Liverpool may have picked up three points against Sheffield United last night, but it wasn’t all positive at Anfield.
The Reds made much harder work of things than was necessary against the Premier League’s bottom club.
For a time, Mohamed Salah’s irritated reaction to being substituted after the Blades had equalised looked like it could be the game’s defining moment.
Thankfully, Liverpool came roaring back. A thunderbolt from Alexis Mac Allister and a lovely, deft header from Cody Gakpo ensured that Jurgen Klopp was a happy man come full-time.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean that certain Reds didn’t deserve some criticism on the night. And taking to social media after the game, Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher provided some balance.
Jamie Carragher doubles down on criticism
For those with good memories, you’ll recall that Carragher was less than enthusiastic about Gakpo’s performance when coming off the bench at Old Trafford last month.
The 46-year-old claimed that the Liverpool forward ‘plays in slow motion.’
Now, this wasn’t entirely an unfair point of view, especially coming off the back of a dreadful showing from the Dutchman. However, owing to Carragher’s high-profile status as a pundit and club legend, fans reacted negatively to the former centre-back airing his opinion.
And if last night’s anything to go by, supporters haven’t yet forgiven Carragher for slamming Gakpo so publiclyout. After X account BackseatsmanLFC called the pundit out for his views from March, Carragher saw fit to hit back.
“Pundit gives an opinion on a player that most people agree with,” he wrote, with a shrug. “It wasn’t even that bad, he does need to be quicker in possession but has done great in terms of goals. In future I won’t speak about any LFC player in case it gets back to them!! F___ y__ Barry!”
Cody Gakpo begins to answer critics
We’re absolutely with Carragher here. Of course, nobody wants to see any sort of abuse towards players or anything like that. But what he said was incredibly mild and was a valid observation.
Gakpo has indeed been way below-par of late. That isn’t necessarily his fault as he’s been in and out of the team and moved around in different positions, too. You are often left wanting more from the £44m man when he’s on the pitch, though.
Last night, with Liverpool needing a goal, it was much better from Cody. You could see a little more pace and purpose to his game and he deserved his goal when it came.
Hopefully that can be the start of a turnaround in form and an answer to critics like Carragher. In fairness to Carra, if Gakpo does fix his recent deficiencies, then he’ll likely be the first one to point it out, too. Keep it up, Cody!
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