As Steven Gerrard celebrated his opener against Everton on Saturday afternoon, wheeling away cupping his hand to his ear, it was obvious he considered the strike a perfect response to recent critics. Nobody doubts his set-piece ability, however – it’s his contribution in open play that remains a concern.

Having struggled as Liverpool’s sole deep-lying midfielder in defeats by Aston Villa and West Ham, Gerrard had a different task against Everton. Brendan Rodgers changed his formation from a 4-4-2 diamond to 4-2-3-1, allowing Gerrard to play alongside the more mobile Jordan Henderson, crucial in a frantic derby played at great speed.

Importantly, this meant Gerrard performed slightly higher up the pitch. Whereas Gabriel Agbonlahor and Stewart Downing had nullified him with ease, Everton’s Steven Naismith found it much more difficult, despite being a very disciplined, intelligent player. Gerrard had more freedom to switch positions with Henderson and found pockets of space to receive short passes from the centre-backs, before playing good balls into attack.

“I’ll agree with the constructive criticism,” Gerrard said after the game. “I’ve been stifled in a couple of games when people have followed me around and I haven’t been able to shake them off.”

Rodgers had specifically devised training-ground drills to encourage Gerrard to find space away from his marker, something that doesn’t come naturally to attack-minded midfielders shifted into a deeper role.

“What I said to him was to take [the man-marking] as huge credit,” Rodgers explained. “I said to him, ‘All the things you’ve done in your life and career, I’m not sure if you’ve been man-marked before and now you arrive at 34 years of age in a different position, and people are finding your game so influential that they’re man-marking you.’ So we’d done some work in the week, to help him find spaces to come in and find the ball and he worked that very well against Everton.”

Statistics suggest Gerrard’s influence in possession was minimal, however. Although his pass completion rate of 91% confirms he used the ball reliably, six team-mates played more passes. Only the right-back Javier Manquillo, of Liverpool’s outfielders who completed 90 minutes, touched the ball less.

Gerrard was fortunate, too, that Everton lacked their usual counterattacking threat. Roberto Martínez’s side are generally extremely efficient at converting defence into attack smoothly but here they lacked quality in this respect, with both Ross Barkley and Steven Pienaar unavailable. Instead, Martínez played three cautious central midfielders, which meant there was a yawning gap between midfield and attack – a problem the Everton midfielders attempted to solve with hopeful diagonal balls towards right-sided forward Romelu Lukaku, rather than through purposeful dribbling.

Therefore, Gerrard wasn’t forced to halt dangerous counterattacks with crucial tackles, which remains the major question mark about his suitability in that defensive midfield role. Scoring free-kicks is a useful attribute but it doesn’t disguise the fact Gerrard is a predominantly attack-minded player unaccustomed to a defensive position. One attempted challenge on Lukaku summed up his uncomfortableness in the role – he showed Lukaku inside, on to his stronger left foot.

“He has the performances left in him, it’s just managing him through the games,” said Rodgers. “He has quality, great appetite, which is important, and for that he will continue to play. It is a case of how long he sees himself being able to play because he can still play for a few years.”

Gerrard remains an important player for Liverpool, especially considering Rodgers isn’t blessed with great options in central midfield. However, while Rodgers’ tactical decisions last year were based around Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suárez, and positioning the attackers where they could wreak the most havoc, now Rodgers is thinking more about where Gerrard won’t be nullified. For the first time since Gerrard broke into Liverpool’s first team, he’s not a guaranteed starter.