Daniel Sturridge took exception to Jamie Carragher’s opinion that he should leave Liverpool, confronting his former teammate in the dressing room before a match.
At the end of the 2016/17 season – Jurgen Klopp‘s first full campaign in charge – Liverpool travelled to Australia to face Sydney FC in a post-season friendly.
With ticket sales struggling the club invited Carragher, Steven Gerrard and Steve McManaman to join the first-team squad in action.
That led to a reunion between Carragher and Sturridge not long after the now-pundit had called for Liverpool to sell his former teammate – who had started only 11 of his 27 games that season, scoring seven goals.
And speaking on The Overlap’s Fan Debate, Carragher has now revealed how the striker confronted him over his claims in the dressing room in Sydney.
“When I’d stopped playing for a couple of years Liverpool asked me and Stevie G to go on a end-of-season game in Australia,” he explained.
“Liverpool couldn’t sell the tickets to fill out the stadium, so they asked me, Stevie and Steve McManaman to play with the team.
“So we end up playing and Daniel – because I’d sort of said ‘they need to sell Daniel Sturridge‘ – he fronted me in the dressing room when we got over there.
“And you know what? I was like ‘fair play, good on you’. There’s nothing worse, I think, than if someone backs down.
“So I wasn’t going to back down. Not like it was a big argument, but maybe if I was a player and I might say something and they back down and go ‘sorry, I didn’t mean it!’. No, just front it.”
Sturridge’s role in the Liverpool side reduced under Klopp but he stayed as part of the team until 2019, playing more games for the German than any other coach in his entire career (90).
Only 40 of those came as a starter, but the England international still scored 25 goals and laid on nine assists for Klopp, helping to win the Champions League in his final campaign.
He was a lightning rod for criticism during his six-and-a-half years at Anfield due to his persistent injuries, but he was right to defend himself after Carragher’s comments.
It provides an interesting insight into not only Sturridge’s mentality but also the relationship between current players and ex-pros-turned-pundits – with criticism clearly filtering down to the dressing room.
