Carragher adamant Liverpool tactic 'cannot work' as issue rears its head

Jamie Carragher continued to bemoan the make up of Liverpool's midfield during their draw at Newcastle insisting it "cannot work" given the players they pick.

The Reds needed a last minute penalty to rescue a 2-2 draw, but were behind for the majority of the contest at St James' Park. Both Newcastle goals were scored on the counter attack with pace and direct running cutting through Liverpool on the transition.

Andoni Iraola started with Florian Wirtz as his 10 and Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai sitting in behind. The Reds have lacked a natural defensive midfielder for several years, and their issues with containing quick breaks has been apparent since last season.

Newcastle were able to expose those and Carragher was left frustrated, insisting the problems were clear to see in pre-season and will remain whilst Liverpool continue to play with their current three-man midfield.

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After Anthony Elanga put Newcastle in front after four minutes the Sky Sports pundit said on social media: "LFC midfield all bombing forward happened all pre-season, madness!"

Yoane Wissa was allowed to travel almost half the pitch before laying on Joe Willock to put Newcastle ahead, and Carragher was seemingly repeating himself. He posted: "Again! This midfield cannot work, I said it before a competitive ball was kicked."

Back when Liverpool were winning the Premier League and Champions League under Jurgen Klopp they had a midfield that consisted of Fabinho, Georginio Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson, which gave the team the balance they were looking for.

They have all departed Anfield and Carragher has been flagging for some time that Liverpool no longer have the profile of midfielder who is more defensive. Instead, he called out the amount of attacking players in their starting XI and claims top teams don't operate with the end-to-end style that is often seen in Liverpool games.

"Liverpool have too many attacking players on the pitch, they just want to bomb forward," he said on the Overlap before the season kicked off. "And it’s the same in pre-season at Liverpool this season - it’s just a basketball game. No top team plays football like that. I don’t believe it."

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