Jamie Carragher

[baitman]

What was the Carragher myth, and was it dispelled?

is there a proper carragher thread, as well as this one. if there is then im surprised they havent been merged yet

[Shaggy]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/9797318/Manchester-United-v-Liverpool-Jamie-Carragher-takes-the-long-view-of-Anfield-destiny-ahead-of-Old-Trafford-trip.html

Manchester United v Liverpool: Jamie Carragher takes the long view of Anfield destiny ahead of Old Trafford trip

Jamie Carragher captained Liverpool during last Sunday’s FA Cup tie away to Mansfield Town. This Sunday he expects to be back on the bench for the resonating Premier League trip to Manchester United.

It has, understandably, taken time for such a proud competitor to reconcile himself to the fact that he is no longer first choice. “If I was in this situation 10 years ago or even four or five years ago then I would have left, there’s no doubt about that,” Carragher admits.

“But now, I’m coming towards the latter part of my career and I don’t want to cause a problem for my club. I’ve never even spoken to the manager [Brendan Rodgers] about my situation or said I want to play. I wouldn’t want to do that.

“He doesn’t need me asking if I can play in certain games and, listen, Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel are better than me now. They should be playing. In a one-off game my performances are still good enough to play for Liverpool, but not when it’s three games a week.

“I’ve had my go, the team wasn’t built around me but I was one of the main players. It’s their team now and I help — that’s the way I look at it and I wouldn’t want to cause anyone at the club a problem or finish at the end of the season or the next 18 months with a cloud over me.”

That will never happen — whether Carragher, 34, signs a new deal this year or not — and a conversation he had with Jamie Redknapp springs to mind.

“Last season when I started to be sub a lot I was getting frustrated,” Carragher reveals. “He told me 'there’s nothing worse than a bitter sub’ and that stayed with me. And what he meant is you still have to prepare properly. If you watch me, I’m always warming up, I don’t just sit on the bench. I could be on any minute. I do my running after the game, my massage before, my ice bath.”

It is part of Carragher’s character and also, he goes on to explain, a key component of “the Liverpool way”. “I’m always thinking about football,” he says. “I’ve never taken anything for granted and always thought 'I might get dropped’. I always train and play as if it’s my last game. I’m always thinking 'how will the manager use me?’ When I was playing regularly, and we lost, that was me for days. I couldn’t sleep either. I never switch off and don’t do so now.” For too long, of course, Liverpool have been sleeping. A sleeping giant.

Too often managers — and players — have been chopped and changed and Carragher says, with Rodgers, it is time for that to stop.

“Liverpool are different from most clubs,” he explains. “And what has happened in the past few years with changing managers is not Liverpool Football Club. The thinking with Brendan Rodgers is that we want to build something for the future and get back to where we were.

“The manager has to get results, but you see other clubs changing managers and we’ve done that and it’s not the Liverpool way.”

The 'Liverpool way’ means a lot to Carragher; the last link to the club’s fabled “boot-room”. “Sometimes people think it’s an old-fashioned view – sometimes our supporters say it even – and I can understand that. They look and say 'why are you harking back to what Bill Shankly did or Bob Paisley?’ but those values still mean something today.

“The humility of the club, you never see players step out of line here or think they are bigger than the club. The manager is always the boss. I look at other clubs and think there’s a way of conducting yourself. To be honest, there have been times over the last few years at this club when I’ve thought 'that’s not the Liverpool way, should you really be getting involved in that’?

“Your onus as a player is: do your job, keep quiet, back the manager. That respect for the Liverpool way is something I’d like to keep up. It’s engrained in the club and it’s something I have to maintain and the players after me have to maintain. It’s about not being too big for your boots. I was brought up like that.” It is a characteristic of Liverpool as a club, the city also.

For Carragher, who grew up an Evertonian, the Merseyside derby will always be “the biggest” but he recognises that the clash along the East Lancs Road with United has “traditionally been the biggest” for the Premier League.

“At the moment people might sneer at that comment,” he adds, mindful of Liverpool’s decline. “I guess some fans at other clubs will say 'you are talking about a different era now’,” Carragher says.

“For now, also, the Manchester derby might be a bigger game in terms of winning trophies but history, fan-base, trophies still dictate this match.”

The rivalry remains sharp — and sharp-tongued. “I have great respect for Sir Alex Ferguson, Giggs, Scholes — the trophies they’ve won. But I don’t like seeing them win and I was glad that Man City won the league last year rather than Manchester United”.

Really? “Oh yeah,” Carragher says. “You look at what United have achieved and it’s fantastic and they have been the club over the last 15-20 years as Liverpool were before. And that’s what we’re been trying to get back to.”
The rivalry is also built on “respect” and Carragher echoes Ferguson in saying “I don’t think there’s been a problem between Man United and Liverpool”. He adds: “Obviously we had a situation with Suárez and Evra but that’s not something that happens all the time. There’s respect between the clubs and players. I’ve had a few words with Alex Ferguson in the tunnel but I’m sure we’ve both had that with a lot of people because we are passionate, because we want to win. You are fighting for your own team.”

What was said? “I was probably trying to stop him talking to the referee, that’s the usual one!” Carragher says. “And he was probably doing the same to me. I admire his will to win, his passion. That’s how I am as a player.

