Carragher can never hold a place in a side that needs to pass rather than hoof it. If Rodgers is going to teach us to pass it from the back, Carra will never get a game - Agger, Skrtel, Kelly, and Coates are all far better footballers than Carragher, even if their reading of the play is inferior. Remember that Rodgers' system at Swansea used a high defensive line where the fullbacks pushed up, the CBs moved wide, and the DM dropped back to form a back 3. That is ideal for Agger and Kelly who have experience playing as fullbacks on their respective flanks, while Carragher is simply too slow to deal with any wide player in the league.
Very well put thundyr, sad and all as it is to see a legend come to the end of a great career, we have to face up to it. Kenny did and I've no doubt Brendan will also. As Bohey says its now really a matter of how Brendan Rodgers handles it and that will tell us something about him as a manager. Our backs are to the wall and there's no room for sentiment. We need to move rapidly back toward a 4th place finish and that will require the weeding out of a couple of other as well I hope he won't flunk it.
I've a feeling he can take one look at the team and go "yes" "yes" "no" "maybe" with each player in about 5 minutes. Anyone just that little bit lazy (I'm looking at you, Glen Johnson, Jose Enrique) is going to get a rocket, because he's clearly very strict on discipline and hard work. And that's the way it should be. These guys are top professionals playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world - they should be working harder every day from sheer desire alone than basically anyone else in the world. If they're going to sit on their backsides and hit the pies, then they can go do that elsewhere.
Carragher though has simply come to the end of the road. It happens to everyone sooner or later. He's not got the pace to go with his reading of the play. He's still a good player on his day, but he can no longer pick which day is going to be his, and while it's sad it's just a fact of life that he's probably already begun to accept. He will be benched, but he has a lot to teach so we must not throw him to the wolves - we must try retain his leadership and knowledge somehow. I firmly believe this will be his final season at Liverpool.