James Lee Duncan Carragher, a member of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) Team of the Year in 2005-2006, lashed out at his former team and players after an abysmal performance against Real Madrid at Anfield.
Jamie Carragher, a one-club man who was Liverpool’s vice-captain for ten years and is the club’s second-longest-serving player, served as a pundit for CBS Sports last Tuesday night, providing expert live analysis of the UEFA Champions League game at Anfield.
Liverpool was full of optimism last Tuesday night as they welcomed Real Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League last 16 after Jürgen Klopp’s side had failed to beat Real Madrid in their last four meetings since 2014, especially after losing the 2022 Champions League final to the White Angels of the Spanish League.
The team that lost the Champions League final kept the same lineup that defeated Newcastle at St. James Park last Saturday, allowing newly signed Dutch striker Cody Gakpo to play in a Champions League game for the first time for the Reds.
Jürgen Klopp’s side saw its UCL campaign collapse for the remaining 75 minutes after jumping ahead 2-0 in the first 15 minutes, with an underwhelming performance similar to how they fared in Premier League play, where they currently sit eighth.
Vinicius Junior scored twice, Karim Benzema, who did not play in the weekend’s La Liga game against Osasuna, returned to the starting lineup and also scored twice, and Eder Militao scored his first Champions League goal of the season to cap off a 5-2 victory.
During the UEFA Champions League Post-Match Show on CBS Sports, club legend Jamie Carragher ripped Liverpool’s short-lived resurgence to shreds and called out Virgil van Dijk for the Reds legend’s ranting for more than two minutes about Klopp.
A fuming Carragher began, “So, this Liverpool defence now, who for years we’ve been told has some of the best players in the world, can’t cope because for years they’ve had a front six in front of them who probably worked harder and smarter than any other team in world football, and now that’s gone, it’s completely fallen apart.”
“What makes me laugh, and I’m not that bad, Virgil van Dijk said about two months ago that I wouldn’t get in that back four,” he said of Liverpool’s dependable central defender, Virgil van Dijk. “I think I’d take his place at the moment.”
