PABLO

🚨 Jamie Carragher on Liverpool’s starting XI against Chelsea: “I looked at the two lineups and thought, well, somebody’s certainly feeling confident tonight. You’ve got Chelsea coming to Anfield with Caicedo, Lavia, Henderson, Neto, Welbeck, Rogers. Xabi Alonso has looked at this fixture and decided he wants experienced players on that pitch. Then you look at Liverpool. Ngumoha, Nyoni, McConnell, Koumas. Young lads starting against Chelsea. And Iraola hasn’t hidden them all on the bench until the game is comfortable. He’s put them out there from the beginning. I remember something Rafa Benitez once said about young players. We were discussing whether a lad was ready for a big game, and somebody said, ‘He’s only young.’ Rafa said, ‘Yes, but does he know how to play football?’ That was the end of the conversation. And I think there’s a bit of that with Iraola. People will say he’s taking a risk. Of course he is. But there’s a difference between gambling on young players and actually trusting them. You don’t put four youngsters into a game against Chelsea unless you’ve spent the week looking at them in training and thinking, ‘These boys can do what I’m asking.’ Imagine being one of those lads when the team is announced. You’ve probably spent your whole childhood watching Liverpool play Chelsea. You’ve seen the big European nights, the league battles, the arguments, everything. Then one afternoon the manager tells you that you’re starting against them. And not because Liverpool have nobody else. Because he believes you’re good enough. That’s a different kind of confidence. I can imagine one of the youngsters asking Iraola before the game, ‘Boss, do you want me to keep it simple?’ And Iraola saying, ‘I want you to play the way you played when you convinced me to pick you.’ That’s what good managers do. They don’t spend the whole week telling a young player how talented he is, then take away everything that makes him talented when the match arrives. Now, I don’t want to get carried away before they’ve kicked a ball. Chelsea can absolutely punish Liverpool tonight. They’ve got enough quality to make this a very difficult evening. But if Liverpool win this match, we’re going to have to talk seriously about what Iraola is building. Because think about the message that sends. Chelsea come to Anfield with an experienced team, looking to get a result against one of their biggest rivals. Liverpool respond by putting out lads who are still trying to establish themselves in senior football. And Chelsea go home beaten. If that happens, imagine being one of Liverpool’s senior players sitting on the bench. You’re watching these youngsters compete with Chelsea, and suddenly you’re thinking about how difficult it’s going to be to get your place back. That’s how competition develops inside a football club. And imagine being another Premier League manager watching it. You’re spending all week preparing to face Liverpool’s strongest eleven, and then Iraola starts introducing players you’ve barely had the chance to study. The frightening thing isn’t that Liverpool have young players. Every big club has young players. The frightening thing is having a manager who genuinely believes he can put them into a match like this and still win. If Liverpool pull it off tonight, Chelsea won’t just have lost to Liverpool. They’ll have lost to a Liverpool team that didn’t even feel the need to put all its senior players on the pitch. And I don’t think that’s a particularly comfortable message for the rest of the league.”