Frustration and emotion got the better of Stevie
CARRAGHER ON HIS OLD KOP PAL
STEVEN Gerrard’s former Liverpool team- mate Jamie Carragher described the red card as a ‘moment of madness’ born of frustration.
In his role as match analyst on sky sports 1, the Sportsmail columnist said: ‘There’s no doubt that not playing at swansea (in Liverpool’s last game) and then not playing this game would be a frustration.
‘He’s been at Liverpool 17, 18 years, he’s always been the man, the captain, there’s never been a case where he’s been out of the team and as soon as he’s fit he goes straight back in the team.
‘This is the first time I think, last week at swansea and today, that hasn’t happened, so there will be frustration there.
‘Watching the first half from the bench he’d have been disappointed. Liverpool weren’t playing well, they were losing 1-0. But there would have been more frustration. He’d have been watching players in his position performing not great and thinking, “Why am I not playing, why am I not on that pitch?” We said at half-time that was the right call, bring him on.
‘steven Gerrard is an emotional player. You see that in his career and it’s taken teams I’ve played in into some unbelievable moments.
‘sometimes he hasn’t played with his brain in terms of when he’s done well, it’s been his heart — the Fa Cup final against West Ham (2006), Istanbul (the 2005 Champions League final).
‘That wasn’t steven Gerrard playing with a cold, calculated head, that was just playing from the heart. He can do special things like that.
‘But on the flip side of that, when he plays in games like this and he comes on maybe a bit frustrated — he’s had seven red cards in his career, four of them have been Everton and Manchester United, two each now. an Everton one was coming off the bench, an Everton one was 15, 20 minutes into a game. I think the United other one was an Fa Cup game in the first half and if I think right they were all straight reds.
‘ There’s no doubt being a local player, the emotion of these occasions, the frustration coming into this game, has contributed to the moment of madness.’
Carragher added: ‘It’s a straight red and there’s no arguments with that.
‘You can’t do that on a football pitch. He’s been rightly given his marching orders.’