Jamie Carragher believes Liverpool should sign a central midfielder this summer and still regrets not signing Declan Rice when he was available.
The Reds may have spent £446 million on a huge splurge in the transfer market last summer, but they are doing significantly worse this season than last.
The Premier League champions are fourteen points behind leaders Arsenal and their title defense appears to be long over.
Carragher believes the current top prospects are the top contenders for Player of the Season, someone he wishes Liverpool would have signed if they had the chance.
The Gunners paid West Ham £100 million for the England midfielder in 2023 and he has been an important figure for them ever since, having already made 135 appearances and scored 20 goals for the club.
With Carragher feeling that some of Liverpool’s midfielders are not bringing enough to the table, he believes Rice is the complete package and likens him to a Manchester United legend.
“Curtis Jones and Alexis Mac Allister are really good players, but at the end of the day there are two or three players who don’t have great physicality,” Carragher said. The Athletics.
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‘The one that stands out every time I see him play is Declan Rice. What a player, honest to God. That’s exactly what Liverpool need. For me he is the modern Roy Keane.’
‘I don’t think we praise him enough anymore’
Despite being seen as a key player for the Premier League leaders, Carragher believes Rice is still underrated.
“I don’t think he’s a Stevie Gerrard because Stevie was more attacking,” the former Liverpool defender said. “Roy did a little bit of everything; press high, get the ball from the back four, everything. Declan also has the set pieces. I actually don’t think we give him enough credit anymore. It always feels like there’s a but with him. His passing is fantastic. No one can run past him. His set-piece execution is as good as anything in European football.
‘Why didn’t Liverpool go for him? The summer he was available was the summer we would lose Jordan Henderson and Fabinho. My argument at the time was that you need to buy one player to replace two, because he could play both Fabinho’s and Henderson’s roles, keeping the pressure on, as he showed for Arsenal. Oh god, I would have loved to have him in a Liverpool shirt.
‘For me he is Player of the Year this year, especially if Arsenal win the league. Then he will get the real love he deserves, and hopefully he will also have a great World Cup (with England).”
Liverpool made several midfield signings in the summer of 2023 as they replaced the departing Henderson, Fabinho, Naby Keita, James Milner and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
In came Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch and Wataru Endo.
Earlier this month, Rice explained how Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has managed to get the best out of him since moving to London.
“The good thing about the manager is he knows when to put the knife in me, just to give me a push, he knows how to get the best out of me,” he said.
‘I like to listen, I like to absorb everything. Since then I’ve just kept going and the games are coming so quickly and thickly that I’m just trying to play consistently well.”
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