Everton face Liverpool at Anfield for the second time this season on Friday night.
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has told Everton’s official website that Wayne Rooney must play against the Reds on Friday night, as he bestows the belief required to beat the Reds at Anfield.
Everton travel across Merseyside to Anfield for the second time this season, as the Merseyside rivals go head to head in the third round of the FA Cup.
Sam Allardyce’s side have failed to win at Anfield since September 1999, when Kevin Campbell scored a late goal to win 1-0 in a match that saw three players sent off – Francis Jeffers, Steven Gerrard and Sander Westerveld.
Carragher, who is the second highest all-time record holder for most appearances in a Liverpool shirt, claimed 32-year-old striker Rooney possesses the kind of belief needed to end that almost 19-year-old record.
“Wayne Rooney is massively important for Everton, because he will have the belief he can go to Anfield and win,” Carragher said. “He scored winners there for Man United – I was playing in plenty of those games.
“He is the one who will believe when he goes there. That has been a criticism in the past – that Everton have not believed [when playing at Liverpool] because it has been so long since they won at Anfield.
“In Wayne Rooney, you have a player now who will be trying to spread that belief throughout the team that they can go there and get a result.”
Rooney, who has retired from England duty, has been in magnificent form since rejoining the Blues from Manchester United in the summer. He has scored eleven goals and laid on three assists this term, despite playing from deep.
He is expected by Carragher to start the match if Everton are to get anything out of the bitter clash, as the Toffees look to put a dismal recent run behind them that has seen Allardyce’s side go without a win in four games, scoring just once.
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