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Things are looking up for ol' Jon Flanagan. After being handed his season debut against Arsenal last month, Flanno has put in consistently positive performances for his team in each of the successive matches he's played since. What was meant to be a stop-gap measure in Jose Enrique's absence has turned out to be an encouraging series of displays from the young Scouser as he leapfrogged over teammate Aly Cissokho in Brendan Rodger's depth chart. For his part, Rodgers' belief in the young player is helping to spur him on.
"He has said to keep going and working hard," Flanagan told the club's official website. "After Everton, he said it was a great performance and to keep working hard. The manager is always saying to push on and get up and down the wing to get crosses in. I'm enjoying it. I think I've got fitter over the games, because I hadn't really played much before the Arsenal game. My fitness is getting better and I'm feeling good. As a local lad playing for Liverpool, for all the fans to recognise your performance when you're going off is a great boost for me."
Flanagan has already been praised for his performances by Steven Gerrard — high praise indeed for a local boy — and he can add Jamie Carragher to the list of players and local fans who have pledged their support to Flanno.
"He is always texting me to say keep going and to do what I do. He is always there giving advice," the defender explained.
Text might be the perfect medium for Carragher to maximize on intelligibility when imparting wisdom to developing players, and in the grand scheme of people who could be doling out suggestions to Flanagan, he could certainly do worse than Liverpool's ex-vice captain. Although he's no longer technically part of the organization, Carragher's relationship with Flanagan is a lovely example of the developing bridge between generations of players of which Brendan Rodgers seems so fond.
