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Football

22nd Feb 2023

Jamie Carragher reignites feud with Virgil van Dijk and slaughters Liverpool defence

Lee Costello

“I think I’d take his place at the moment!”

Jamie Carragher has reignited his feud with Virgil van Dijk and ripped into the rest of the Liverpool defence after their “shambolic” performance against Real Madrid.

Liverpool hosted the European champions at Anfield and got off to a dream start when Darwin Nunez and Mo Salah scored two early goals to give them a 2-0 lead.

Vinicius Jr scored twice to make it level before the break, and then the floodgates opened in the second half as the Spanish giants shipped three more goals past a passive defence.

Carragher van Dijk

Speaking on CBS, former Liverpool defender Carragher, clearly had enough of the poor performances this season, and the disappoint defenders in particular.

The Reds vice captain van Dijk said a few months ago that Carragher wouldn’t get on the current Liverpool team ahead of Joe Gomez and Joel Matip.

The Sky Sports pundit has referred to this statement a few times, and brought it up once again tonight.

“That was shambolic from Liverpool. Embarrassing.”Carragher said on CBS.

“As a Liverpool fan, we absolutely adore this manager and team and they’ve done so much for this club in the last four or five years.

“It hurts you to say anything negative because they’ve given you so much, but Liverpool are eighth in the Premier League and they’ve just been battered 5-2 in the Champions League.

“I know it’s Real Madrid but these are the two teams that were in the final last year. It’s not acceptable what we’re watching this season.

“We keep looking for reasons and excuses but it’s nowhere near good enough. What makes me laugh is Virgil van Dijk said I wouldn’t get in that back four about two months ago. I think I’d take his place at the moment!

“Some of the players there, Joe Gomez tonight… I mean listen, we’ve all had bad nights, real bad nights as players and maybe I shouldn’t kick someone when they’re down because I’m sure he’ll feel terrible right now, but [people] keep talking about midfield players Liverpool need, and that’s right, [but] I think Liverpool need defenders as well because when they get exposed they can’t defend.”

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