Nothing new la. Years ago SAF did it by using Park to man-mark Pirlo vs Milan. We also had Welbeck mark Alonso vs RM 2 seasons ago.
Teams have been putting a player on Gerrard since the end of last season as well, once they realized that he was the one building up play for them.
If you don't do that, the midfielder will have time and space to control the game and spray passes (much like Blind did vs QPR). So you put someone on him to harass to try and make sure his impact is reduced.
For us to counter it, need to either have CBs build up play instead (hard, cos it will take plenty of time to learn the finer details and not everyone can do it well) or you need a 2nd midfielder beside Blind to help him by being another option to control the game (just like RM brought on Modric to help out Alonso). Our simplest option would be
Carrick with Blind (which is why I said we missed
Carrick when we were 3-1 up). Alternative would be to get Herrera to play deeper instead of joining the others up front.