Jamie Carragher reveals why Trent Alexander-Arnold and Luis Suarez don't make all-time Liverpool XI
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has named two of Arne Slot's current squad in his all-time Reds XI.
Appearing as the headline guest this week on The Overlap, brought to you by Sky Bet, Carragher, who made 737 appearances for the Reds, was the subject of interrogation from former Manchester United stars Gary Neville, Roy Keane and Paul Scholes, as well as ex-Arsenal forward Ian Wright.
The quintet discussed Carragher's lengthy Liverpool career, including how he was originally an Everton fan before switching allegiances to support the red half of Merseyside. After going through how he ended up at Liverpool, playing under Gerard Houllier, not winning the Premier League and winning the Champions League in 2005, attention turned to Carragher's greatest Reds XI.
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And the former defender turned pundit opted to name current Liverpool players, Virgil van Dijk, and Mohamed Salah, whom he selected over Ian Callaghan who is the only Reds player to have made more appearances than Carragher, in his starting XI.
"I would go with Ray Clemence just over Alisson [Becker], just for the fact he won so many trophies," Carragher began.
He continued: "Right back, Phil Neal or Trent [Alexander-Arnold]. Steve Nicol might do a job for me at left back – when you think of players who have played for AC Milan and won the European Cup four of five times and we go ‘wow’, [same with] Real Madrid and Barcelona players – Neal won four European Cups – it’s unbelievable.
"At the end of Trent’s career, I’ll probably say Trent, but I’ll go with Neal due to the fact he’s won four European Cups. I would go with Virgil van Dijk and Alan Hansen – that would be a great partnership [at centre-back]. Andy Robertson may come into the equation, but Liverpool haven’t had a history of unbelievable left-backs – even when they were successful.
"I’m going to go for Nicol at left-back, he had a great combination with the guy in front of him who’s going to play, John Barnes in that late 80’s team. Nicol was a player a little similar to me – right back, centre-back, left back, but he was that good for Liverpool."
Then after picking his defence, Carragher, named his midfield, which featured two Liverpool legends in the center of the park. "Graeme Souness has to be in central midfield alongside Steven Gerrard. On the right, there’s two options. Before Mo Salah joined the club, Ian Callaghan. He is the only player who has played more games for Liverpool than me.
"He played 860 games, and he won the second division with Liverpool and then one of his last games was the 1977 European Cup final. So, you think of that journey from being a second division player, a local player, but Mo Salah’s got to go in on that right side."
And then came another tough decision for Carragher; who would partner Kenny Dalglish? In the end, the Reds legend opted to go for Ian Rush up front alongside Dalglish over Luis Suarez on the basis the latter only won one trophy with Liverpool, which was the 2011/12 League Cup.
Carragher added: "Kenny Dalglish has got to play [up front] and Ian Rush goes in because of what he won. If Luis Suárez would have won the league with Liverpool – he won one trophy.
"If he had a league title and a European Cup to his name, I would have put Suárez in. But you think about what Rush did in those cup finals against Everton – I was crying on the way home!"
Jamie Carragher's Greatest Liverpool XI: Clemence; Neal, Van Dijk, Hansen, Nicol; Salah, Souness, Gerrard, Barnes; Dalglish, Rush
Liverpool.com says: "It's hard to disagree with a lot of Carragher's decisions here, you can't argue with his logic. There's a nice blend of the great Liverpool sides of old mixed with a few modern Reds legends in this starting XI."