If you ask Liverpool fans they will often say Jamie Carragher is biased against them, while opposition supporters will say he always favours the Reds, which he has now addressed.
Liverpool’s former No. 23 wasted little time turning pundit after his playing career ended, joining Sky Sports for the 2013/14 season and subsequently expanding his profile in the media.
The 47-year-old’s allegiance to Liverpool is no secret having played 737 games for the club over 17 seasons, and he was always to be brandished with the ‘bias’ tag by opposition fans.
But Reds will equally argue that he seeks to counter this by being hyper-critical of Liverpool when the moment does not call for it.
Ultimately it is the nature of the beast, especially when it comes to co-commentary, which Carragher says Gary Neville pushed him towards. And he has now addressed the claims of bias – from both sides.
“People say I’m biased towards Liverpool,” Carragher said of being on co-commentary on The Overlap.
“But I can assure you if you look at my social media, I have a lot of Liverpool fans say, ‘No he goes the other way to prove he’s not biased’. You’re like, ‘You can’t win’.
“If you look at social media, no matter who the co-commentator is, and you have two sets of supporters, say it’s Villa vs. Newcastle, they’re both convinced you’re against their team.
“You can’t win.
“As a co-commentator, the best bit about it is a last-minute goal. You’ve got to reflect the stadium. You’ve got to go mad.
“So I do a lot of Liverpool games and Liverpool score a lot of late goals. They did under Klopp and they win most of the time.
“Liverpool don’t lose that often and if they do have a spell, I’ll be getting accused of being too critical maybe by Liverpool supporters.
“So I’ve got to the stage where I did think about it where I was like, ‘Am I too far the other way sometimes? Am I too hard on Liverpool if they’re not doing well?’
“In the end, I’ve just thought, ‘I’m just going to say what I think and if subconsciously I am biased to Liverpool on something or I maybe get more excited with a goal, it’s me.
“That’s the way I am. I don’t get bothered by social media now.”
