With Steven George Gerrard about to head to LA Galaxy who will be the next great leader at Liverpool FC?

Nostalgia of Gerrard's Charity Game Underlines Need for New Liverpool Leaders

LIVERPOOL — The Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher All-Star match on Sunday saw a host of former team-mates return to Merseyside to raise money for local charities.

The timing of the match was odd, but due to stadium expansion work it couldn't go ahead after the season ended, and Gerrard had played his final game for the club. So instead, some of Europe's biggest names took time out during the season to pay respect to their former captain.

Chris Brunskill/Getty Images

Liverpool supporters finally got to witness the partnership that never was as Luis Suarez and Fernando Torres emerged from the Anfield tunnel together for the second half. Suarez arrived at the club hours before Torres' controversial departure back in January 2011.
While the duo's return was the main talking point, there were also returns for a host of players who may feel they never previously got chance to say a proper goodbye, most notably Spanish duo Xabi Alonso and Pepe Reina.
The bulk of the returning Liverpool players were from the Rafa Benitez era and the 2008/09 squad at which supporters still scratch their heads when wondering just how they didn't win the title.
That side, which featured Torres and Gerrard up front, Alonso, Dirk Kuyt, Sami Hyypia, Carragher, John Arne Riise, Alvaro Arbeloa, Ryan Babel, Javier Mascherano, Reina and more, lost just twice all season—and thrashed Real Madrid 4-0 and Man United 4-1 inside the same week.
The match provided a walk down Memory Lane and could not help but make supporters wonder not only what might have been, but more worryingly: Where are these types of characters now?

Past vs. Present

Michael Regan/Getty Images

The aforementioned players oozed not only quality but experience and leadership. Before arriving at the club, Kuyt had captained Feyenoord, Torres Atletico Madrid. Hyypia led his country, as did Mascherano and Gerrard their respective national sides. Then you had characters like Reina, Alonso and Riise who can lead teams to victories.
With the greatest respect to the current Liverpool squad, the same cannot be said now.
This is, of course, a result of Liverpool's strategy to sign young, less proven players rather than more experienced quality. It's an admirable philosophy but one that constantly leaves you looking to the future—but what if that future never arrives?
What if, for instance, by the time Raheem Sterling hits his peak, he's left the club, something that is seemingly becoming more and more likely by the week?
What if, seeing Sterling leave and the impact of another high-profile departure, Philippe Coutinho seeks success elsewhere?
And so on, and so on.
In the last three summers, Liverpool have lost Carragher, Suarez and now Gerrard. Following on from the losses of Alonso, Mascherano and Torres, the Reds have now lost six players who in their primes could genuinely be held up as top European players.
Have they been replaced? Do Liverpool have even one player even who can be regarded in such esteem? It's debatable.

Risk
The concern is that this is very much the end of an era. Once Gerrard leaves this summer, only Martin Skrtel remains from the side that beat Madrid 4-0 in 2009.
While it's admirable that Liverpool can name the youngest XI in the Premier League, you need experience to guide these youngsters, which is something Liverpool's squad lacks.

Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Last summer showed that. Of the nine signings made, only three were over the age of 25: Dejan Lovren, Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert. Of those, only Lovren had played in the Champions League.
No wonder then that Liverpool won only one game on their return to Europe's elite competition.

New Leaders
Big characters have left the club year-by-year since Brendan Rodgers arrived at the club (Reina, Carragher, Suarez, Gerrard), but the problem is that they haven't been replaced.

Their replacements will instead perhaps be more apparent in the years to come.
Will Jordan Henderson continue to develop? Can Rodgers build his defence around France's first-choice centre-back and former PSG captain Mamadou Sakho? Can Emre Can develop into a robust and leading midfielder? Can Daniel Sturridge stay fit enough to lead the attack?
Development is not easy to predict, and the risks are high, because if these players don't become the new Gerrards, Carraghers, Alonsos and Suarezs, Liverpool will struggle to retain their place among Europe's elite.
Rodgers and Liverpool must ensure that an all-star match is even a possibility again in a decade's time, and that the current crop are remembered in such a positive way as the returning players on Sunday were.