Speaking to Gary Neville on The Overlap, Virgil van Dijk has claimed that a prime Jamie Carragher wouldn’t get into the current Liverpool squad.
The Sky Sports pundit is, of course, an Anfield legend and he forever will be for his incredible service to the club.
However, despite Carragher’s legendary status at Liverpool, van Dijk maintains that the one-time Champions League winner wouldn’t get into the current squad ahead of any of Liverpool’s current senior centre-back options.
Carragher not good enough
Van Dijk responded when asked if Carragher would get into this team.
“Not even in the full squad. He will be in the stand,” Van Dijk said.
“You have to think about it. You have two centre-backs playing, hopefully I’m playing and it’s Joe Gomez now [alongside].
“You have Joel Matip and Ibrahima Konate, you’re not going to put another centre-back in.”
Neville then asked if he thinks Carragher could’ve gotten in above any of Liverpool’s current centre-backs, to which van Dijk responded:
“No and I’m serious about that.”
He’s right
As much as every Liverpool fan loves Carragher, it has to be said that van Dijk may be right here.
Carragher himself has previously admitted that his strengths weren’t in his physicality or his ball-playing ability, he maintained that the mental side of the game was his strongest point, and sadly, you can’t make it at the top level just by having a high footballing IQ anymore.
Liverpool play an incredibly high line and Carragher’s lack of pace would probably be exposed in this system, and while he also used to play at right-back, he wouldn’t be able to compete with the playmaking ability of Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Quite simply, the game has moved on from players like Carragher.
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