Steven Gerrard Named Premier League's Best-Ever Player by Brendan Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers believes Steven Gerrard can be considered the Premier League's greatest player ever.

The Liverpool manager spoke frankly ahead of the Reds' trip to Leicester City on Tuesday. Speculation suggested a rift between the player and manager had occurred after Gerrard was left on the bench for the visit of Stoke City, per BBC Sport, but this has been denied by both parties involved.

Rodgers made his feelings extremely clear when asked about the 34-year-old midfielder, as reported by Dominic King of the Mail Online: "Listen, I love working with him. He is arguably the best player in the history of the Premier League. I saw some things yesterday that were unfortunate in terms of a rift between us. But one thing we have together is honesty and respect."

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Rodgers continued by saying, "It is not about the amount of games he will play now. It is the level of games he plays. No matter how good a player he has been, in the final few years you have to taper that."

He also confirmed Gerrard has been offered a new contract, per BBC Sport.

Gerrard denied rumours of a spat, posting the following image and caption on Instagram:

Rodgers' faith in Gerrard is best highlighted by the fact he last failed to start a Premier League game on Jan. 1—when he was injured—per BBC Sport. He has appeared in all of Liverpool's 13 domestic league matches, as well as racking up four starts and a substitute appearance in the Champions League.

The midfielder has noticeably needed a rest in recent times. He was completely anonymous during the recent loss to Crystal Palace, a match in which he made no tackles or interceptions and completed just 79.1 percent of his passes, per WhoScored.com.

Both he and Liverpool's midfield have proven too easy to bypass this season. Jordan Henderson's striding coverage of the pitch hasn't been so effective without Luis Suarez opening space ahead of him, while new signings such as Adam Lallana and Emre Can are yet to hit full momentum.

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Former Liverpool captain Jamie Carragher recently acknowledged Gerrard must be rested. "Brendan Rodgers and his medical staff have done a superb job managing Steven's fitness," wrote Carragher in his Daily Mail column. "Now they must manage the amount of matches he plays."

Liverpool have a hectic schedule approaching, with eight games coming throughout December. Gerrard will be important in some capacity across all of these fixtures. Rodgers will need to make further decisions on his playing time, though.

The Reds' crunch Champions League tie with Basel is just four days before their trip to face Manchester United. Three days later, a must-not-lose Capital One Cup fixture away at Bournemouth ensues, with Arsenal heading to Anfield just four days after that.

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Gerrard's time will need to be split if Liverpool supporters are to see the best of a player who is certainly among the Premier League's greatest ever. He has provided glimpses of this form—the free-kick against Everton standing out—but needs to be rotated if that spark isn't going to be diminished through fatigue.