Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football seems to have been cursed by dull games this season.
No matter though, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher provide enough entertainment and insight to make up for the over-hyped fare that is often served up. The posh frontman Ed Chamberlin is a bit of an irritant but two out of three ain’t bad.
They leave one of the best bits to last on the show, when the tweets from the public are thrown at the co-analysts and we get to see a bit of bating and niggle between them.
As the banter starts flying, it’s usually Carragher who has the last word.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=r1WW3cqErAU%3Frel%3D0
“No-one wants to be a full-back as a kid,” was one gem. “No-one wants to grow up and be a Gary Neville.” Cue high-pitched forced laughter from the Manchester side of the desk.
The Champions League has put MNF on hold for a few weeks, which is a shame, because the tweet I’d like to put to Carragher at the moment is: “What on earth were you thinking of when you retired Carra? #youcouldhavewonliverpoolthetitle.”
Had he stayed on at Anfield for another year, Brendan Rodgers would now be turning to Carragher as he did at a similar stage last season. Scratch that, he’d have turned to him already.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=OLQW2LQAHeQ%3Frel%3D0
The trials and tribulations of Kolo Toure need no rehearsing (does Danny Baker still do those videos?); Martin Skrtel is starting to look like the player of last season rather than the rejuvenated one of the first few months of this campaign; and Daniel Agger suffered the ignominy for a centre-half of being substituted without an injury against Swansea at the weekend. Mamadou Sakho will be fully fit shortly, but he wasn’t exactly Mr Dependable before he got injured.
There are mitigating circumstances for the Liverpool defence, of course.
You can’t commit midfielders forward like Liverpool do without there being a flip-side, and that’s a lack of numbers when a quick counter-attack is on them. Live by the sword, die by the sword, and all that.
But that’s only a partial get-out for Toure, Skrtel and Agger. Recently they have lacked concentration and basic defending skills.
Those are two accusations that could never be levelled at Carragher for any length of time, even in his football dotage.
His organisational skills, mental strength and positional awareness would have been a valuable asset to Rodgers in Liverpool’s current circumstances, and I’d be sure Carragher knows that as well.
Neville can be content that he made his retirement at the right time, even with United struggling as they are now.
But Carragher wasn’t a spent force like Neville, and could have performed the same stand-by incase of injury and loss of form role that he was asked to in 2012/13. It was being a fringe player that ultimately persuaded him to call it a day a year ago, but it would have been a lot easier to wear if a Premier League championship was there for the taking.
If Liverpool just miss out on the league title, Carragher will share the current players’ feeling of what might have been.