Carra speaks!

[smithdown]

Carragher sees merit in Liverpool blueprint

By George Caulkin

 

Our correspondent hears why England could do with some of the Anfield club's belief

 

 

THE notion may not find much favour with monarchists or Mancunians, but England could do worse than to adopt You?ll Never Walk Alone as their national anthem. After all the disappointments, the scuffed penalties, the broken bodies and the agonising inevitability of the quarter-finals, an infusion of Scouse spirit and the ethos of Bill Shankly would be welcome in Germany.

From their dramatic passage to Istanbul a year ago and the breathless recovery against AC Milan, to their narrow victory over West Ham United in the FA Cup, Liverpool have reinvented themselves as the least accommodating losers in football. ?With 20 minutes to go, if the score is not right, it becomes a life-and-death thing,? Jamie Carragher said. ?You have to give it everything.?

 

Under Sven-Göran Eriksson, England have shied away from high-tar, unfiltered commitment in tournament conditions. There have been moments of frenetic pressure, such as David Beckham?s one-man onslaught against Greece in 2001 and the dismemberment of Germany earlier the same year, but in competitions there has been an insipid pallor to their performances.

 

There are lessons to be drawn from Liverpool?s cramp-inducing efforts, from the Champions League to Cardiff, although Carragher, the defender, has a caveat to add. ?We always seem to get to these finals by keeping things tight and then when we get there all hell breaks loose,? he said. ?It?s like a kids? game in the schoolyard, end to end. You?re so desperate not to lose.?

 

Yet after the defeat by Brazil in Shizuoka, Japan, four years ago and the shoot-out trauma against Portugal two years later, there is a clamour among England supporters for their team to be bold. If Liverpool can do it without Wayne Rooney, why can?t an England squad with the verve of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Michael Owen and David Beckham? ?Liverpool?s never-say-die attitude can be transferred to England, certainly when it comes to the knockout games,? Carragher, 28, said. ?If you go behind, you can?t always be gung-ho because the top teams will pick you off, but in the latter stages of games, you just have to throw everything at it, really go for it and hopefully it will come right.? More reckless than Eriksson is renowned for, but less sterile, too.

 

 

you still won't get a game Jamie lad

[Benitez]

he's right about this an all:

 

?We always seem to get to these finals by keeping things tight and then when we get there all hell breaks loose,? he said. ?It?s like a kids? game in the schoolyard, end to end. You?re so desperate not to lose.?

 

[Montse]

he's right about this an all:

 

?We always seem to get to these finals by keeping things tight and then when we get there all hell breaks loose,? he said. ?It?s like a kids? game in the schoolyard, end to end. You?re so desperate not to lose.?

 

 

Too right - when was the last time we had a straightforward final!

[magneto]

Too right - when was the last time we had a straightforward final!

 

League Cup win over the Mancs.