“The criteria for this selection means only players who are fit and available can be chosen.”
“Only players who are fit and available can be chosen.”
“Fit and available!”
Fit. Available.
The trigger-happy nature of football supporters was clear for all to see on Friday night, when Jamie Carragher used a portion of his Daily Mail column to select a combined XI of Liverpool and Everton players.
Ahead of Saturday afternoon’s early kick-off in the Premier League, which sees the Reds host their Merseyside rivals at Anfield, the legendary Liverpool defender named his best selection from both squads.
The only caveats were that players couldn’t be injured or suspended, which meant that the likes of Seamus Coleman, Adam Lallana and Jordan Henderson were not pickable.
The injuries picked up by those three players in particular were covered extensively in the media, so one would have expected supporters to have realised they were unavailable before they jumped down Carragher’s throat on social media.
But the fans clearly didn’t read the fine print before they scrolled directly to the revelation of the XI and attacked Carra for his appalling omission of the trio of Coleman, Henderson and Lallana.
@MailSport @Carra23 No room for Lallerz?
— Greg Twomey • (@GregTwomey_) March 31, 2017
@MailSport @Carra23 Lallana and wijnaldum walk into this team ahead of Barkley an gueye
— CE (@CallumEllis01) March 31, 2017
@MailSport @Carra23 I know you would look biased but Lallana is much better than Barkley, so is Wijnaldum to be fair!
— @RAB360 (@RAB360) March 31, 2017
@MailSport @Carra23 Barkley over lallana? Really carra??
— Jamie Allen (@jamieallen_10) March 31, 2017
@MailSport @Carra23 BARKLEY ahead of Lallana?!?!?!?!?
— Kenny (@M0N0KNE) March 31, 2017
@MailSport @Carra23 Joke that he picked more players from the team10th in the form table . Robles far more clean sheets. Coleman best RB in league
— Ian Holbrook (@braveblue1878) March 31, 2017
@MailSport @Carra23 Clearly Coleman would be ahead of clyne
— Dave Holbrow (@nastyneville) March 31, 2017
@Carra23 no Lallana or Henderson in your Mersey XI??? Madness
— Anthony Page (@AEP220676) March 31, 2017
@MailSport @Carra23 Henderson has been one of the best midfielders in terms of break up play and passers in the prem all season, how isn’t he in this team?
— Toby Walsh (@TobyWalsh10) March 31, 2017
Fortunately, there was at least one sensible fan able to point out the flaw in logic of all the whingers.
@MailSport @Carra23 To all the people wanting Coleman Henderson Lallana in team read Carra’s article again only FIT AND AVAILABLE to play
— Paul (@paulLFC27) April 1, 2017