Liverpool’s Carragher heaps praise on Rodgers for blooding youngsters

Jamie Carragher has praised Brendan Rodgers for showing the courage to turn to Liverpool’s youngsters this season.

The Liverpool boss fielded a youthful-looking line-up for the Capital Cup One third-round tie at the Hawthorns, with Nuri Sahin’s brace securing the Reds’ progress.

Rodgers also entrusted the club’s up-and-coming stars, such as Suso and Andre Wisdom, with starting spots in a 5-3 victory over Young Boys in their opening Europa League game.

“It was a fantastic night to be associated with the club,” said Carragher.

“We believe we have good young players. You can have the best kids and academy in the world, but if the manager isn’t brave enough to play them, then it doesn’t make any difference.

“You have to give the manager credit for having the balls to play them.

“It isn’t just the ability they have, it’s the character as well. It’s not just against West Brom they showed that, it was last week as well in the Europa League.

“I’m sure a lot of people looked at the team-sheet and thought it was going to be a difficult night for us.

“After the first 10 minutes, maybe they were being proved right, but credit to the young players here.”

Carragher was also keen to stress the success of Liverpool’s academy is not a recent phenomenon, pointing to the club’s previous youth graduates Steven Gerrard, Robbie Fowler, and Michael Owen.

“All the people at the academy do a super job. I’ve always thought that. Let’s not forget what Steve Heighway [former player and youth-team coach] did here.

“We had Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen, Steve McManaman and players like that. We shouldn’t forget because things like that do get forgotten by ¬certain ¬people. Let’s not forget the people who were here in the past as well.”