Steven Gerrard was infamously sent off after just 38 seconds on this day in 2015 against Manchester United.
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher admitted that analysing Steven Gerrard’s infamous red card against Manchester United in 2015 was one of his biggest punditry challenges.
Carragher hung up his boots in 2013 and has gone on to become one of the game’s most well-respected pundits as part of Monday Night Football, alongside Neville .
Speaking in 2021, the pair discussed a range of topics, including one of Carragher ’s most memorable early moments as a broadcaster, when Liverpool faced their arch rivals in 2015.
Gerrard was sent off after 38 seconds in the game and Carragher explained how that moment helped show him the difference between being a teammate and a pundit.
“When you first start, you’ve still got Scholesy playing or Giggsy playing; I’ve still got Stevie playing,” he told Neville on The Overlap YouTube channel .
“And Stevie got sent off against Man U, he stamped on Herrera, I think, but it was at the start of the second-half.
“So I had 45 minutes and I’m thinking, ‘I can’t leave that even though it’s my mate, this will look really poor on me.’ I can’t criticise Stevie, I’m not going to say he’s a disgrace, but I’m thinking I’ve got to get my words right here.”
He continued: “Sometimes you know, ‘I’ve got to deliver here’, because I knew it wasn’t about the score or let’s look at this goal. It was about, ‘your mate’s just stamped, has he cost Liverpool the game?’
“That was the moment early on at Sky where I thought you’ve got to, not lose your mate, but just pitch this right.”
Having earned a reputation as one of the most honest pundits in football, the former defender revealed what he believed to be the best moment of his media career so far in the same interview.
“I think a lot of pundits or people going into punditry don’t want to go against the grain,” he claimed.
“The best thing I ever did on Monday Night Football was [about] a referee at Leicester. Everyone slaughtered the referee after the game, ‘he cost Leicester the league’ and all these different things.
“I came in and watched them and I thought, ‘I think something different here’. I actually phoned up Graham Poll in the morning because I wanted his advice and he went against the referee.
“And I thought, ‘how am i going to justify what I’m going to say here?’ But I thought, ‘F*** it, I’m doing it’
“That’s a big thing, I think, and I learned something that night: that if you’re passionate about something, even if others aren’t thinking it, go for it.”
