Steven Gerrard recently discussed his iconic Liverpool jersey number and a legendary Liverpool jail.
Steven Gerrard has revealed why he opted to wear the number eight shirt for the majority of his time with Liverpool.
The Reds legend originally wore the number 28 shirt when he broke into the first team in the 1998/99 season, before switching to 17 ahead of the 2000/01 treble-winning campaign. However, he’d switch again in the summer of 2004, following the departure of Emile Heskey to Birmingham City, as he inherited the striker’s number eight jersey.
While the number seven shirt remains the most iconic in Liverpool’s history, thanks to the likes of Kenny Dalglish, Kevin Keegan and Luis Suarez, the number eight isn’t too far behind courtesy of Gerrard’s own showings during his 17-year career with his boyhood club. As a result, Naby Keita made headlines when becoming the first player to wear the shirt since the former Reds skipper’s Anfield exit in 2015, donning the squad number ever since joining the club from RB Leipzig in the summer of 2018.
But despite the likes of club legends Roger Hunt and John Aldridge wearing the number eight shirt prior to Gerrard, he has admitted that they didn’t inspire his decision, when revealing his reasoning for taking the squad number he became synonymous with.
“I used to grow up watching VHS of John Aldridge, along with Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish, but not really,” he said at the Forever Reds Christmas lunch when asked if the ECHO columnist had played any role in his decision.
“I first went to 28 and I was just trying to work my way up into the first 11. When I had the opportunity to grab the number eight, being a midfielder and an attacking midfielder, that was the number I wanted.”
While there was no significant meaning behind Gerrard’s choice of shirt number, he had a light-hearted explanation for picking his famous Champions League goal against Olympiacos from December 2004 as the favourite of his career.
“Very much so, (it’s my favourite) but I think it’s the part that other people played in it as well,” he said. “It’s probably the first time we’ve seen one of those Cruyff turns from Carra.
“It’s the first time Mellor’s (who was sat on the Liverpool legends table) laid one off to me without giving it away, too. I caught it well, I struck it extremely well and it’s definitely one of my favourite goals because it played a big part in the end of the journey.”
source: https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/
