Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Arsenal, Brentford, Liverpool, Jamie Carragher, Gary Neville, Football
Nasir Jabbar
Topics: Arsenal, Brentford, Liverpool, Jamie Carragher, Gary Neville, Football
Jamie Carragher has clarified his comments on long throws and set pieces after Gary Neville disagreed with his point following Liverpool's defeat at Brentford.
Liverpool went behind on Saturday after Michael Kayode's long throw found its way to Dango Ouattara, who tucked home from close range.
Arne Slot's team ended up losing 3-2, resulting in their fourth consecutive league defeat.
Brentford's long throws were one of the main talking points from their stunning victory over Liverpool, with Carragher voicing his frustration at the tactic that has swept across the Premier League this season.
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"I used to like that dynamic of the game," he said on Monday Night Football. "I am frustrated with the fact that I feel like every team this season has taken a long throw at some stage. You see the numbers and it's off the scale."
Speaking on The Overlap, Neville hit out at Carragher's opinion on long throws, insisting he loves them.
He said: "Carra said the other night on Monday Night Football... I thought it was really interesting because to be fair I disagree with the point, but he's not here - I wish he was here... he said he hates long throws and somebody else said it yesterday. They hate long throws. I'm like I love long throws."
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Roy Keane and Ian Wright backed the reintroduction of long throws, calling it an 'entry into the box'.
Carragher caught wind of Neville's comments and clarified his stance on long throws, explaining the aspect he doesn't like from the set-piece.
On X, he wrote: "For the 100th time I didn’t say I hate set pieces or long throws!!!!
"What I don’t like is every team taking long throws, & the time it’s taking out of the game. I totally get teams doing it who struggle & lack quality of getting the ball in the box, I also like seeing how teams. cope with them."
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He added: "But teams who have great technical players & have spent 100 millions on them should be getting the ball in play as quick as they can to get these players on the ball. I’m no football snob but this is taking the game backwards!"
Carragher was also critical of Arsenal, who have relied on set pieces this season. But he has changed his tune on Mikel Arteta's side and backed the Gunners to win the league title if the trend continues.
Brentford are the masters of the long throw and it showed again with their goal against Liverpool on Saturday.
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But a damning statistic emerged in the wake of their big win over the defending champions.
According to a post from This Is Anfield, Brentford took nine minutes and 18 seconds to take 10 throw ins against Liverpool. An average of 55.8 seconds for each one.
A social media user shared the post on X, accompanied with the caption: "Joke this, so much time wasted," which was reposted by Carragher.