Sports pundit and ex-Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has named the signing who would have put Liverpool ‘six points clear’ at this stage of the Premier League season.
The Reds are currently not doing badly at all. After 17 games, Jurgen Klopp’s side sit in second place, just a point behind leaders Arsenal.
With the Gunners visiting Anfield tomorrow, there’s a chance to go back to the top of the table. And previewing that game for The Telegraph today, Carragher has taken a look at both teams.
On his old club, the Liverpool legend claims that signing Arsenal’s Declan Rice would have made an enormous difference to how the table currently looks.
“If Liverpool had signed Declan Rice last summer, they might already be six points clear of the rest,” says the pundit.
We’re not quite sure we understand all the hype around Declan Rice just now. Fine, yes, he’s a good player who has beefed up Arsenal’s midfield. That’s fair enough.
But in truth, it’s hard to say that he’s been as transformative as plenty would have you believe that he has.
Arsenal are still more or less in the same position they were last season. They haven’t kicked on to go clear at the top of the Premier League, they’re doing just as they did in 2022/23 with Thomas Partey anchoring the midfield.
In that respect, it’s hard to really see that Rice would have improved Liverpool as much as Carragher asserts.
It’s true that the 24-year-old would have been a better signing than Wataru Endo, of course. He’s clearly a level above the Japan international.
But Liverpool’s reason for dropping points this season has not been because of their midfield. Unlike last season, the Reds look relatively comfortable in the middle of the pitch and are no longer quite so easy to run through.
They could have a better, more effective No,6, but to say it’s the difference between being second by a point and six points clear is, to us, absolute and utter nonsense.
Rice is a good player, of that there is no doubt. But this kind of hyperbole simply has to end. He was never going to sign for Liverpool, and frankly, we’re not a bit bothered.
