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Topics: Jamie Carragher, Liverpool, Manchester United, Premier League, Football, Rafa Benitez
Luke Davies
Topics: Jamie Carragher, Liverpool, Manchester United, Premier League, Football, Rafa Benitez
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher believes the club would’ve won the Premier League instead of Manchester United if they had two certain players during the 2008/09 season.
Carragher, 47, is a Liverpool legend and played for the Premier League club on 737 occasions – the second-most of any player behind Ian Callaghan.
And despite sporting Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup winners medals, the Premier League was the one trophy that evaded the Liverpudlian during his playing days.
Although he did come close in 2001/02 and 2008/09, when the Reds finished second behind Arsenal and Man United.
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But it was the 2008/09 season in particular that Carragher has often mentioned when asked when if he felt Liverpool had a realistic chance to break United’s dominance.
"I don't think we went into that season [2008/09] thinking we were going to win the league, we just thought we could challenge,” Carragher told the ECHO in 2020.
"As the season went on, we realised we were more than just challengers and we had a really realistic chance of winning the title."
A squad made up of top talent such as Carragher, Steven Gerrard, Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano, Alvaro Arbeloa and Pepe Reina started the season with eight wins and two draws in their opening 10 games and were three points clear 25% into the campaign.
After an eventful winter, marred by several home draws, Liverpool found themselves one point behind Sir Alex Ferguson’s United with six games left, although the Red Devils had one game in hand.
By the time there were two games left, Rafa Benitez’s side were level on points with United but found themselves top of the league on goal difference, with United having played two games less.
And in typical United fashion, they made their games in hand count, winning both and eventually finishing the campaign four points clear of Liverpool.
Despite explaining how he does not look back with “regrets” Carragher revealed how he felt things could’ve been different if the Reds had better options in wide areas.
“We just didn’t quite have enough in the wide areas,” said Carragher when speaking on The Overlap in 2024.
“You [Gary Neville] say this a lot – you never played against an amazing winger for Liverpool. You never played against a Ronaldo, a Giggs.”
“A Salah, Mane, Diaz or Jota,” Neville replied. “None of your wide players in the time, and I played against you for 15 years, not one of your wide players was as good as the four you have got now.”
“I think if we had a Mane or a Salah, we could have won the league that season or made it a bit tighter,” added Carragher.