The Anfield crowd greeted its hero with a thunderous ovation, and he responded by creating a scoring chance with his first touch. His free-kick found the head of Maxi, but the LFC attacker could not convert it into the game-winner.
Gerrard replaced Charlie Adam and slotted comfortably into the midfield alongside Jordan Henderson. He played in a more advanced position than his younger teammate and nearly set up the winner in the 84th minute. He led Stewart Downing into the Blackburn area with a perfectly weighted pass, but Downing's shot was too weak to beat goalkeeper Mark Bunn.
Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish saw the 31-year-old captain train for two weeks before using him in game action. Dalglish said he decided to insert Gerrard into the game because he wanted the Reds to push forward for the game-winner.
"He's done really well in training, he looks really fit and he needs some time on the pitch now just to get back to full fitness," Dalglish said after the game.
"The difficulty for us was deciding who to take off. It wasn't as if we were playing poorly. Usually if you're struggling a bit you can see you've got two or three options, but there wasn't really anyone that stood out that deserved to be taken off. But we had to do something to try and win the game."
Liverpool's next game is Friday when it hosts Newcastle. It may be too soon for Gerrard to start, but it is likely that he will play more than the 20-plus minutes he did on Monday.
Review all the action from Monday's game in our Liverpool Live Blog.
Photo via Flickr/Liverpoolfc.tv
