Amid the storm of criticism tossed up by his recent performances, the reports that his legs have gone and his body, wearied by years of battle, is starting to wilt, Jamie Carragher could do worse than turn to a fellow veteran for advice and comfort. Sami Hyypia, too, was written off long ago.
The Finn can sympathise with the man who stood by his side, defiant, in Istanbul, when Liverpool beat AC Milan to win the Champions League in 2005, safe in the knowledge that football has the shortest of memories.
Scarcely 10 games after that miraculous evening by the Bosporus, Didier Drogba tore him to shreds as Chelsea ransacked Anfield. The obituaries for Hyypia, Liverpool's rock for a decade, poured in.
Carragher, 31, has endured similar treatment this season. Blamed for Rafa Benítez's team's shortcomings at set pieces and terrorised by Zavon Hines, West Ham's coltish upstart, at Upton Park a fortnight ago, there are those who would suggest that while Carragher's heart and spirit remain, he has taken those first few dreaded steps on the long road to ruin.
Even John Terry, who Carragher will face this afternoon, stands accused of similar weaknesses. The Chelsea captain may be a mere stripling at 28, but such have been his injury problems and so consistently has he put his body on the line that he has the air of one much older than that.
Pace, the received wisdom goes, is too much for Terry and Carragher alike.
Much the same was said of Hyypia after that torrid afternoon in the presence of Drogba. Yet, three years later, three years older, the Finn stepped from the shadows at Old Trafford to marshal Liverpool's backline in a 4-1 demolition. The lesson? Pace is no guarantee of quality, age no obstacle to class.
"First and foremost, you have to be a good player," says Hyypia. "If you cannot control the ball, or read the game, you can be as fast as you want, but it does not make you a better or more reliable player.
"That is not to say that you do not need athletic basics and a certain standard of pace. But whatever your attributes, you need quality to cope with the Premier League, or the Bundesliga, whatever league you are playing in. But you cannot underestimate how high the value of experience in football is."
Carragher has plenty of that, dealing with problems on the pitch and criticism off it. The last half a decade, under the tutelage of Benítez and beside the experience of Hyypia, has provided welcome respite from the doubts which circled the boy from Bootle early in his career.
Yet the fact that his name became a byword for solidity, reliability and courage seems to have been forgotten after a shaky start to the season. Carragher has looked nervy and exposed as his fullbacks, Glen Johnson and Emiliano Insua, raid forward, dragging Liverpool's defensive line further upfield and away from their vice-captain's comfort zone.
Carragher, unquestionably, is at his best with his back to the wall. He thrives, like Terry, in his role as lion-in-chief, exhorting and encouraging, delighting in his heroics. The old dog has found it difficult to learn the new trick of adapting to life as part of a team wielding the cosh, rather than resisting it.
It was the space behind Johnson, behind Carragher, which Hines exploited to such devastating effect at Upton Park and that Stevan Jovetic made the most of in Florence last week.
With Martin Skrtel, his usually impeccable partner, struggling to rediscover the form which made him one of Benítez's most accomplished performers last season, Daniel Agger injured and Sotiris Kyrgiakos limited, Carragher has had to endure his poor form without backup. The vultures, circling, have swooped.
Hyypia, though, provides solace for his erstwhile team-mate. Now 35, the Finn has left the comfortable surrounds of Anfield for a new life at a Bayer Leverkusen side enjoying a bright start to a typically open Bundesliga season. While he admits the quality is not as high as the top four or five in England, the football is still fast and athletic.
"It shows I was right to think I could still play at the highest level," says Hyypia. "I have not changed the way I play as I have got older. I have always played like Sami Hyypia, and I am still capable of doing my job every week."
Carragher, four years his junior, and Terry, a further three years younger, can take heart. Their days are far from numbered.
The Finn can sympathise with the man who stood by his side, defiant, in Istanbul, when Liverpool beat AC Milan to win the Champions League in 2005, safe in the knowledge that football has the shortest of memories.
Scarcely 10 games after that miraculous evening by the Bosporus, Didier Drogba tore him to shreds as Chelsea ransacked Anfield. The obituaries for Hyypia, Liverpool's rock for a decade, poured in.
Carragher, 31, has endured similar treatment this season. Blamed for Rafa Benítez's team's shortcomings at set pieces and terrorised by Zavon Hines, West Ham's coltish upstart, at Upton Park a fortnight ago, there are those who would suggest that while Carragher's heart and spirit remain, he has taken those first few dreaded steps on the long road to ruin.
Even John Terry, who Carragher will face this afternoon, stands accused of similar weaknesses. The Chelsea captain may be a mere stripling at 28, but such have been his injury problems and so consistently has he put his body on the line that he has the air of one much older than that.
Pace, the received wisdom goes, is too much for Terry and Carragher alike.
Much the same was said of Hyypia after that torrid afternoon in the presence of Drogba. Yet, three years later, three years older, the Finn stepped from the shadows at Old Trafford to marshal Liverpool's backline in a 4-1 demolition. The lesson? Pace is no guarantee of quality, age no obstacle to class.
"First and foremost, you have to be a good player," says Hyypia. "If you cannot control the ball, or read the game, you can be as fast as you want, but it does not make you a better or more reliable player.
"That is not to say that you do not need athletic basics and a certain standard of pace. But whatever your attributes, you need quality to cope with the Premier League, or the Bundesliga, whatever league you are playing in. But you cannot underestimate how high the value of experience in football is."
Carragher has plenty of that, dealing with problems on the pitch and criticism off it. The last half a decade, under the tutelage of Benítez and beside the experience of Hyypia, has provided welcome respite from the doubts which circled the boy from Bootle early in his career.
Yet the fact that his name became a byword for solidity, reliability and courage seems to have been forgotten after a shaky start to the season. Carragher has looked nervy and exposed as his fullbacks, Glen Johnson and Emiliano Insua, raid forward, dragging Liverpool's defensive line further upfield and away from their vice-captain's comfort zone.
Carragher, unquestionably, is at his best with his back to the wall. He thrives, like Terry, in his role as lion-in-chief, exhorting and encouraging, delighting in his heroics. The old dog has found it difficult to learn the new trick of adapting to life as part of a team wielding the cosh, rather than resisting it.
It was the space behind Johnson, behind Carragher, which Hines exploited to such devastating effect at Upton Park and that Stevan Jovetic made the most of in Florence last week.
With Martin Skrtel, his usually impeccable partner, struggling to rediscover the form which made him one of Benítez's most accomplished performers last season, Daniel Agger injured and Sotiris Kyrgiakos limited, Carragher has had to endure his poor form without backup. The vultures, circling, have swooped.
Hyypia, though, provides solace for his erstwhile team-mate. Now 35, the Finn has left the comfortable surrounds of Anfield for a new life at a Bayer Leverkusen side enjoying a bright start to a typically open Bundesliga season. While he admits the quality is not as high as the top four or five in England, the football is still fast and athletic.
"It shows I was right to think I could still play at the highest level," says Hyypia. "I have not changed the way I play as I have got older. I have always played like Sami Hyypia, and I am still capable of doing my job every week."
Carragher, four years his junior, and Terry, a further three years younger, can take heart. Their days are far from numbered.
No comments:
Post a Comment