Jamie Carragher heaped praised on Liverpool attacker Xherdan Shaqiri for his display during the 2-1 defeat courtesy of Chelsea on Wednesday.
The Sky Sports pundit shared that during the Reds’ 3-0 win over Southampton and the EFL Cup clash with the Blues, it was clear that the winger had a quality left-foot and was a steal at £12million this summer.
However Carragher then compared Shaqiri to his Reds teammate Mohamed Salah and shared that it was clear he didn’t have the same blistering pace as the Egypt international.
“There’s no doubt there is quality in that left foot, been real evidence of that, certainly a few days ago that free-kick he took, come in score the goal,” said Carragher on commentary during Chelsea’s clash with Liverpool (Sky Sports Main Event, 21:08 Wednesday September 26).
“But we’ve seen also tonight that he doesn’t have Salah’s blistering pace but for £12million, he’s a steal.”
OPINION
This is a fair assessment from Carragher as while Shaqiri was amazing against Chelsea, he didn’t have the blistering pace that would have torn them apart. Salah would have had field day if he started the game and been in top-form as his pace would have been too much for his opponents to handle. However that shouldn’t take anything away from Shaqiri’s performance on Wednesday as the attacker was a constant threat for his side despite watching his team slump to their first loss of the season. The attacker was not to blame for the Reds slipping up and losing their 100% record as he did all he could to aid his side’s cause. While many will point out that Shaqiri didn’t score, he was a constant thorn in the Blues and side but just didn’t carve out that golden opportunity for himself. Hopefully Jurgen Klopp opts to keep using the winger as the season goes on as he is a joy to watch.
