Stefan Bajcetic is the New Steven Gerrard (Possibly)

I hate the "X is the New Y", but ...

I hate the "X is the New Y", but ...

To me, since seeing him first as a 16-year-old centre-back before swiftly becoming a playmaking midfielder, Stefan Bajcetic originally had a bit of the Xabi Alonso about him.

But now, as he matures, he seems to have more pace and energy (or is being asked to cover more ground with his pressing), and I see more and more Steven Gerrard in him.

Of course, it's merely a reminisce of skillsets, and not necessarily the same manic desire, will-to-win and show-stopping genius that the legendary no.8 possessed.

No player who resembles another player even in many ways will ever become that player. They'll have different minds, different bodies, different injuries, different doses of good and bad luck, and each will be a product of his time and environment.

But Bajcetic is the closest thing I've seen to Gerrard at Liverpool since Gerrard. Certainly the two bear comparison at the same age; if anything, Bajcetic is ahead.

As seen above, Gerrard was 18 and skinny when he broke through in late 1998, and it was February 2000, over a year later, when he really started to blow my mind, when about to turn 20.

(A game I was at – against Leeds at Anfield on February 5th 2000 – was the best Liverpool midfield display I'd seen in the flesh by an individual since my first attendance a decade earlier, after increasingly good displays by the future no.8. That year, in one of the first things I ever had published, I put Gerrard in my all-time Liverpool XI in the official Liverpool matchday magazine, next to Graeme Souness. I'd seen the future, and it would be. And, it still would be.)

Bajcetic was 17 and skinny on debut. Both were just over 6ft, both could pass a ball, both liked a tackle, albeit Gerrard was ferocious in an era that allowed far more contact, including sliding tackles and even two-footed lunges if you got the ball.

But Bajcetic has two more years until he's the age where Gerrard was stealing the show and running games.

Remember – when comparing, always compare people at the same stages of their careers; just as you should never compare yourself as a novice starting something new to someone who’s done thousands of hours to become an expert. You can aspire to that level, but you won’t start at that level. Progression to become elite doesn’t automatically follow, but at 18, Steven Gerrard wasn’t a regular in the Liverpool XI, and hadn’t played for England.

You could see the energy of the young Gerrard, and the tenacity, but not the strength, and not always the skill. In his first 50 games he scored just one goal, dancing around a challenge into the box to slot into the back of the net. Bajcetic did much the same at the weekend, but in just his second league game.

Gerrard was quicker than Bajcetic seems to be right now, but Bajcetic has seemed to be getting quicker of late; having just turned 18, his body is still developing in all manner of ways. He'll add power in the next 12-24 months as part of a natural development, and even more in his 20s when he can do more weight training.

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