Just Liverpool News » Jamie Carragher

Benitez – I'll give Carragher a new contract!

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:32:32 +0000

There has been speculation recently that the Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, who has just played his 600th game for the club, didn’t expect to be given a new contract when the current one expired in 2011, but Rafael Benitez has said that he didn’t see there being a problem.

“I read an interview with him yesterday and I was surprised because he didn’t ask for a new contract,” Benitez said.

“He has 18 months still on his contract.”

“He is clever and knows we analyse things differently when players are over 30 years old. But we are really pleased with him.”

“I don’t see any problem if he continues to play at the same level.”

“He is someone who trains at 100 per cent. That is very good for the mentality of the team. He is also someone who can set an example.”

“I have a fantastic relationship with him and his agent.”

The Liverpool manager concluded: “Everything is okay so we don’t have any problems.”

Jamie Carragher admits he may leave Liverpool in the near future

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:22:31 +0000

The Liverpool defender Jamir Carragher is approaching his 600th game for the Reds, and is only the ninth player in their history to reach that landmark figure, but he admits that he is not sure if he can carry on playing at the highest level for much longer.

He said: “I wouldn’t want to get to 34 or 35 with Liverpool and have people thinking, ‘He’s well gone.”’ he added. “So I do think about whether it would be better to go while I’m still at a decent level and play out my days at another club.

“I do worry about maybe playing in big games for Liverpool and perhaps costing the side, and I also think about not playing every week and whether I could do that.

“Over the next year or two I’ll probably have a decision to make. I’d love to stay at Liverpool – that’s what I want to do – but there are different things that I think about that may compromise that.”

But whatever he decides, he has cemented his place in the Liverpool history books as a legend.

Carragher – We lost with our best team!

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:03:04 +0000

The Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher thinks that the team can’t use the excuse that they are missing lots of injured players any more, and the team that faced Arsenal was probably the best team they could field.

He agrees that they were maybe not completely fit, but from now on their can be no more excuses.

And that is probably as strong a side as we have,” he said. “There are still players in that team who are not 100 per cent fit, but we need that team playing regularly now.

“If we produce the sort of performance we did in the first half and get a few more players fit, I’m sure we’ll win a few more games between now and the end of the season. We have to dust ourselves down now and move to Wednesday.

“For the quality of the players and the stature of the club, we should be doing better. Statistics can change quickly – and we have got to do that. It’s tough at the moment, but part of turning out for Liverpool is having big character. That’s what we need now.

“Between now and May it is going to be a grind at times, but we have to stick together, get through it and, as I’m doing, pray that at the end of the season there will be something worthwhile for what we’ve gone through.”

“The run we are on is a very difficult one and that saps a bit of the confidence,” said Carragher. “We are only human and when things aren’t going well, the confidence does deflate a little bit. We played really well in the first half and then the goal goes in at the start of the second and that’s when the confidence seems to go.

“But that is when you need to show character. The only way that the confidence comes back is by winning games. You grind out a few results and hopefully with each game you get more confi dent. But when you’re on the run we are, the confi dence goes. And that’s only natural. We can’t look for excuses.

“That’s the way it is in top-level football. We know that any little thing can get pounced on – and that’s happening at the moment. Wigan is a massive game. I have tried too many times down the years trying to work things out, so there’s no point looking further ahead than that.

“We’ll just try to get three points and then move on to Portsmouth on Saturday. But we have to look at ourselves and realise that we have to do much better. There’s always light. The great thing about football is that there’s always another game to put it right. And that other game is Wigan. We have to start again. If we win on Wednesday, everyone’s delighted. And we take that in to Saturday.

“You know how the season has gone, and the only way we can judge it is at the end of the season and see where we are. We could pick up a couple of cups and everyone would be delighted. But at the moment, we have to take every game as it comes.”

If they play the same team against Wigan, and DON’T win, then we will know that Liverpool are in a full-blown crisis!