Carragher determined to fight on

'You have to keep going and show character,' the veteran defender tells ANDY HUNTER

OF ALL the injuries and ailments that have hindered Liverpool this season, there can be nothing more disturbing for Rafael Benitez than the seven-year itch contracted by Jamie Carragher. It was November 2002 when Liverpool last exited the Champions League at the group stage, as a season that began amid high expectation became a salvage operation all too quickly. A defender of his intuition cannot fail to sense the warnings from history.

“You talk in the dressingroom when things aren’t going well. You wonder when the feelgood factor will come back and I have mentioned that time to some of the lads,” the Liverpool defender said.

“I’ve spoken to my dad and he said we’ve had five years of winning big trophies, getting to another Champions League final, going close in the league, and that this might just be a difficult season. It might be a grind and you have to tough it out, get your head down and fight.

“That’s not just football. It’s the same in life. It’s no different for us as footballers. You have to keep going and show character.”

Carragher’s grim acceptance of Liverpool’s plight is understandable. Benitez’s team could claim their second win in 11 matches in all competitions against Debrecen tonight and still be in mourning should Fiorentina defeat visiting Lyon to qualify at their expense. So long as hope remains, this Liverpool team will fight on, but there is helplessness to their predicament that returns Carragher to 2002.

Liverpool entered the 2002-03 season talking of the Premier League title, their argument backed by a runners-up spot the previous season and a summer of fine-tuning in the transfer market – if spending €30 million on El Hadji Diouf, Salif Diao and Bruno Cheyrou can be called fine-tuning.

Two chastening losses to a sublime Valencia side managed by one Rafael Benitez, saw Liverpool floundering in their Champions League group. A stirring recovery from three down to draw in Basle could not prevent demotion into the Uefa Cup, and a run of 11 league games without a win cost them a top-four finish.

The reign of Gerard Houllier, who publicly blamed Steven Gerrard for the Basle result and replaced the young midfielder at half-time with Diao, never recovered.

“I have spoken to some of the lads about that season,” Carragher said. “A lot was expected of us then and it didn’t work out. Everyone thinks all we have at Liverpool is great times, but there are ups and downs. Stevie and I know that. You get through it by facing up to it. You get through it by believing you have good players, and in the past four or five years we have shown that.

“We are not a bad team. We are a good team that is just not doing the right things at the moment. At these times you need to show determination and character and it is up to the big players to lead.”

The financial ramifications of exiting the Champions League will be sorely felt at Anfield or, more accurately, in the US. While the club can accommodate the affect of Champions League failure in the budget for this season, it will not help the American owners’ search for new investors willing to meet their asking price of some €100 million for a 25 per cent stake to be consigned to the Europa League.

On the field, however, Carragher denies a Fiorentina victory tonight would be a calamity for Benitez’s team.

“When you start out you are desperate to get through the group stages, but I don’t think you could call it a disaster if we don’t. Because we have done well in recent seasons people outside the club tend to take it for granted that Liverpool will get into the knockout stages.

“But it isn’t easy. Manchester United didn’t make it through a few years ago and Barcelona have had a couple of setbacks this season and aren’t sure of making it. It shows how well we have done in the past.

“If we don’t make it through then we have to accept it and move on. Stevie and myself have won the Uefa Cup and it was a great moment. It is still a chance to win silverware and there are some great teams in that competition.

“Whatever happens, you have to move on and look forward.”

GuardianService