Jamie Carragher compares Adam Lallana to an unlikely Champions League winning hero

Jamie Carragher played with some brilliant players in his time at Anfield.

He also played with some terrible rubbish. But mostly he worked with players who had bags of potential, but didn’t always produce on the biggest stage, until a famous night in Istanbul in 2005. A team that Rafa Benitez cobbled together in his first season lifted the European Cup, and men like Djimi Traore and Igor Biscan hoisted the most famous club trophy around. There are definite similarities with the current Liverpool squad, who seem to have lots of top talent, but never quite gel together for a consistent run of form. Despite all that the club did reach the League Cup final this season and record an impressive 3-0 win over Manchester City midweek. Ahead of their crucial trip to face Crystal Palace in the Premier League, Carragher feels one man in particular reminds him of a Champions league winner hero from 2005. Adam Lallana grabbed a goal and assist in the win at Anfield, and in his Daily Mail column,  the ex-Liverpool centre-half feels the England man reminds him of one of the more talented, and infuriating players of the Benitez era.

“Lallana reminds me, in some ways, of my old team-mate Vladimir Smicer. He was very good between the boxes and technically he was excellent — you would see that every day in training — but at times he lacked conviction in decisive moments. “If Lallana — a player who I like — wants to be part of Jurgen Klopp’s plans in the future, the performance he produced against City has to be replicated. There could be no better place for him to make another statement than at Crystal Palace.”

[caption id="attachment_68341" align="alignnone" width="600"] ISTANBUL, TURKEY - MAY 25: Liverpool defender John Arne Riise of Norway lifts the European Cup after Liverpool won the European Champions League against AC Milan on May 25, 2005 at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)[/caption]