Jamie Carragher moved up one place for the number of League games played for the club to become our joint all-time #3, after turning out against Stoke City on Saturday.
This was his 474th Premiership game for Liverpool - nearly eighty outings ahead of his nearest current challenger, skipper Steven Gerrard. He has bagged just four goals in these League matches.
Jamie signed on as a pro in September 1996, and is currently contracted with the club until the end of next season. He made his League bow as a substitute in our goalless home draw with West Ham United in January 1997, having remained on the bench on four previous occasions that season. He played in just one more League game during that campaign, when he netted against Aston Villa in his first start.
After twenty League outings in 1997/98, he established himself as a regular, missing just eighteen League fixtures in the next five seasons. However, his 2003/04 was affected by a broken leg at Blackburn Rovers in September, and he could only turn out 22 times in the League.
He was an ever-present in the Premiership for the first time in 2004/05, and missed just nine League matches in the five seasons that followed, with Rafael Benítez, Roy Hodgson or Kenny Dalglish rarely rotating him out of the team. However, he missed ten League games at the end of Hodgson's reign due to a dislocated shoulder, and has found it hard to return to the first team during this campaign following a calf injury.
Carra's 474th League game drew him level with Emlyn Hughes in third place in the club's all-time League appearance ranking. ‘Crazy Horse' played 665 times in total in his twelve years at Anfield after signing from Blackpool for a club record £65,000 in February 1967, netting 49 times and winning two European Cups, four League titles, two UEFA Cups, FA Cup, UEFA Super Cup and two FA Charity Shields before joining Wolverhampton Wanderers for £90,000 in August 1979. His greatest season was probably 1976/77 when he captained the side to within a whisker of a unique treble, as well as being voted the Football Writers' Player of the Year. Sadly, he died in November 2004, aged just 57.
It will only take another eighteen Premiership outings before the 33-year old Bootle lad can move up another place in this list, alongside Billy Liddell. However, he would then still be nearly 150 League games behind Ian Callaghan, who is likely to forever remain the Liverpool player who tops the appearance charts.
Current Top 10 League Appearances:
1. Ian Callaghan (640)
2. Billy Liddell (492)
3= Jamie Carragher (474)
3= Emlyn Hughes (474)
5. Ray Clemence (470)
6. Ian Rush (469)
7. Tommy Smith (467)
8. Phil Neal (455)
9. Bruce Grobbelaar (440)
10. Alan Hansen (434)
