After a cagey start to life under Kenny Dalglish, the embers of a revival were starting to flare up, but after the showing against West Ham, we were firmly put back in our place, and rightly so. The display was something we all know Liverpool had in them. Too many players going missing and the usual scapegoats being made, well, the usual scapegoats.
Two players that stood out, in terms of absolute worthlessness though, were Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher. This might sound like a strange shout, but it’s all about perspective. I’ve heard many many fans slating David Ngog, sometimes fairly, sometimes unfairly, and I’ve felt the brunt of criticisms of Lucas over and over along with Kyrgiakos. There is a difference between the nagging comments of these three players, who cost £7.5m in total, to the ‘invaluable’ combo of Gerrard and Carragher.
These stalwarts, the so called life-blood and embodiment of all things LFC, have been off the boil for too long now, and in Carragher’s case, never quite had the ability to cut it at the peak. If this is the backbone of Liverpool Football Club, then we are suffering from a broken back. The silence, when it comes to the analysis of the two English players is deafening. I don’t mean to be sensational when I write, just for the sake of it, but I cannot be the only one who feels Liverpool might better off without them (proper investment permitting).
First up, Jamie Carragher. A player who, after reading his autobiography, has a lot of self worth it seems. His ability to read a situation and make a possible saving challenge is unquestionable. He is highly competent at doing so. But, from a footballing standpoint, he is not good enough. His distribution is atrocious. Soft, 30-yard chipped balls up to anybody who is up front is not good enough. The ball inevitably comes back straight away, possession it seems is not an option when Carragher has the ball at his feet.
I can see an immediate future for the centre back, dogged defending is his forté and when he stands alongside Daniel Agger, it can work. But when paired with anybody who can’t use the ball well, i.e. Martin Skrtel, he may as well be standing on one leg. For a professional footballer, I find it shocking. If Jamie Carragher did not carry so much fanfare, then I would be able to accept his deficiencies. It’s all too common for other players to be lambasted, and Carragher to be let off the hook. If you’re wondering where I’m coming from, the next time Liverpool play, just look at how good ol’ JC uses the ball. I only pray Agger is present to hold his hand through it.
Deep down, maybe I have a grudge against him, but one exert in his autobiography forever turned me from being endeared to him. After taking some criticism from a journalist in a local paper, Carragher judged it unfair, and then infers that a phone call was made resulting in nothing critical being written again, if that’s not blinding arrogance I don’t know what is. I can see why successive England managers overlooked the Bootle born defender. His heart is there, his head is there, he has the organizational skills to be a leader, but his ability lets not only him, but the team down.
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This is the worst and most ill informed and totally wrong thing i have ever read. I question the writers sanity.
100% Agree. King Kenny will put them in their place, just need more time to establish himself among the team. We were playing some decent football till Carra return. As for Gerrard, he only play well in high profile matches, very selfish
Gerrard had a quite game up until the last 20 mins still looks sorry Torres has left and needs to have a bit more faith in Suarez,Carragher had been looking back to his best since he came back from injury but baby sitting Wilson did not help him certainly not a left back and looked weak in the tackle for a defender.
The writer has a few things right. Gerrard lacks tactical awareness and discipline. To be effective he needs to be able to play in a free role. If he is asked to be disciplined and maintain control of an area of the pitch he is not up to the job. Never has been and never will be. He can be an effective player but without him the team plays more like a team. We do not have enough decent players to consider letting Stevie go but I’ve not been impressed with his performances and general attitude this season when things have not been going well. You can visibly see his head drop and his negativity seems to pervade the pitch and the crowd.
I also think Carragher works well alongside Agger but he and Skrtel are not an effective team. Carragher has not had his best season to date and has made more mistakes in half a season than he has done in the last three or four. However I think part of this is because of the changes and weaknesses as full back. If the unit is strong then individuals will always play better. He’s still a decent player but does seem to be showing signs of deterioration.
Your wrong mate, problems are
Defensively we havent looked great this season
There is a clear lack of pace in midfield
Up front we havent had a settled strikeforce all season.
blah blah blah
without gerrard we r hopeless
he is a leader
carra is gettin on abit but was amazing against chelsea
What! I though we were doing ok while Gerrard was injured.
