After receiving the man-of-the-match award for his fine performance against Arsenal, Jamie Carragher was asked if he was enjoying his current run in the side. "What, two games?" came the typically cheeky Scouse reply. He's hardly cemented his position as a first-team regular.
But Carragher certainly performed well at the Emirates, dealing with Arsenal's long balls towards Olivier Giroud in open play, and barking instructions at the rest of the defence, encouraging them to push up as
Arsenal passed the ball around the defence, forcing opposition attackers away from goal. That suggests Carragher is content to play a high defensive line despite his declining pace, although Theo Walcott got in behind a couple of times, which will have worried Brendan Rodgers.
Rodgers must now decide whether to start Carragher away at Manchester City on Sunday afternoon, or recall Martin Skrtel. He had an interesting game in the reverse fixture against City; having opened the scoring with a towering header, his suicidal backpass in the final minutes was intercepted by Carlos Tevez, denying Rodgers his first Liverpool win.
Despite Carragher's impressive showing, it's difficult to see how he'd be able to cope with Sergio Aguero's incredible acceleration, particularly with Tevez stretching the defence in the opposite direction. Skrtel hasn't been at his best this season, having been Liverpool's star man in 2011-12: and although the Slovakian is better in the air than on the ground, a combination of he and Daniel Agger seems logical against the threat of Aguero.
