Sunday, January 20, 2013

Rodgers Explains Carragher Recall

Brendan Rodgers said he brought vice-captain Jamie Carragher back into the team against Norwich City to give his young Liverpool team some leadership.

Carragher made just his second start of the league season in Saturday's 5-0 win at Anfield and Rodgers said he recalled the 34-year-old, who replaced Martin Skrtel, because of his organizational ability.

Rodgers - who has spoken of his desire to bring in more experience - accepted that Liverpool, who have been criticized for lacking players who communicate, needed more talkers in the team.

He said: "Jamie Carragher hasn't put a foot wrong for me since I came. He has been absolutely brilliant. He hasn't played as often as he'd have liked. He's played in a lot of the cup games and I'd hoped to not put a curse on him, but I said to him that I couldn't remember him making a mistake in any of the games since I've been here.

"I thought about his leadership. We are a quiet team and he's a great organizer - he manages the game very well, he's got big experience, and he can play football. I thought him coming in would give us that extra bit of leadership. We saw that from him, he was fantastic."

Goalkeeper Pepe Reina missed the match with a thigh problem and after having surgery on his nose and Liverpool will assess the Spaniard to see if he is fit to face Oldham in their FA Cup tie on January 27.

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