Jamie Carragher was a true professional throughout his Liverpool career, but there was one moment when he had no choice but to confront his manager.
Liverpool have not had problems where the manager is concerned in recent years. The club enjoyed nine glorious seasons with Jürgen Klopp at the helm, winning every trophy on offer, and guided his team to victory in the Champions League and then the Premier League a year later.
Arne Slot is already following in the footsteps of his predecessor and did not even need a second season to deliver success at the club. The former Feyenoord boss helped Liverpool win the Premier League by a decisive 10 points, while only narrowly missing out on the Carabao Cup.
However, Liverpool legend Carragher has revealed there was one Liverpool manager who lost the dressing room during his playing days, which caused the defender to speak up.
That manager was Roy Hodgson, who had a disastrous tenure at Anfield that lasted no longer than half a year.
Speaking on the Diary of a CEO podcast, Carragher detailed the confrontation with Hodgson occurred after a shock loss to Blackpool.
“I always remember, the only time I ever did this [confronted a manager] in my whole career. We lost at home to Blackpool under Roy Hodgson.
I just couldn’t sleep. I went in [to training] the next morning and went straight into his office. He was actually having a coaches meeting. I was 33 or 34 at the time, so was a really experienced pro, and we just had this big discussion with all the coaches.
He was talking about what he wanted to do, and I said ‘You can’t do that.’”
The former England international insisted he meant no disrespect to his former coach, but was attempting to help him succeed in his role.
“It wasn’t me questioning him as a manager. It was almost like I wanted to help him. Not because he needed help as a manager, he needed help as a Liverpool manager.
It was almost like, if you come out and say that or if you play this play — ‘You can’t do that anymore, that’s got to stop.'”
Hodgson held onto his job for a further three months, but Liverpool supporters will not look back on that period with fond memories.
Ironically, the Reds lost their first Premier League fixture after Hodgson’s sacking to none other than Blackpool. However, the legendary Kenny Dalglish managed to secure his team a top six finish, showing that parting ways with Hodgson was the right call.
