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Former Reds centreback Jamie Carragher has always had Strong Opinions about his sport. Since retiring, Sky Sports has started paying him for his Strong Opinions. Many of his Strong Opinions concern his old club, and his unwillingness to spare the rod for the Reds has brought delight to neutrals and, uh, not-so-neutrals alike.
So it’s unsurprising that Carragher had some Very Strong Opinions Indeed for Reds goalkeeper Simon Mignolet. The Belgian had a difficult outing in Liverpool’s 2-0 loss to Hull yesterday and was at least partly responsible for the first-half goal from Alfred N'Diaye. While the loss can’t be laid entirely at Mignolet’s feet, Carragher insisted that he’s run out of second chances and that Liverpool need to make changes after this season is over.
“Simon Mignolet showed again today why Liverpool need to sign a goalkeeper. He is not decisive enough. Liverpool will do nothing, try to win trophies and get Champions League places in the coming years with the goalkeepers they have.”
Carra framed his thoughts in terms of Liverpool’s poor run of form since the start of 2017, which as effectively ended their title challenge and cast their Top 4 hopes into doubt. Amidst a month of shaky performances, including the loss against Hull and his role in David Luiz’ free-kick goal for Chelsea last week, Carragher says that Liverpool have become too soft.
“It's not rocket science now how you beat Liverpool. I think every manager in the league except the top five will employ Hull's tactics against Liverpool. They are too easy to beat. There's things in this Liverpool team that at times you kid yourself that it's ok. Lucas at centre back and Milner left-back. If the form Liverpool are in continues in the next few weeks the chances of top four will be gone very quickly. If you look at the bench it looks stronger than the last few weeks but the manager's waited too long to make a change recently."
All this comes as rumors start to gain steam regarding a replacement goalkeeper en route to Anfield over the summer. We reported yesterday that the Reds were interested in Inter Milan goalkeeper Samir Handanovic. Absent some major turnaround soon, it’s not a stretch to think that the Powers That Be at Anfield won’t take anything off the table.