Daniel Sturridge wasn’t happy with Jamie Carragher, and let him know.
Carragher was critical of Sturridge last season, saying the Liverpool striker appeared to have lost his blistering pace, and said that, when he fails to score, the team are essentially reduced to 10 players.
The former Liverpool defender also said Sturridge, who has struggled for fitness over the past few seasons, would be better off leaving the club this summer, rather than sitting on the bench, as he has for large spells under Jurgen Klopp.
They were strong words from the Sky Sports pundit.
Looked like a perfectly good challenge from @Carra23 😂😂 https://t.co/bHYVmMltWg
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) June 5, 2017
Carragher and Sturridge played alongside each other during the former defender’s final months at Anfield back in 2013, and were both part of the Liverpool team that took part in a post-season game in Melbourne last month.
Carragher has said the striker confronted him over his criticism, but he understood Sturridge doing so, and was even “happy about it.”
“I’ve got a funny story about that, and I didn’t mind it actually – I was happy about it,” Carragher the Liverpool Echo podcast Anfield Extra.
“As soon as I got on the plane, I could see Sturridge wasn’t his normal self with me. And he pulled me in Australia after the game, or at half time when we’d come off. He said ‘why did you say they should sell me?’
“I said ‘ooh, fair enough!’ I thought ‘I’m not having you putting me on the back foot’ so I went straight back and said ‘well, what else can they do?!’
“He wasn’t too happy that I’d said that, but my point was that a player of his quality, you either play or you go. If I was him, I wouldn’t want to be on the bench, and from Klopp’s point of view there is nobody else on the bench he could get money for, if he needed say £20m or £25m.
“Listen, you could still keep him. If Daniel Sturridge is happy playing 25 games next season, you are not going to get many sub strikers with his quality.”
Carragher went on to say that he had thought the player would leave this summer, with West Ham United reportedly interested. However, the former Liverpool defender didn’t get the impression in Australia that Sturridge was planning on leaving Anfield.
He also dismissed suggestions the player has a poor attitude.
“I was happy he said it. It’s fair enough; we give stick out, and plenty of praise too, so who are we to say that someone can’t have an opinion on us?” Carragher said.
“He didn’t come across like a player who was looking to get out, I have to say that! I played with him. He’s always had that thing about him that he’s moody or difficult. I never saw it.”
Who's getting relegated and who's top of the table? https://t.co/pApNFC34QF
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) May 29, 2017
However, Carragher also suggested that the 27-year-old striker may need to adapt his game if he has lost a yard of pace.
“You think of Defoe, what he’s done the last three or four years,” the Sky Sports pundit said.
“He doesn’t run everywhere but he’s still electric in the box, and that’s what Sturridge will still have; quick feet in the box, get a shot off quick, be sharp, he’ll always have that.”
