By Chris Rowland.

With Jamie departed, this week the Symposium panel turns its awesome collective brain capacity to the question of who’ll be Stevie’s No 2 in the armband department:

Shaul Mitelpunkt (Serpico): The vice captain needs to be someone who demonstrated four things:

1) He does not go anywhere in the foreseeable future – stability and loyalty.

2) He is a dominant figure in the club, well respected by players and supporters – authority.

3) He is not older than 28 (for outfield players) – would potentially take the captain’s band once Gerrard retires.

4) He is a hard working player who never shows anything less than full commitment and concentration when on the pitch – setting an example for others.

Isn’t it obvious?

Stand up Lucas Leiva, Vice captain of Liverpool Football Club!

Andrew Beasley (Beez): In my opinion, in England too much emphasis is placed on who your captain is. If a professional footballer needs a colleague to bellow at them in order to perform, then I’m not sure I want them in my team.

Other major footballing nations simply hand the armband to the oldest player, or the one who has the most caps, and that system is fine by me.

As Brendan Rodgers is a keen fan of Spanish football, I therefore suggest we follow the same method. This works out fine, as following Jamie Carragher’s retirement, our current Captain Fantastic has made by far-and-away the most appearances of the remaining squad.

But I’m also happy to follow this protocol for the vice-captain too, meaning that at present Lucas Leiva (with 214 Liverpool ‘caps’) has a slight edge over Daniel Agger (who has 209 run-outs under his tattooed belt).

Of course, this may lead to Fabio Borini captaining Liverpool in the League Cup, but you know what? Who cares? If you’ve played for the Reds the most, you deserve the armband. Plus everyone else probably still said Lucas or Agger anyway…

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