JAMIE CARRAGHER insists Luis Suarez deserves to be named Player of the Year after producing another man-of-the-match display against Aston Villa.
The Liverpool defender was full of praise for the Uruguayan striker and says the 26-year-old is close behind Steven Gerrard as the best player he has playes alongside at Anfield.
Suarez was instrumental in the Reds’ comeback at Villa Park yesterday as goals from Jordan Henderson and captain Gerrard overturned Christian Benteke’s first-half strike.
Victory sees Brendan Rodgers’ men stay in seventh but the three points keep alive hopes of European qualification.
And pivotal to a top five finish is Suarez with Carragher saying there is no argument about who deserves to land the top individual honours at the end of the season.
Robin Van Perise, Gareth Bale and Michu are the others thought to be in the running but the Liverpool legend says his team-mate must be given the nod.
“Every side has a couple of players who you hope can turn things for you and he does it on a weekly basis,” he said.
“I’ve played with a lot of top players here and I’ve always said Stevie is the best player I’ve ever played with but Luis is on his shoulder. He is close and we are all desperate for him to win Player of the Year and he deserves it.”
Carragher also reserved praise for 20-year-old Brazilian Philippe Coutinho who provided the assist for Jordan Henderson’s equalising goal.
The former Inter Milan forward produced another encouraging display and Carragher believes his arrival has given Liverpool something they have been missing in the first-half of the campaign.
“I thought he did well,” added Carragher. “He always looked dangerous and when he got the ball I always thought something was going to happen.
“The ball he put through for the first goal is not something we’ve really had from out wide. It’s the run for his chance as well, and though he’s missed, we need the wide men to not just to be staying on that touchline.”
Carragher, who plans to retire at the end of the season, was delighted by Liverpool’s show of resolve in the West Midlands because their ability to fight back from going behind has been doubted.
“It wasn’t looking good and that’s something that has been questioned about us over the last few years, going behind in games and coming back,” he said. “Following on from Southampton we spoke a lot about making sure we put on a performance and being ready from the start.
“We started quite well by keeping the ball but didn’t do too much to hurt them. We had a couple of half chances but to be fair to Villa they started to put pressure on us for 15 or 20 minutes and had a few chances and Pepe made a couple of good saves. When it’s like that you’re just thinking ‘let’s get to half-time at 0-0’ but they then get a goal and then went in 1-0.
“We have come out a different side in the second half and you can look at the reasons why but that doesn’t really matter now because we went on to get the three points. That win makes Southampton look like a blip.”
LIVERPOOL’S players dedicated their win over Aston Villa to the memory of a Reds fan.
Jamie Carragher says the squad were thinking of Paul Buckley who passed away recently.
“Paul was a big Red and we want to dedicate our win against Aston Villa to him,” he said.
