and soak up pressure.
Gerrard has already formed a mutual admiration society with Torres. The Spaniard described him as “maybe the best player in the world”. Gerrard says he would not swap his friend for any other striker. Capello must hope that arrangement is not permanent.
— Many consider Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres to be Liverpool's two world-class players and, when operating together up front for Liverpool in recent games, they have dovetailed brilliantly. Predominantly a midfield player, Gerrard has been pushed forward into the hole, with Torres playing as the lone striker. With two holding midfield players behind him - Xabi Alonso and Lucas Leiva filled those holes in Saturday's 3-0 home win over Newcastle United - Gerrard has the freedom to charge forward without worrying about defensive obligations. As the link man between midfield and the front line, Gerrard is busier than Torres but he is liable to enter the opposition's penalty area as often as his team-mate.