With games passing him by, it is time to phase Steven Gerrard out

His love and loyalty for the men who won him promotion, became champions of England and finally brought the FA Cup to Anfield clouded his judgement.

It was February 1970, and by way of illustrating how much water had passed under the bridge, when Liverpool won promotion eight years earlier, John Lennon was singing greeting-card love-me-do-I-love-you rhymes. Now he was releasing singles about the pain of heroin withdrawal. Meanwhile towards the end of a fourth trophy-less season, that old Liverpool team found themselves turfed out of the FA Cup by struggling second-tier side Watford. Shankly was forced to act. It wasn't immediate, but totemic figures such as Ron Yeats and Ian St John were phased out. Yeats was 32, the Saint 31. It was about that time.

Liverpool are in danger of letting their heart rule their head again. It's now 15 years - from Paul McCartney singing And I Love Her to the recording of electro-pop experiment Temporary Secretary - since Steven Gerrard made his debut for Liverpool. It's 13 years since his goal in the Uefa Cup final, nine seasons since the FA Cup final which bears his name, and nearly a decade since the Champions League victory which defines him. Gerrard will be 35 at the end of this season. It's about that time.

The great Italian midfielder Andrea Pirlo has been cited in comparison with Gerrard. Mainly by folk in England, it has to be said. Pirlo is 35 now, still an influential figure for Juventus and Italy. If Pirlo can carry on, it's been argued, so can Gerrard. But Pirlo is a wily old cove, a playmaker so comfortable in his surroundings that normal concepts of time, space and dimension have never seemed to apply. Gerrard's act however has always been an energy piece. A more useful comparison would be Roy Keane, another man who supplied the drive, heart and soul to his team. He was deemed surplus to requirements by Sir Alex Ferguson, a spent force, his work at Manchester United complete by the tender age of 34. It's about that time.

Games are beginning to pass Gerrard by, a fact snapped into painful focus at the weekend by Chelsea, during the sort of match he'd have bossed back in the day (not least because this time he owed them one). The champions-in-waiting had Gerrard and Liverpool chasing shadows at Anfield, a comprehensive bossing. Chelsea got shot of a midfield legend of their own in the summer, allowing Frank Lampard to wind down in the States (via a period of quarantine in Manchester). Lampard still has something to offer - witness his equaliser for City against his old club as part of an energetic and slightly surreal cameo at Eastlands back in September - but at the very top level 'something' no longer cuts it. Chelsea and Jose Mourinho are in the market for 'everything' these days, and everything's currently being provided by Cesc Fabregas and Nemanja Matic, the latter a colossus at Anfield on Saturday and already a contender for player of the season. It was about Lampard's time.

Liverpool is a club which - and this is much derided, but it's no bad thing - still places a premium on loyalty and locality. Gerrard will therefore have many staunch defenders, and they'll no doubt point to his performances last season, when he was an influential part of a team that came so close to one of the most spectacular title triumphs in living memory. The way it ended told a heartbreaking tale, but it was an instructive one too, the die cast when Victor Moses foolishly lost possession with the clock running down against Manchester City, and Jordan Henderson got himself rashly sent off trying to retrieve the situation. Gerrard was indeed brilliant during much of the last campaign, but Henderson had been providing his legs. Without the young man beside him to do his running, Gerrard and Liverpool stumbled (yes, yes) during the run-in. Left to his own devices, it wasn't quite enough.

Whether Gerrard should ever have been deployed in central midfield is a moot point anyway. His signature performance in Istanbul - outclassed by Kaka in the middle during the first half, world class when augmenting the attack or shackling Serginho at right-back for the rest of it - has always provided a strong argument for the prosecution. Rafael Benitez had his number, for the most part, most famously deploying him just behind Fernando Torres, with whom he arguably enjoyed the best days of his career, despite a lack of silverware to show for it. (Liverpool were banging in threes, fours and fives every other match towards the end of 2008/09, a run of form that makes last season's team look like George Graham's Arsenal.)

Either way, it's beginning to look beyond him now. Which poses Liverpool and Brendan Rodgers something of a problem. Is it time to jettison Gerrard? Chelsea would wave goodbye, you feel, though Liverpool are not so flush with top-class talent that they can afford to do the unthinkable quite yet. But an acceptance that it might be time for him to vacate the midfield - the title's gone, so why not let Emre Can bed in and find his groove? - doesn't mean the end of the road. Forget the much-mooted role of impact sub - Liverpool went backwards in the Bernabeu when he came on late against Real Madrid - and instead send him further forward for one last hurrah in the final third, where the responsibility weighing him down will be lifted from his shoulders, and he can use those last reserves of energy and inspiration to cause a little bit of bother.

That worked well during the latter stages of Liverpool's recent home match against West Brom, when away from the heat of the kitchen Gerrard began referencing happier, more creative times. And having shaken off the shackles during the desperate last knockings of the Chelsea game, who was that doing enough to win a penalty with a shot from the edge of the box? Gerrard still has a role to play for Liverpool, and something to offer. Just not where he's being deployed at the moment.

But the clock waits for no man (apart from Andrea Pirlo, natch) and sooner, rather than later, it'll be about that time. Gerrard is rumoured to want a three-year extension to his contract, but the club must resist. One last year for that one last hurrah would be an infinitely more sensible decision. And after that? A year after Shankly ushered his Sixties totems out of the door, Liverpool reached the FA Cup final, their first major final in five years. Another 12 months on, and they came within a hair's breadth of winning the league. Another season, and they'd landed the league, along with the Uefa Cup, the club's first European trophy. Liverpool's younger generation of supporters will understandably look to a Gerrard-less future with some trepidation, but a glance back should settle their nerves.