LIVERPOOL vice-captain Jamie Carragher believes the club would not be where they are today had it not been for legendary manager Bill Shankly.

Although Carragher was only three years old when Shankly died in 1981, he has been at Liverpool long enough to appreciate the legacy the great man left behind.

“There’s a lot of talk about which manager is the best the club has ever seen, whether it’s Shanks or Bob Paisley,” said Bootle-born Carragher, who is one of the few among the current players to have progressed all the way through the ranks at Liverpool.

“No matter what you think, it’s a fact that if Bill Shankly hadn’t come in and done what he did, we certainly wouldn’t be the club we are now.

“For me, Shankly is the number one when you think about Liverpool. There have been a lot of great players and managers, but he was the man who started it all.

“When you walk around Melwood you can see things with his name on and I think that’s right because it’s important for people to remember him.

“The game has changed a lot but I still think we try to play the same way now. Pass and move is what we are renowned for and I think that’s the philosophy we will always be associated with.

“He started that and had great success. Now we are trying to build on it. Hopefully it will still be the same in 20 or 30 years’ time and Liverpool will continue to play the Bill Shankly way.

“Bill was obviously a long time before me but I think the thing about him was that he wasn’t just a great football manager.

“He was a very funny one with a reputation for some brilliant one-liners.”