Come in number 23, your time is up!

It seems slightly redundant to be speculating about next season given we have a board steering us towards relegation, no manager and are likely to lose around half of our first team regulars.

However, Jamie Carragher’s appearance in England’s embarrassing World Cup draw against the USA has prompted me to question what his role should be next season.

What I’m writing here is based on the current situation and my views and assessment of Carra’s importance to us may well change depending on the ins and outs of the summer’s transfer window.

If the truth be told, I’m a bit annoyed about Carra even being in the England squad. I admired him for retiring from international football and for stating that international honours mean less to him that honours with Liverpool FC. Now it’s as if he’s saying: “Fuck it, I won’t win anything with LFC so I might as well try with England.” He could have taken a longer summer break to enhance his chances of doing well with Liverpool next season but instead he is risking injury and fatigue for the 3 Lions who coped fine without him over the last two seasons.

Irrespective of who he is and who he plays for domestically, I think there’s something wrong with a player making himself unavailable for the entire qualifying campaign but then going to the tournament. Other defenders played a part in getting England to South Africa and should be there ahead of Carragher irrespective of whether he possesses greater ability or experience than them.

The main issue I have with him being there is that these days he is well past his best. At his peak, Carra was genuinely one of the best defenders in the world. Though I’ve always thought Rio Ferdinand was a flash prick and John Terry a cheating cunt, they were rightly ahead of Carragher in the England pecking order because of their superior passing skills and goal threat even if Carra was arguably better defensively than either (certainly than Rio). Carra’s issue was that under Steve McClaren, he wasn’t even third choice with the likes of Ledley King and even Wes fucking Brown preferred to him in the absence of the first choice centre-back pairing. Then there was a strong case for playing Carra and certainly for having him in the squad.

However, after three years of self-imposed international exile, Carra is noticeably a player in decline. To use the old cliché, “his legs have gone”. Not that Carra was ever the quickest of players, he no longer has enough recovery pace to compete against the speed merchants in the top teams. After a lousy start to the 2009-10 season, Carra improved but not to the levels we have seen from him in recent years. Meanwhile, his passing and positioning have become ever more negative which spreads like a cancer through the rest of the team.

As last season ebbed away miserably, I was looking forward to a summer of not seeing Carragher kill off yet another potential attacking move by putting his foot on the ball and knocking it sideways or back to his keeper from the half way line. Thanks to one Fabio Capello, the nightmare continued once Carra was brought on against the USA.

In the same game, Carra’s lack of pace was worryingly exposed on a few occasions. First he was booked for hauling back Findlay as the USA player was about to leave him for dead and within 5 minutes later Altidore (of Hull City!) eased past him and got through on goal. Had he not already been booked, Carra would probably have tugged him back and conceded the free-kick but knowing he would have been sent off, he had to gamble on Robert Green preventing the US taking the lead. Later on, Carra got away with what appeared to be a body-check on Findlay when the US player would have been through on goal. All in all, he was off the pace, struggling and lucky to stay on the pitch.

Even if this was simply a poor performance by a player struggling with fatigue after a demanding season or perhaps struggling to adapt to the altitude or different tempo of international football, the bottom line is that at the age of 32, Carra is not going to get any better and won’t recapture the form of his peak years. It’s time to give the partnership of Agger and Skrtel and prolonged run in the Liverpool team. They are the future and that is what Liverpool must look to now.

I’ve previously questioned whether Carra could become a negative presence in the dressing room if relegated to the role of first team back up. I am certain that at Manchester United or Chelsea such a player and personality would be moved on at this stage of his career. However, with little or no money to spend and such upheaval to the current squad likely, keeping Carra might be necessary. After all, who could be bought who would provide better back up for central defence and either full-back position? As long as he supports Agger and Skrtel, Carra could end his Liverpool career in the same way that Sami Hyypia did providing quality back up, competition and not letting anyone down when called upon.

Just cut out the bloody back passes!