Carragher on Lucas, Suarezgate Update, and Other Friday Notes

By: Noel | December 1st, 2011

It’s Friday. Lucas is still injured. It wasn’t a dream, a bad trip, or a mass hallucination. The collective unconscious didn’t suddenly sprout arms, legs, and a sense of self and decide to play a cruel trick on Liverpool fans. Still, there’s stuff floating around out there to talk about that doesn’t involve talk of ACLs and MCLs and MRIs. Mostly, at least…

* First up, lost beneath the news of Lucas’ injury against Chelsea in the League Cup was news of the club Liverpool would face off against because they defeated Chelsea in the League Cup. Everybody seemed to think it a foregone conclusion that once Manchester United cruised past Crystal Palace they’d end up drawing Cardiff City in the two-legged semi-final. Except then United went and screwed it all up by losing to Crystal Palace, leaving papers everywhere to instead talk of Alex Ferguson’s latest humiliating cup defeat ten months after his club bombed out of the FA Cup at home to Leeds and left papers everywhere talking of Alex Ferguson’s latest humiliating cup defeat.

Still, the winner of the United-Palace match did indeed go on to draw Cardiff City in the next round, ensuring that at least one lower-league side will make it to Wembley for the February final. All of which is an incredibly roundabout way of saying that Liverpool will face the other quarter-final winners, Manchester City, in the next round. On the one hand, facing City’s billions minus Lucas after his stellar efforts shutting down Yaya Toure and David Silva in the league last week seems a daunting task. But on the other, it’s likely that Liverpool would have had to defeat City one way or the other in order to win the competition, and it’s not as though City will be thrilled to have drawn Liverpool and not one of the Championship sides. Plus the second leg of the tie is at Anfield, and besides, given Liverpool’s tendencies in recent years one might rather expect them to perform better against City than they would against either of Palace or Cardiff.

The first leg will be on Wednesday, January 11th in Manchester, with the return fixture at Anfield on Wednesday, January 25. As for fixture congestion, after both sides play six league games in December it means potentially another eight in January, with four league matches to go along with the two-legged cup tie and at least one round of FA Cup action—with a second round in January should the first be won. At least this time around there’s never less than two days off between matches, though any way one comes at it it’s still a massive pileup. As for Manchester City being set to play in the knockout phase of either the Champions League or Europa League, neither European competition starts up again after group play until the middle of February, so there’s no edge to be found for Liverpool there.

* We’ve talked at times of Jamie Carragher’s love of the long ball, and it’s been noted on occasion that in many ways he can seem rather a throwback to an earlier age—both for good and ill. With that in mind, it might come as a surprise to many that in the wake of Lucas’ injury it is Carragher who’s come out first to talk of the Brazilian midfielder’s importance to the club:

For the last 18 months, in my opinion, he has been our best player. Luis Suarez has come in and done great things for the club but Lucas has been his equal in many ways. He has been as good as anyone in the team this season and there is no question he will be a big miss.

I have been there in terms of receiving criticism. High standards are expected when you play for one of the big clubs and there are plenty [of] examples of players who have gone missing after realising the demands on them. But you can tell Lucas is a top player as he never lets that bother him. He has just got on with it and plays in nearly every game. If he has a little knock, he will always try and carry on, doing his best for us. There are lots of different characters but you can’t fault Lucas’.

It’s hard to argue with any of that, even if the days when Carragher seemed loath to hand the ball off to Lucas when he could instead just empty it don’t seem all that long ago.

* After saying there was stuff to talk about that mostly doesn’t involve Lucas, I think I’ve instead gone and talked about things that mostly involve Lucas in some way. Which is kind of awkward. Though maybe not as awkward as Suarezgate, which is apparently still going on—and still nowhere near being resolved one way or the other—two weeks after the FA decided there was enough evidence to go ahead with a full hearing and more than six weeks after the actual incident took place between Suarez and Manchester United’s Patrice Evra. Oh, and it might not get resolved any time soon, either:

In ordinary circumstances, the FA would appoint a three-man panel consisting of an independent chairman, an FA councillor and someone described as a “football expert”, meaning a former player or manager. The Guardian, however, has learned the FA may upgrade to a four-man commission because of the complexities of a case in which Suárez can, if necessary, point out he comes from a country where variations of the N-word are used very differently, and that it is actually quite common in Uruguay for men and women of all skin colours to have the nickname of El Negro or La Negra without any racist undertones…

No date has been set for the hearing and, with legal teams to assemble, a row that began between two rival players on a football pitch on 15 October could very likely go beyond Christmas.

Right, so it’s a race between Suarezgate and Steven Gerrard’s infected ankle in a battle of interminably dragged-out headaches. Or footaches. Or something. In any case: Fun.

I’m sure we’ll have happier news to pass along later. Unless the trend of the past few days continues and we don’t, of course. Though if that’s the case we may just give up on this football lark and switch to talking about something more cheerful. Like social equality and the looming crisis between the West and Iran. But either way that’s for later, so in the meantime…

Some Related Liverpool Posts:

Uruguay Backs Suarez, Gerrard Injury Woe, and Other Friday Notes

Category: FA Cup, League Cup, Premier League, Team News

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boogerso

Just pointing out that Mancini said that they will lose the Toure brothers during January for the ANC. Is that true?
Ryan

When I read things that Carragher says, I try to read it as fast as humanly possible, just to get the effect of actually hearing him say it.
redrk

and when steve is gonna come back...cant wait anymore
Luis Suarez Dentist

A four man FA Panel?My guess is they will be instructed to pick the following:Alex FergusonHoward WebbPatrice EvraOne of the Glazers as a 'football expert'
MrJ

I feel like a little kid on a road trip asking every five minutes "Are we there yet?"