There are undoubtedly elements of truth in this article such as:
1. Carra’s distribution is poor
2. Stevie’s does lack discipline when playing central in a 442 formation.
3. They did both play poorly on Sunday v West Ham
4. They do both have big ego’s
5. Lucas is harshly criticised for small mistakes (not in the ground by the way) whereas Carra and Gerrard are untouchable.
That said these 2 are both excellent footballers, true Reds, and have given their heart and careers to LFC.
They may be both over 30 and not at their peak, but they still have plenty to offer our club. They deserve our loyalty and support, and hopefully Kenny will be able to incorporate a fit and on form Carra/Stevie within our team for the next couple of years at least.
This is an excellent article and perfectly pinpoints the unhealthy influence these 2 players have at the club. Carragher is useless in the air as well which has hurt Liverpool numerous times in games. Gerrard, Carragher and Reina all looked last Sunday boozed up and all fans should telephone and e-mail the club to demand that these 3 especially should be breathalysed each day at training and also 2 hours before each match from now until the end of the season to see are they sober enough to play and earn their farsical high wages. As much as it pains me to say it fans should contrast the lack of professionalism shown by these 3 primadonnas (especially the intoxicated Reina the whole season) with the likes of Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. Gerrard,Carragher and Reina should all be sold in the summer. For Liverpool to move forward a new era is needed at the club. No player is bigger than the club.
I’m not too sure than any of them need to be breathalyzed and I would argue with Kenny’s comment about Reina because, without Reina, we’d be screwed. But as for Carragher and Gerrard I am quickly losing patience, particularly with Gerrard. Carragher has never been a great footballer, a passionate man and he wears his heart on his sleeve, dies for the cause, blah blah blah but he is a dire footballer and is approaching the very end of his career. As for Gerrard, he is one of the most easily affected footballers I’ve ever seen. Anything, anything at all can make him perform badly and he hasn’t performed well in a string of games for almost 2 years. Neither of them are in any way touchable though, so articles like this – as much as I agree with you Chris – are a lost cause. Managers and board alike will always fear a backlash from ‘the Kop’ should either be dropped.
I agree with the sentiment of the article but the way of expressing it and certain finer points are not up to scratch.
Carra never quite up to it? Unbelievable. He isn’t the player he was but that is an absurd comment.
Also, Gerrard was awful the other night, agreed. It is also clear he was not fit so it isn’t his fault he was started when he shouldn’t have been.
I have to agree with this article, for the most part anyway. I think for 3-4 years Carragher was one of the best central defenders in the country, and quite rightly told England where to go for continually being overlooked for lesser players. However age is catching up with him now though, and determination which over came his never great speed, is not there to overcome him getting slower.
I think Gerrard’s form has been poor for a year or two. I don’t know what makes him tick, and apart from leading by example, I’ve never seen him as being a good Captain. Carragher, when playing well would be a better choice as he is more vocal and a better organiser imho. If Gerrard is not leading by example, apart from the respect the other players may have for him, is he a good Captain? Gerrard was better on the wing when he had a bit more pace, and better playing with a striker, but you lose a lot when he play in the centre, and as you say, can leave the midfield light as he goes marauding about. That said, Sundays defeat owed a bit to Kenny bringing on a forward when we were getting overun in midfield.
You say we have the man to drop them, but Dalglish’s friendship with them may count against that. Hopefully he will be strong enough to make the hard decisions.
yeah…hopefully KENNY DALGLISH ‘will be strong enough to make the hard decisions’…?!??! Look, gerrard aint been consistently good since 08/09 but when freed of defensive duties, is a top player and carra is waning a little but could still be a force (a la sami) with the right partner (agger for me). For the love of god see this hodgson-ruined season for what it is and have a little faith in the finest liverpool manager since paisley to rebuild sensibly for 11/12. One poxy defeatand the gloom brigade are out in force. jeeeez……..