“There are also a lot of similarities between the clubs. Sir Alex Ferguson is to Man United what Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley were to Liverpool He’s there and we have to stop him and United and by doing so we will be better ourselves, and more successful. Maybe with a new manager here, a young manager, who was like Alex Ferguson when he took over at Man United — you can’t say he [Rodgers] will stay as long as Alex Ferguson because he’s a one-off – but hopefully he will be here a good, long time and set some foundations for the future.”

It may, Carragher accepts, take Ferguson to retire for United to be “knocked off their perch” (to borrow — and clean-up – the Scot’s own phrase) and Carragher said Liverpool must be there to take advantage. First, they have to get back into the top four and the Champions League, but he despairs at how some clubs see this as an end in itself.

“You can’t put fourth place on a mantelpiece,” Carragher says. “Listen, we’d be delighted with fourth but the way the game is now there are so many statistics, and managers talk about statistics – 'last season we got so many points, goals, we’ve not lost in 10 games’ – and I’m thinking 'great but at the end of your career what do you remember? You remember semi-finals, finals, away in Europe, how you got there, who you were with, how you got home! It’s about memories, not statistics and they come from winning trophies, not staying in the Premier League or getting fourth place.

“I always remember Leeds as a perfect example. It was always talked about that 'this team got to the semi-finals of the Champions League’. So what?
“What did they ever win? What did they actually do? OK, they got to the semi-final and got beat by Valencia. Big deal. I would rather have won the Carling Cup. You always want to win something.”

There is one glaring absence from Carragher’s own impressive collection: the Premier League title. “It’s been a disappointment,” and admits he does not think it will happen in his playing career. “But we’ve only really had two title challenges in 15 years and I can’t really say we threw it away.”

Carragher may have another role to play. He has spoken about going into coaching and management and is considering a career in the media. He would be a natural at both. “Maybe it’s something for later,” he says of management before, tellingly, adding: “It’s in the back of mind — and I do think about it every day.” The dream, clearly, would be to help restore Liverpool to the peak.

“It will happen one day,” Carragher maintains. “If we get things right, and I think the manager will do, and bring through players from the Academy and build a team – then we will challenge. Football goes in cycles. Liverpool will be back.”

[RedReet]

Good read that.

And to think how many idiots there are on these forums that consider themselves educated enough to give him so much abuse when they don’t have a ****ing clue.

[el matador]

Good read that.

And to think how many idiots there are on these forums that consider themselves educated enough to give him so much abuse when they don’t have a ****ing clue.

absolutely.

im reading guardiolas another way of winning. Absolutely superb read and basically tells the story about how pep went away and enriched his footballing knowledge by playing in different countries with different tactics and under different coaches.

Carra has the possibility of going into mgt and could in time become a Guardiola type figure but for that to happen I think he needs to widen his horizons a bit. Go and live in Spain for a while and see what bar a do, then go to Amsterdam and see how Ajax go about their business.

Not for a week at a time but six months at a time. Pep did and he admits he learned a lot from his experiences.

[dww]

Good read that.

And to think how many idiots there are on these forums that consider themselves educated enough to give him so much abuse when they don’t have a ****ing clue.

It certainly is heartening. Interesting to hear that it took what Redknapp said to help him adapt to his new position.

[Chazza]

Jamie Carragher

From: @thisisanfield
Sent: 21 Jan 2013 22:48

Carra, in The Times, on contract talks - “I’ll chat to the manager at the end of the season. I’m open-minded and I’m sure the club are."

sent via web
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/thisisanfield/sta...90381549604864

From: @thisisanfield
Sent: 21 Jan 2013 22:49

Carragher: "I want to start." #LFC

sent via web
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/thisisanfield/sta...90546486439936

[Shaggy]

35 today.

[Alex]

Legend

Happy Birthday Carra.

[Exiled_red]

Happy Birthday!

[baitman]

still good enough for his place by a country mile. unless we can bring in some quality he must start.

all the best, Carra

[Norbs]

You saying he's better than either or both of Skrtel and Agger?

[Shaggy]

TBF Carra himself said the other week that he recognises Skrtel and Agger are both better than him and deserve to start. I agree with him, but his sporadic appearances this season have been much better than I expected.

[Lee]

TBF Carra himself said the other week that he recognises Skrtel and Agger are both better than him and deserve to start. I agree with him, but his sporadic appearances this season have been much better than I expected.

He's done really well but I think that's down to him playing less often. Couldn't play week in, week out. This suits him now.

[Needles]

In the Mirror...

24 Carra gold: Why Liverpool youngsters only need watch Jamie Carragher to avoid Rodgers' envelopes

By Brian Reade | 2 Feb 2013 07:30

Eyebrows were raised at Brendan Rodgers’ decision to slaughter the youngsters who surrendered so meekly to Oldham last Sunday.

Not least because he bore a lot of the blame for picking them.

But any player who didn’t grasp what he meant about them lacking the “responsibility, intensity and hunger” to do “the dirty work” needed only to watch the 35-year-old defender drafted into Wednesday’s side against Arsenal to get it.

From his first-second scream to his injury-time tackles, Jamie Carragher was immense, putting in one of those *inspirational, body-hurling, tactically astute performances that made him, at his peak, one of the best defenders in Europe.

He’s been picked 722 times for his club because he’s never once taken his fitness, his first-team place, or his *opponents for granted.

The next time any of Rodgers’ players go through the motions, he doesn’t need to give them a public tongue-lashing, just a video of Carragher’s performance at the Emirates.

Before handing them one of his famous envelopes bearing the words: “Copy or leave.”

[Alex]

Nice article. I always think the need for a defensive screamer is overrated though.