I literally have a psychotic compulsion to check the internet every five minutes:
"Is he healthy?" no.
"Okay, now is he healthy?" no. stop asking.
"Are you sure he's not healthy?
Suarez from the car park...

Sorry Noel, can you please confirm that it's not actually the end of the world. I need to decide whether or not to put my whites in the machine and I'm really not sure if they'll just get messed up anyway.
lfc80uk

Still smarting about the Lucas news! I feel like a mosquito thats caught Malaria! Yet we must move on!

Hopefully wee Jay can step upto the plate. Given the opportunity he has been consistent in his performances. He played well against Chelsea and always does a good job when called upon. His performances from now to January should dictate whether a replacement for Lucas is required.

Henderson and Adam for me seems very kung ho for that midfield option! Neither are defensively minded and the midfield area would be over run! On the other hand I could be wrong and the Henderson/Adam partnership could be as successfull as Xavi/Inesta partnership at Barca! But almost certainly not.......
Nasty

yes almost certainly not!!! plus barca have an even better than lucas DM busquets so cant really compare.
sixer

busquets is not as good as lucas
Waiting for Sterling

But Barca have a key defensive mid and Xavi knows how to position himself. I don't think you can really compare the 2 midfields.
Latortillablanca

In his last two interviews Carra has really come off a lot more insightful and articulate than I honestly have ever given him credit for (an since istanbul my backing of the guy in all facets has been almost to a fault). His passion is obvious, but if he is intelligent enough to be able to wield that 'red mist' as a motivational tool instead of a burden he's gonna turn out to be a friggin phenomenal coach. I imagine the king is a very nice fit personality-wise at this stage of carra's career; commands repect, can sympathize with being an aging legend, really approachable, good communicator... i'd love to see carra eased into a player/coach role over the next couple years, he could be like 6th choice defender, but still be in shape enough to train and focus on helping develop the kellys, flannos and robbos coming through...
Suarez from the car park...

you don't think his defensive philosophy might be based around 'empty it!'?
Latortillablanca

lol. no.
Ashfah Hussain

Liverpool is not about one player. The whole team moves on and on. Please focus on the next game against Fulham.
Ed

Wait, they're still going to play the rest of the season?
Latortillablanca

no doubt. next man up. that said, commolli better be undergoing experimental surgery to graft his blackberry to his ear so he can find a proper replacement to compete with spearo for that position. ideally in the 10-15m range. martinez is prolly out of that price range and bilbao doesnt sell during january. m'vila's prolly a similar same story. Casemiro? Sissoko?
Rosco

It could be worse, Christian Poulson could still be hanging around.
Marque Pierre Sondergaard

I never understood that. Christian Poulsen was tearing up the place for Schalke and Sevilla (beat Barca 3-0 and won the Spanish supercup with them), brought to Juventus, where he fell out with the manager but managed to hang on and force himself into the starting lineup.

I never understood, why he failed to ignite in Liverpool. I was so happy when he was brought in: think about it. A defensive midfielder, who also plays on the national team with Daniel Agger. I was hoping that would be a telepathic match made in heaven. Not so.

I can't understand it.
Ed

Rosco!
Rosco

Ahhhhh good day to you sir.

Missed me?
Ed

Haven't seen you around in awhile, hopefully it's more regular.
fiji bill

In the long run, this can only make us stronger...
kenny

Wait, Lucas' injury WASN'T a dream? Oh shit, that means the car... and that fire in her backyard...and the gi... oh shit no no no no.

Just kidding. We just need to hope and pray Lucas has a good recovery and is fully healed in a good amount of time. And hopefully his knee doesn't get infected. He should talk to Stevie about preventing that.

Also, it's December, let's talk about the January transfer window! Ahhh or not, the summer was dreadful because of all the stuff I was hearing and madness I was seeing and the stress I was feeling. So nevermind. Scratch that.

I believe Suarez could come out of this one, okay. *Fingers crossed*. I doubt that though, the "El Negro" and "La Negra" thing won't fly. The hearing will go something like this, "You know Suarez, you might come from another country and it's ok there, but not here in England. You have been here 11 or so months, you should have very very very good English, and know what's ok to say and no. Also, Evra plays for Manchesturd United, and SAF is his manager, how would they look if you're innocent. Yeah, well you're a great player, have a good day."

Ahhh -_-
Purify_the_body

Take your pick: either Ferguson owns the FA and they're waiting to suspend Suarez on purpose until we have an important fixture; or the FA are the biggest bunch of idiots in the entire world and need months to do an investigation that should take less than a week.

Not much of a choice. They're probably stupid enough to suspend him a long time, too, something completely over the top like 8 games so they can make a show of "fighting racism".
Suarez from the car park...

It's going to be tough coming down on Suarez despite the rule book forbidding even acknowledging any reference to ethnicity, they have to be seen not to brush this aside BECAUSE it's this 'racism thing' and BECAUSE it's SAF/ManUre who will not hesitate to publicly criticise them.

So they're going the extra mile to get another panelist specifically to handle the cultural thing, so they can't be accused of not giving due consideration, and hopefully to make the decision academic.

In light of the obvious forthcoming 'official' cultural account, it's going to be impossible to find towards a straight case of racism without considerable extenuating circumstances from during the game.

So I'm actually quite hopeful on this one, they're setting the stage to beable to enter left, make an easy decision based on 'facts' and call the matter properly investigated and concluded.
What they're not doing is trying to build a case to throw the book at Suarez, quite the opposite.