Jamie Carragher

[AFII]

With his playing style then you must start to wonder how much longer his body will cope? Terry play with the same playing style and he gets a lot of injuries for example.

I think Rafa is starting to think in the same lines, that is why he played Carra on the right a couple of weeks ago, to protect him.

Carra-----Skrtel----Agger----Riise

As the back four when Agger and Skrtel are fit again, why not?

[Gazmo1]

I think that Carra is man enough to say himself when enough is enough. He is a very proud guy and the first to admit when we haven't been good enough.

[blondie]

How much have we missed Agger since his injury??

[akjs123]

Our defense has been very poor this season. Although we havent conceeded too many goals overall, a lot of them have been due to poor defending and it has cost us a lot of points. The 2 goals vs spurs, the poor marking in the box for Tevez goal, the poor clearance for Bramble to score, the goals vs Villa and I have not mentioned some of the goals we conceeded in CL, the domestic cups and the league games we won.
We used to be very strong and good at defending set pieces but everytime we have a freekick against us this season, I'm praying that we dont conceed a goal.
I dont know whats to reason for this, maybe Hyypia's number of matches at this age has gotten to him, maybe Carra has still not recovered from the rib problems at the beginning of the season, maybe we are missing Agger, maybe its Pako leaving, I dont know but our defense hasnt been as good as it has been in the past seasons and that has been costing us points.
There is a scary stat that we have scored more goals than Chavs this season and conceeded the same number yet we are 11 points off them.

[AFII]

How much have we missed Agger since his injury??

A lot. Missing him affects the whole game plan in defense and attack. We must play more defensively without him.

[Michael]

I hope you prove to be right because he's had a poor season by his standards.

For the record - I dont buy that hes getting more pressure put on him because we arent putting our chances away. I understand the comment, but Carra more than most puts the whole team under pressure with his woeful distribution which gives the ball back to our opposition on most occasions. He punts the ball up to the strikers so often these days that i believe it has to be instruction from Rafa to bypass the midfield. Carra is an intelligent player who has the capability to mix his distribution up sometimes but he never does.

spot on mate!

[poorscousertommy]

His distribution has been awful this season. It's frustrating when he just hoofs it forward.

He has made his usual array of great blocks and tackles but he is also letting too many errors in his game.

How many pens has he given away (is it 3?) and luckily for us how many has he got away with?

I still think he is our best defender though. Just needs to sort out a bad period in his career. Everyone has them.

[Fowler_God]

he's past his best..... I agree with you mate...... his distribution puts pressure on the team ..... He's a good utility player

People do over react at bad times. Past his best? Your judging this on a crap 6 months?
Thats the problem when we are on a run like were on, everyone anaylsis every little thing, which then gets blown up.
Carra has been a beast for 4 years now. He deserves a little respect, just like Rafa does

[Shaggy]

He's been average since his rib injury

Beat me to it.

[Harv]

I love Carra, but theres no hiding from the fact he has been poo all season. Silly rash challenges, gasping for air after running to make a tackle, and his distribution is getting worse by the game.

Im not writing him off yet....but with Agger and Skrtel we look to have a cracking future partnership. Both equally comfortable on the ball, both with decent pace, and both big strong lads.

[Darth Marty]

They guy isnt having his best season and could benefit from a rest, however with injuries etc Rafa hasnt been able to do that has he.

Now with Skrtle, Sami and Agger nearing fitness hopefully he can rest J.C soonish.

To say he is finished though is very very pessimistic.

[dww]

I think there is something in the rib injury argument but I think his bad form is being over played here. He has made some cracking cover challenges and interceptions in recent weeks.

I think the problem is that with his mild lack of fitness and Hyypias age we are not mentally good enough at the back. Both are trying to make up for their personal deficiencies too much to work on the defensive unit as a whole and consequenctly rash decisions are being made.

I think it may be fair to criticise his distribution.

On the other hand I think like Carvalho when partnered correctly he exponentially increases the quality of the defense. Maybe a rest would get him back to a point where he could do this with Sami. Or maybe he just needs to keep playing games until his full fitness returns - it is difficult to know.

[Darth Marty]

i. Or maybe he just needs to keep playing games until his full fitness returns - it is difficult to know.

Paco would

[Rafa Shankly]

Let me defend him then

I believe the reason we arent seeing the best of Jamie is because he is becoming so fed up with our useless attackforce. He is constantly put under pressure because of a useless midfield and a useless strikeforce.

It doesnt help that Agger is out and he has to work even harder to cover for Sami's lack of pace. We are useless at defending crosses and set-pieces and it just adds to the pressure on him.

We go 1-0 up and then miss a million chances. This puts pressure on the defence because at 1-0 anything can happen and teams know that we are toothless. We then become under pressure at the back and eventually concede

Its not Carra's fault. He is not past it

We need to stop chopping and changing the defence and our attack needs to sort itself out and kill teams off

jamie has only been average this season and he is not beyond criticism,im not gonna criticize him though.

although i will say that your logic makes no sense,sorry mate.

[Nic83]

He's not performing as well as he has done in the past but that's mainly because it would be very tough to play as well as that all the time. He was phenomenal there for a couple of seasons running. He may have dropped a little but is still one of the best in the prem.

Our problem is not in defense, it's in attack. We've scored **** all goals in the league at home this year and that's why we are where we are. The reason for this is simple, We have only 1 outstanding player up there. the other top teams have 3 or 4.