Jamie Carragher isn’t one to sugar-coat his words.
The former Liverpool defender is on punditry duty for the club’s game against West Ham United, and watched them throw away a lead against the Premier League strugglers.
Adam Lallana put the home side in-front at Anfield, but West Ham pulled ahead thanks to goals from Dimitri Payet and Michail Antonio in the first-half. The Liverpool goalkeeper was also partly at fault for both goals, which was unfortunate given his comments earlier this week.
Loris Karius, during an interview with The Daily Mail, hit out at criticism he’d received from Gary Neville following a costly error he made last week against Bournemouth.
“It’s tough to win the league without a good goalkeeper, it is tough,” Neville had said.
“He’s not good enough that goalkeeper. You could see actually in his first game, was it against [Manchester] United on a Monday night? He looks nervous and he isn’t good enough.”
Karius hit back by appearing to take a dig at Neville’s failed spell as Valencia manager last season.
“I don’t care what Gary Neville said. He was a manager for a short bit and now he is back to being an expert again,” the Liverpool ‘keeper said.
“But he is always very critical. I think he does it to everyone. I just hope that when I do well he will comment on that. We will see in the future.”
Carragher also criticised Karius following his howler against Bournemouth, but the German ‘keeper, signed from Mainz in the summer took no issue with his words, despite the fact they echoed Neville’s view.
“Carragher was here at Liverpool for a long time so maybe after the game he was a bit frustrated,” Karius said.
“He is probably still a supporter. I have to accept it. What critics say right after the game, I don’t know what I think. If you asked them again would they say it now?
It’d be interesting to see if Karius remains as diplomatic regarding Carragher in future interviews, after the Liverpool legend’s half-time assessment of his performance against West Ham.
“My advice would be: ‘Shut up and just do your job,” Carragher said.
“And doing your job and answering your critics would be saving that.”
Carragher was referring to Karius’ role in Payet’s equaliser.
“That is not difficult,” the Sky Sports pundit continued.
“His positioning is fine, he gets across, he reads it well, and he’s there. And his wrists, again, kind of like the first goal at Bournemouth – not strong enough.
“It’s not even in the corner, and Payet hasn’t even hit it that hard.”
Carragher’s Sky colleague Jamie Redknapp echoed his sentiments.
The former Liverpool midfielder called Karius’ failure to stop Payet’s free-kick “poor goalkeeping,” and said the 23-year-old has “chocolate fingers.”
Karius didn’t cover himself in glory for West Ham’s second, and also felt the ire of social media.
Loris Karius blames himself for the Payet goal. I said "Well it was your fault Loris, you should have saved it."
— Boring Milner (@BoringMilner) December 11, 2016
Karius may not care what @GNev2 thinks but making the odd save might strengthen his case.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) December 11, 2016
Can't blame Karius to be fair, Clattenburg was lining up a Ronaldo special.
Obviously confused. pic.twitter.com/xHU86KLo1L
— Empire of the Kop (@empireofthekop) December 11, 2016
https://twitter.com/FutboIDan/status/807999555711234050
Catch up with this week’s episode of Football Friday Live
