Carragher can't be ignored again

Jun 13 2007 Red Watch by Andy Proudfoot, Liverpool Daily Post

THE ball-playing centre-half: must or myth?

I pose this question as part of my search for the answer to one of mankind’s great mysteries: Why isn’t Jamie Carragher a fixture in the England team?

Named in every squad, he’s regularly tipped to finally break through into the side, even if it’s because all the English right-backs have dropped domestic appliances on their toes and 12 centre-halves have succumbed to Lassa fever.

We confidently expect to see him handed a key role when the squad is announced, only to see pernicious rumours seep into the press that Phil Neville has impressed the coaching staff in training, or that Jonathan Woodgate was handed the yellow bib during pattern of play work.

Here we go again we think, they’re lining Jamie up to take a fall again.

Now the pedants among you (and if you let me know where you drink, I’ll get the next round) will point out that, hey, Jamie’s got 30-odd caps so he’s not doing too bad is he?

But how many of those caps have been for a full 90 minutes?

How many competitive matches do they include? How many have seen him filling in, in midfield or at full-back rather than his anointed position as centre-half supreme?

The two recent end-of-season internationals were the final straw.

After once again playing out of position at right-back against Brazil, where he gave a competent performance while admittedly not touching the heights of his club form, he was completely ignored for the competitive fixture against Estonia.

Instead we were led to believe that Wes Brown, who could barely get on the subs bench for Man United at times last season, plus Ledley King, injured for most of it, were preferable to the most consistent, reliable centre-half in the country, described by the England coach himself as ‘fantastic’ in key European games for Liverpool throughout the year.

So why does McLaren, and Eriksson before him, persist in ignoring his obvious claims to be in the team alongside John Terry?