I’m not reacting to the game on Sunday with regards to Gerrard, although that is the most recent example, he hasn’t been playing well for a year or two consistently. He inspires when he plays well, but when he is his usual moody self, it affects the team negatively. I hardly ever see him speaking to the other players, shouldn’t a captain be doing that? When he plays all the other players defer the ball to him, which sometimes stops the ball going to a better option, and makes us predictable as well. You can see a freedom and variation of passing sometimes when he doesn’t play.
If Kenny plans Carroll and Suarez at the same time, then where does that leave Gerrard? Will he have the discipline to stay in the centre? I doubt it, he’s too used to doing what he wants. Kenny needs to make the hard decision with Carragher and Gerrard, and follow the doctrine that no one is bigger that the club.
Actually seem to be in agreement here Redhead, with regard to El Capitano. I was one of the heretics who suggested we cash in when he wanted away. The guy is peerless when it comes to inspiring moments and that is unquestionable. As a captain however, gerrard is not what LFC needs, because those moments are spectacular but rare. We need a fella who gives everything in EVERY game. Stevie is an emotionally fragile character and too often lets his head drop. His presence and status means that any stevie-strop has a knock-on effect….so, yeah, Dirky for captain!!!
It’s about time someone chirped up about this. If KD does show the players the horror video that was last Sunday’s game against West Ham. It will show 3 stand out items. 1. Danny Wilson is not a left back
and he was ruthlessly exposed in the game(Reina stood up and took a lot of the blame for the goals –
the truth was he needed his defenders TO ACTUALLY DEFEND – which they didn’t do correctly in the West Ham game) 2. Although we all love Stevie G, most of his long ball passes were just HIT & HOPE instead of the his probing balls which usually produce results. This contributed enormously to a dire team performance. 3. Carra although he is a very loyal servant to the club is becoming like Sami Hyppia – far too slow for the fast paced EPL,
sorry Our Lad but your time is up. Stick to getting your coaching badges. All these things PLUS not keeping possession of the football a la Barcelona ment we were always going to come up 2nd best to an up and at ’em Hammers side that were unusually committed but fair play to them . It made for an entertaining game. Just hugely disappointing from the Reds that they didn’t turn up to the game really.
This is a very good article and I agree with Chris totally. I also agree with all but of one your comments Tony – PLEASE don’t compare Carragher to Hypppia! Hyppia could come back tomorrow and would still be a better defender than any we’ve got despite his age and the “lack of pace” Our defence went to pot when he left.
Utter tosh!
Gerrard is the most complete all round footballer England has seen for the last 10 or so years – he is just not match fit, its that simple. We would be stupid to even consider letting him go he still has 3 to 4 years to offer. he will also contribute more in revenue from shirt sales & marketing oppertunities in that time and his presents will attract other players to play along side him.
JC does need Agger, then it’s a top paring.
You are spot on mate. I’ve been saying this to some Liverpool fans and they went mad as soon as i said that Gerrard should be sold and Carrager should be droped. The only person to do that without the fans going mad is King Kenny. They run the club and is very dangerous thing to let happen for too long. As soon as they gone the better for LFC. It makes me laugh when some pundits say “if only Liverpool had 11 Carragers on the pitch”they eould win everything. If it was not for Gerrard and Carrager ( Benitez ) would still be at Liverpool and with the new owners now who knows what would have happened.
Gerrard&Carra r & for a very long time have been r very best players. This article, the author & all supporting comments r shameful.
Gerrard is not match fit, Carra is being exposed increasingly because the back 4 r rarely unchanged. We have a (good) new rb, no lb & agger is regularly injured. Skrtel is good but too similar in style to Carra & Soto simply too slow to play with Carra.
If we can settle the back four, keep Gerrard fit & start r new strikers we’ll b a much better proposition.
Then the idiot article writers & their bandwagon hangers-on will have to make up new turf for other topics….
we need agger back JC links up well with him
reina
kelly carra agger johnson
kuyt gerraard adam(hopefully)
meirles
suarez carroll
Brave article and I can see some have shot you down already, but there is more than an element of truth in it. I actually think Carra is a great defender, but not beyond criticism, and yes his distribution is poor, but with Agger, solid. Gerrard was appalling the other day, fitness perhaps an issue, but the Gerrard of a few years ago would lose the ball and run twenty yards to recover it. I watched in disbelief as the captain walked about without attempting to pressure the opposition players. Perhaps it is the time spent further forwards, but he does seem to go missing defensively now, and this from a player who was an effective right back in the past.
