Carragher is overrated

[Red_hot]

He sounds dead gay though.

[Bob]

His distribution doesn't have to be good if he's playing alongside a ball-playing CB. Hyypia isn't one either hence why Carra has been 'hoofing' more of late.

What a ridiculous thread IMO.

[Bob]

As an aside,Sami was tremendous last light,winning the ball time and again and then laying a simple ball off to let someone else distribute.the gift that keeps on giving.

He was superb, really was!

To be honest i have no idea why Rafa hasn't curtailed the wastefulness of Carra and told him to play it simple either to Mash or his Full back. Perhaps he considers that too predictable?

[JohnDoe]

His distribution doesn't have to be good if he's playing alongside a ball-playing CB. Hyypia isn't one either hence why Carra has been 'hoofing' more of late.

What a ridiculous thread IMO.

But Hyypia is still a better ball player than Carragher and every CB needs to have some ability on the ball, which Carragher lacks. The fact that he must have Agger next to him is what makes him limited and that can hurt a team. It has.

Carragher needs to improve and stop acting like he's facing Kaka every week. When he's got the ball he needs to understand he's part of our attack, and stop treating the round white thing like a hot potato.

[badpiggy]

His distribution doesn't have to be good if he's playing alongside a ball-playing CB. Hyypia isn't one either hence why Carra has been 'hoofing' more of late.

What a ridiculous thread IMO.

disagree strongly - every player on a team who can't find a teammate with a pass is eventually a liability. carra is an LFC legend but there's no point in constanly putting out fires you've lit yourself. anyway, keeping possession in general is not something we seem to be very good at so it's not just carra who's to blame.

[Fivex]

He sounds dead gay though.

[Bob]

disagree strongly - every player on a team who can't find a teammate with a pass is eventually a liability. carra is an LFC legend but there's no point in constanly putting out fires you've lit yourself. anyway, keeping possession in general is not something we seem to be very good at so it's not just carra who's to blame.

Sorry, i'm talking about playing the simple ball more often (which is a legitimate player instruction) as opposed to the Hollywood hoof!

One of Rafa's criticisms of Stevie early on was he didn't play the simple ball more often - which was fair as he was pinging 40-50 yarders all the time. He doesn't seem to have addressed Carra's direct balls though and ask him to use the shorter option more often in order to retain possession.

I would NEVER call Carra a liability.

[dawmdt]

He was superb, really was!

To be honest i have no idea why Rafa hasn't curtailed the wastefulness of Carra and told him to play it simple either to Mash or his Full back. Perhaps he considers that too predictable?

Who says he hasnt told him to? To be fair, simple passes is what he does most of the time, the hoofs are conspicious by their awfulness... but he is a very excitable player and patience in waiting for the midfield to find some space for him is probably not in his character

[dww]

Sorry, i'm talking about playing the simple ball more often (which is a legitimate player instruction) as opposed to the Hollywood hoof!

One of Rafa's criticisms of Stevie early on was he didn't play the simple ball more often - which was fair as he was pinging 40-50 yarders all the time. He doesn't seem to have addressed Carra's direct balls though and ask him to use the shorter option more often in order to retain possession.

I would NEVER call Carra a liability.

I'm not sure that it is a problem that originates with Carra though. For a central defender the long ball out is a valid option as your first thought. In order to not move the ball far away there has to be a good option close by and for the defender to start using this option it needs to be there all the time. For me at the minute Gerrard and Mascher are too close to the back four and to each other too often.

When as a team we play with confidence Carra moves the ball into midifeld more frequently. At the minute we are low on confidence and this highlights what some players default to when they are not full of self belief. I don't think there is a problem with Carra in this regard long term to be honest. He will always be a defender first type of player and that in many ways is his strength the problem for me at the minute is that we don't have the right blend around him to consistently bring the ball out of defense under control. Partly this is IMO a personel thing (we are much too narrow in midfield and make it hard to find players in space as a consequence) and partly about the fact we are not pschologically quite right at the minute.

[Parm]

There are some fair points there and Carra has certainly been guilty of the hoof far too many times this season, even with Crouchy not in the team.

That said I think some of our defensive issues have been due to an unusual lack of stability in the full-back areas. Gone are the days of recent seasons when if felt like we had Finnan-Carra-Sami-Riise nearly every game.

As for moving forward, well Xabi isn't there to pick up the ball as much this season due to his injuries and Gerrard being played central. That does cut down his options.

fair comments

[Whelan5]

I love JC - he's class. Tho i admit a good few years ago, whilst you could say he was still finding his feet, and hew was getting played at left back or right back - i didn't think he was good enough. Since moving to the centre he established himself as one of the most consistent defenders in england, maybe europe.

To be fair to JC he has improved his "ball playing" drastically over the last 3 years or so - there was a time when he literally couldn't pass the ball five yards. I think missing agger is more of the problem, hyppia is far more hoof than jc - as a result without agger i'd rather it was JC trying to start from the back than hyppia so as a result JC's so called "lack of playing the ball" ability is emphasised.

That said, the worrying thing is there is probably 5 or 6 players in the squad who are even less skilfull than Carragher and they aren't even Centre backs

Sorry but it's absolute rubbish to suggest that Hypia is a bigger hoofer of the ball than Carra, he is very good on the ball as he displayed again last night, as well as playing the simple 5 yard ball he also plays the occasional 40 - 50 yarder to set up attacks, Carra never does this.

Whilst i think Carra is a wonderful defender which is his basic job i think he adds nothing going forward, he has gone up for every corner for the last 4 years and how many times has he actually got a header on target? Compare that to the likes of Gallas and Terry, who defend equally well.

[Red Chilli]

He's not over rated, no-one rates him on the ball.

As a pure defender he is UNDER RATED by some opposition fans.

[Nic83]

Carragher is UNDERrated now **** off

[AFII]

Carragher is an excellent defender but Agger is better than him. If we sign Garay then I wouldn't be surprised if Carra would be third choice but that would only because Garay is one of the best in the world.

[Red Chilli]

Carragher is an excellent defender but Agger is better than him. If we sign Garay then I wouldn't be surprised if Carra would be third choice but that would only because Garay is one of the best in the world.

Behave AFII FFS