Jamie Carragher has bitten back at accusations that Liverpool are ‘bottling it’ in the run-in to the season by comparing the Reds’ overall performance for the campaign to two clubs in particular.
It was just over a month ago that Jurgen Klopp’s side were still in contention for four trophies this term, but subsequent exits from the FA Cup and Europa League, in addition to slipping behind Manchester City in the Premier League title race, threaten to see the German’s reign peter out to an anti-climax.
However, in his latest column for The Telegraph, the 46-year-old insisted that his former club and Arsenal deserve praise for how they’ve competed with Pep Guardiola’s side, pointing to how that duo have performed in comparison to Manchester United and Chelsea, who sit seventh and ninth respectively.
Carragher wrote: “If Arsenal and Liverpool are ‘bottling it’ in April and May, what does that tell us about Manchester United and Chelsea for the rest of the season?
“They are clubs which have made so many poor decisions they are nowhere near the required level, albeit Pochettino is in the process of trying to fix previous mistakes.
“Arteta and Klopp are being judged to the ultimate standard in taking on Guardiola. City are so freakishly good with resources beyond Arsenal and Liverpool, the fairest reference point is with United and Chelsea, especially, who have spent mega millions for a watching brief in the race for the top four at this point in the season.”
Liverpool fans know better than anyone that there’s no shame in coming up narrowly second best to Man City when their financial resources are vastly superior (and when they can rack up 115 Financial Fair Play charges without a care in the world!).
Rival supporters will inevitably indulge in tribal nonsense on social media whereby they try to label the teams who fall slightly short of winning the Premier League as ‘bottlers’, when in the cases of United and Chelsea they may be best advised to get their own houses in order first.
It’s not wholly implausible that those two clubs could miss out on European football altogether for next season, even with the Red Devils accruing a net transfer spend of more than £1bn since 2014 but having not so much as a title challenge to show for it, and the Blues posting just over £650m for the same metric in two chaotic years of Todd Boehly’s ownership thus far.
Annoyingly, Liverpool won only one of their four league games against that pair this term despite being a far superior team, but even if we miss out on domestic glory again, at least we can be thankful that our club is much more competently run than the Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge basket cases of recent years.
