Jamie Carragher appears to echo Arne Slot’s ‘honest’ point that he keeps telling his Liverpool players - opinion
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Arne Slot has been demanding this from his Liverpool players all summer long.
The Reds romped to the Premier League title last season and after spending a record-breaking amount of money in the transfer window, they are looking to go back-to-back.
Slot’s first campaign in charge of Liverpool was pretty plain sailing and there were very few negatives to take from their year as a whole.
However, being the perfectionist he is, the Dutchman found one thing that really got under his skin about his players last season, and he reiterated his point at the beginning of the new one.
And now, Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher appears to have supported the Reds boss with his claims, although he made it a little more extreme.
Photo by DARREN STAPLES/AFP via Getty Images
There is no doubting that throughout time, football has got considerably softer and nowadays, almost everything seems like a foul.
But, to actually convince the referee, players are almost given no choice but to fall to the floor and make the most of every slight touch.
This is something Slot has told his players in the past, with the Dutchman begging his players to “make a little bit more” from fouls as he believes his side are too honest.
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Now, Carragher seems to have echoed that point when discussing on The Overlap this topic, with the scouser insisting that he would want his attacking players to make the most of every opportunity they got.
“I think we’re all cheats.
We are trying to continually influence a referee as a player,” Carragher said.
“I’m not against players going down, but I don’t like diving.
Use your brain!”
He finished by saying: “It’s top level football, top level sport, and I would always encourage my attacking player, if a defender makes a silly tackle, do not try to play this game of Mr honesty.”
Despite Slot’s message, Liverpool players might not even need to do what he says as they are still fouled a lot more than most other teams.
According to Statsmuse, the Reds are the joint-fifth most fouled team in the league this season with 36, level with Fulham and Everton.
However, last season he may have had a point as Liverpool ranked 19th in the league for most fouls won with 359, 139 less than first place Aston Villa.
Of course, nobody wants teams to cheat, but it will be interesting to see how the Reds now navigate things on the pitch with their manager watching on with a critical eye.