Rio Ferdinand has criticised former Liverpool players Jamie Carragher and Graeme Souness for their behaviour following Liverpool’s 7-0 victory over Manchester United. The pair were smug on Sky Sports after the match, baiting Gary Neville and Roy Keane. Ferdinand took aim at Liverpool after they followed up that 7-0 win with a shock 1-0 defeat to Bournemouth. Speaking to FIVE, the former Manchester United defender said: “That is a small club mentality. That screams small club.” He then criticised Souness and Carragher by adding: “The way Souness and Carragher were celebrating, the way they were trying to antagonise the guys [Roy Keane and Gary Neville], and then their team goes and does that at the weekend. They should be ashamed of themselves.”
Souness and Neville were the main pair who butted heads after that match at Anfield, with the former United defender accusing him of ‘gloating’. Neville also called Jamie Carragher ‘James’, as he insisted the result was a mere ‘freak’ outcome. The 1-0 defeat to the Cherries suggest that 7-0 victory was a freak result and manager Jurgen Klopp admitted he was disappointed.
“What can I say? It was never really our game,” Klopp said. “We were dominant in the first half but mostly we put ball in at the wrong moment against a compact side. They had their counter-attacks they wanted to have. I really think the spaces we had to play were super clear, super open. The rest was more or less busy with covering other spaces, we didn’t use that often enough, didn’t enjoy the challenge to face a deep, compact side. It’s clear we cannot get through with all the balls but it was like we didn’t get through and things didn’t work out. Little things which make a massive difference and then we go 1-0 down, not helpful obviously in the counter-attack. They did the same stuff but it was successful enough because we didn’t defend it well and then I thought we started pretty well in the second half and then got the penalty and we missed it and after that we were in a real rush and didn’t create enough really and that’s it.”
That defeat dents Liverpool’s top four hopes and remain six points behind Tottenham for that final Champions League place. Attention for Liverpool turns to the Champions League and Real Madrid tonight, but the Reds trail 5-2 heading to the Bernabeu for the second leg of their last-16 clash.