Time for a change

There will be numerous different reactions to this post. Some people will think I am an idiot who knows nothing about football. Some will think I have absolutely lost my marbles. Some will disagree but will at least appreciate the basis of my argument. Some (though I expect not many) will agree. None-the-less, this is my opinion and is based on having seen every one of Liverpool’s matches this season.

Let me start with the least controversial (which is like dropping a H- bomb and saying I still have a nuke in reserve). I think it’s time end Jamie Carragher’s Liverpool career...



I’ll just let that sink in...



There are two reasons why Jamie Carragher will end his career without having won a Premiership winners' medal: (1) he hasn't been good enough to give a team of contenders that little bit extra, and (2) he hasn't been in a squad good enough to win one without him giving them that little bit extra.

Don't get me wrong, Carra has been a fantastic Liverpool player and one I will remember with great fondness in years to come. His performance in Istanbul was probably the greatest individual performance I have and possibly will ever see. He thoroughly deserved his Champions League Winners' medal unlike many of the average players who pocketed one as a result of his performance that night (e.g. Kewell, Traore, Josemi(!), etc.). However, people commonly confuse Carra's 'Never-Say-Die' attitude (perfectly illustrated in that match) with a 'Will-To-Win' attitude. Carra is the ultimate cup player who will give every last drop of sweat and blood to keep his team in the competition. A ‘Never-Say-Day’ attitude is perfect in cup competitions but to win League titles a different attitude is required. Last season when it mattered, Carra was too happy to take clean sheets from games like West Ham and Fulham at home when the team needed a defender more in the mould of John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, William Gallas or Nemanja Vidic - defenders who would push the team forward in search of a winning goal and maybe even score one themselves. Those players have the ‘Will-To-Win’; Carra only knows how to avoid defeat. Carra's goal return in a 14-year career at Liverpool is absolutely shocking but it only tells half the story.

Carra's safety-first approach has held back this Liverpool team too often for me. Though the team still did exceptionally well last season with Carra contributing significantly, ultimately, as the team's leader on the pitch (which he is despite Gerrard wearing the armband), I feel that had he shown a bit more ambition in certain games, it wouldn't have mattered what dodgy decisions went Man Ure's way. In the end, Carra was good enough to put us in the thick of the title race but not to win it.

Worse players than Carra have won Premiership medals. Had he been in United's or Chelsea's squads in the last five years, he could have picked up medals and done so deservedly but his contribution would have been that of a squad player, not a key player. Like Phil Neville at the Bitter People's Club, Carra has always been a big fish in a small pond at Anfield. The difference is Neville spent a few years as a squad player at Man Ure and picked up a few medals for his troubles.

There has been no season during Carra's 14 where you can say Liverpool should have won the League and maybe as few as three where you could say we could have (1996-97, 2001-02 and last season). Overall, you have to say Carra has been at the wrong club for much of his career but it has been to our benefit and so I applaud his loyalty and commitment to our club. However, enough is enough. Liverpool can't move forward with one foot stuck in the past. The club needs less negative defenders and more importantly less negative leaders on the pitch. Ideally, Carra would be relegated to the role of squad player but I can’t see a man who has battled all his life quietly accepting a place on the bench while his presence there would only add to the pressure on Skrtel and Agger and invite criticism from the stands. Realistically he has to be played or moved on.

Moving Carra on would be a gamble as we would need Skrtel and Agger to stay fit and in top form (which neither have this season) and we would need a new centre-half. It is clear that we can't afford or attract a top quality centre-half so it could be that keeping Carra is the only option – even though his best years are evidently behind him. That doesn’t bode well for the team’s future as it would effectively be an acceptance of inferior quality to previous seasons as well as retaining a potentially problematic player in the dressing room.

Now for the nuke...

A couple of months ago, I debated the pros and cons of potentially selling Steven Gerrard. I concluded that I would not sell him. I have changed my mind.

No player should be bigger than the club but I fear Steven Gerrard is in danger of being so. This season he has reminded me so much of Thierry Henry in his final season at Arsenal or of Alan Shearer at Newcastle. Showing indifference during games, scowling at and berating teammates and generally looking like a kid who wants to pick up his ball and storm off home, Gerrard has been far from a positive influence on the team this season. It was no coincidence to me that one of the most committed team performances this season at home against Spurs occurred without Gerrard in the squad but was followed with a wretched performance at Wolves with Gerrard back in the team. Too often players have looked to play passes to their skipper instead of better options and appeared afraid to take on chances themselves for fear of a rollicking from their volatile captain.

The stories that came out of Arsenal after the sale of Henry to Barca suggested that Henry had become something of a bully to the younger players and they certainly played like a team released from shackles once the iconic Frenchman had left the club.

Who is to say that moving on Gerrard at this point wouldn’t have a similar positive impact at Anfield? How can it do anyone any good when the man in the captain’s armband is so visibly pissed off with all around him?

In my previous post, I argued that Liverpool effectively couldn’t afford to sell Gerrard but now I ask can we afford another season like this from Gerrard? Undoubtedly he has been more of a hinder than a help in this campaign and while one lousy season won’t significantly reduce his transfer value, if one became two (with a dire showing at the World Cup in between) what would he be worth after that?

If we were to sell a 30-year old Gerrard this summer, he could be the Shevchenko we saddle some stupid club with while we get £30 million or more to invest in our squad. If we don’t and if we get another season like this from him, we will have a troublesome 31-year old on our books for whom we would be lucky to get £12m.

When I had been clinging onto the romantic notion of players playing for their home-town clubs for their full careers, I had the likes of Paul Scholes, Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs in mind. However, where those players differ from Gerrard and Carra is that those players won everything worth winning in their heydays. Their career ambitions were fulfilled years ago and everything since has been the icing on the cake. Gerrard and Carra have had the icing but never the cake and now their hunger has turned to frustration with the realisation that if they were to win the League now – as looks increasingly unlikely – it would be courtesy of other key players rather than down to them. For Carra, the lingering hope is of a Martin Keown-esque League winner’s medal when he really wanted a Tony Adams-esque medal. For Steven Gerrard, see Bryan Robson.

Sadly I fear that far from helping their younger teammates to help them win the honour they wish they’d won in their peak years, Carra and Gerrard and more likely to harm confidence and disrupt team spirit.

Would Rafa be able to move them on? I seriously doubt it. Rafa simply does not have enough support inside and outside the club. Too many people place too much importance on Gerrard and, to a lesser extent, on Carragher. However, if Rafa can’t sell either or both if he deems it in the best interests of the club then his position is untenable and he should walk away. Some Liverpool fans would be delighted to see that but I wouldn’t. It’s our number 8 and number 23 that I am ready to see the backs of.

Reina for captain!