Jamie Carragher claims Liverpool needed the mid-season World Cup break ‘more than any team’

Jamie Carragher believes Liverpool were the team to benefit the most from the mid-season World Cup break after their shaky start to 2022-23.

The former Reds defender said his old team “will try to become harder to beat” after the break, which will have been vital for Klopp.

Liverpool take on Manchester City in Thursday’s Carabao Cup clash in a game many expect to see plenty of fireworks on the touchline, though clubs were warned of “toxic behaviour” ahead of the Premier’s restart League.

Jamie Carragher thinks Liverpool would benefit most from the Premier League mid-season break

As part of Sky Sports’ coverage of the clash on Thursday, Carragher said: ‘Liverpool needed the break more than any other team, even though the last two results went to them.

‘The performance at Tottenham was good for an hour, but the performance against Southampton was not so good. He needs to be Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool again.

Klopp talked about a restart and I think they will try to be harder to beat. They have been good up front, but the problem has been defensively. You could see it before the break.

He added that Jurgen Klopp had spoken of a ‘reset’ and his team will try to be more difficult to beat

Having competed for four different trophies last season, and only losing the Premier League title race on the final day after a dramatic comeback from City, Liverpool got off to a less than ideal start to this spell.

The Reds improved as half-time approached with a dominating 3-1 win over Southampton.

Having failed to win in their first three games, the Reds now sit sixth with 22 points, 15 behind leaders Arsenal and 11 behind rivals City.

The team looks like a shadow of itself and is struggling to replicate the exploits of the team that reached the Champions League final last season, with many pointing to the aging midfield as the key problem area.

Carragher continued: “I think we’ve identified the problem Liverpool have in midfield and they’ve been linked to just about every midfielder under the sun.”

“I think they need to reinvigorate themselves in that position to get back to where they’ve been.

“For Liverpool, everyone has probably been scratching their heads over what happened, going from a team that almost won four trophies to fighting for the top four.

That is what will happen this season and all Liverpool fans will accept that at this point. The break will have been vital for Klopp.

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