Carra

I've just been reading through a debate on 'The Tomkins Times' website with many posters being critical of Jamie Carragher for his attitude. I think it's a little inappropriate to be criticising the player for his personality today on the day of his testimonial of all days.

I suspect that the frustrations over Carra originate from frustrations over his performances on the football pitch. I think most people would accept or overlook the stuff said by or about the player through the media if he was still playing in a winning team and performing at his peak level week-in, week-out. I think most of us would agree that as a player he has been in decline for well over a year now and his inability or unwillingness to try anything other than hoofs forward and back-passes make for unattractive viewing. My frustrations centre around his continued inclusion in the first team and seeming unassailable status within the club but I don’t blame the player for that.

I’m sure that Carra expects his to be one of the first names on the teamsheet and that he would not meekly accept being omitted but in that circumstance I would want and expect nothing more than for him to react defiantly and come back determined to take some shifting when recalled. Those were qualities I admired in Sami Hyypia during his last few years at the club. The moment Carra concedes he no longer deserves to be in our first team is the moment he needs to retire. My concern with Carra is that he might not react as professionally as Sami did when phased out and may cause dressing room unrest, undermining his manager and the teammates selected ahead of him. Ultimately, that is a situation Hodgson must manage and it will be one of the key factors that will affect my judgement of Hodgson over the next year or so. [I suspect it is a situation he will dodge by continuning to select Carra every game during his brief tenure as our manager but hopefully the man will surprise me.]

Regarding Carra’s personality on and off the pitch, I agree there are less attractive sides to his personality and that his autobiography suggests he believes he is a better footballer than most of us who have watched him week-in, week-out for 13 years would agree. However, as he also acknowledges in his book, his enormous self-belief enabled him to become the player he was. His aggression, determination and will to disprove his detractors are the same qualities that enabled him to shake off the ‘Jack-of-all-trades’ tag and usurp Hyypia as the team’s defensive lynchpin. Let’s not cane him for displaying the same characteristics that led him to drag his cramp-filled weary body off the Attaturk turf in order to execute another inch-perfect block tackle to prevent a certain Shevchenko winner for Milan in injury time.

I don’t need Liverpool players to be nice guys. I need them to be winners. I know plenty of nice guys and I wouldn’t trust them to represent Liverpool Football Club. Carra has served our club with distinction and deserves the recognition he will receive today. I’m not convinced he has been a fantastic ‘player’ for over 10 years but he has been a truly fantastic ‘servant’ who gave his all wherever his managers chose to deploy him and who, for at least three years, was a truly world class defender. That’s what I’ll be thanking him for today.