My bigger fear is as stated at the end of the article, if Kenny doesn’t challenge these players. no-one will. It has already been alluded to that these players started picking the team towards the end of Houlliers reign, and Gerrards sulking over Torres being subbed last year was ridiculous. I was glad to see that he didn’t dare react that way when Kenny subbed Torres in one of his first games. I fear that despite being great passionate players they have become too powerful when they should fight for their place like everyone else. i for one would welcome Gerrard being on the bench occasionally and hope that in future if not fit or performing as he did the other day, he isn’t on the pitch for long.
Great article mate – my sentiments exactly. When did we start calling Carragher JC and Gerrard Stevie G ? We’re not bloody Ingerland or Chelsea fans.
I agree with the comments on Carra but not Gerrard. I think it is unfair to pick on him for Sunday – after all the substitutions and the fact we were chasing the game, we basically ended up playing 4-2-4 so there were bound to be gaps in midfield. However I do feel that sometimes our players think that everything has to go through Gerrard, and that can sometimes be a problem.
agreed Ste – even Hartson was saying that Carragher is a target for strikers and he was around God knows how long ago. With opposition strikeforces getting even bigger over the last couple of years (how many 6’3”+ strikers have been brought in since we had Crouch!?) he is becoming even more of a liability in our defence. The simple fact is that Hyppia carried him for years and now Hyppia is gone our defence has immediately reverted back to how it was in the 90’s – comical
What’s most funny/ironic/pathetic is that Agger is supposedly our ‘footballing centreback’ but when paired with Carragher (or Skrtel for that matter) he has to take on the responsibility for marking the bigger opposition striker, while our enforcers look to take on the less physical assignment. Even on Sunday, Wilson was only out of position for the goal as he had to challenge Ba in the air while Carragher backed out of the challenge that he was perfectly positioned for!
IRT Gerrard though, by all means drop him if we have better alternatives but Meireles and Lucas still haven’t proved to be better options than him. Even during a poor game littered with mistakes, the guy was still our only driving force (bar Johnson) against West Ham, while Lucas was yet again totally overwhelmed by a team that decided to contest the midfield (and it was no different while we had 3 man midfield before anybody says that we were outnumbered). Gerrard needs to trust his teammates more, but his teammates also have to man up and take some responsibility for making things happen on the pitch too. Or just give way for other players that can.
First of all this is a good article,but i saw this preson say carra was amaising against chlesea!?!would u take a win against e blues and drop 5points against smaller teams!! That will get us no place but the botom!! Carra’s ball skills are as useless as they get!!hoofing the ball up the park week in week up!! If truely this is the back bone of our team then we are truely done and dusted in terms of being taken seriously in the world of football again!!
Couldn’t agree more mate. I’ve been saying the same thing to some other LFC fans and they almost punched me in the face. It’s stupid how some fans can be so obssesed thta they don’t realize that bth Carra and Gerrard have been poor for quite a long time.
TBH, Carra has always been more ‘heart’ then football, but now it’s more obvious, maybe because of his age or God knows why.
Gerrard is one of the best midfielders I’ve ever seen, but his performances this season and last one (with some exceptions) have not been the best.
Also his attitude hasn’t been quite good. He looks moody, absent, not interested
For me, the best thing Gerrard can do next season is leave LFC. It would ve the best for him, and maybe for the club.
Jesse – it’s more apparent now because Hyppia isn’t there to carry him through games. In the same way that Hyppia made Henchoz look a lot better than he was, he did the same with Carragher. Carragher’s career path would’ve probably followed that of Dominic Matteo’s if not for the presence of Sami at LFC
Gerrard also needs better teammates as he is no longer capable of carrying the team on his back as he did in previous years. Our forward options are just abysmal at the moment with Kuyt, Maxi and N’gog regularly occupying those roles, so there are very little options for creative play behind them and they all need to be replaced asap with players with more technical and physical ability