Jamie Carragher has insisted he 'can't win' after the Liverpool legend was accused of being biased towards his former club
After Liverpool lost the Carabao Cup final, last month, Carragher paid tribute to Newcastle United for 'battering' his former side and suggested the Magpies should have won three or four nil at Wembley. The Scouser even declared he 'absolutely loved' Eddie Howe.
However, having noted how Liverpool were 'poor' away at Paris Saint-Germain a week-and-a-half earlier, Carragher said he could 'understand that in terms of the opposition' before adding that Newcastle were only a 'good Premier League team'. With tongue firmly in cheek, Carragher did not exactly hide his allegiances when the former England international asked why the FA did not appoint Howe instead of Thomas Tuchel because 'he probably wouldn't have done this today' and the ex-defender even took aim at co-commentator Gary Neville for urging Newcastle to 'take it to the corner' in the closing stages.
Carragher, more recently, chuckled when he asked if Bruno Guimaraes could really win the title with Newcastle after Craig Bellamy suggested as much on Monday Night Football. Bellamy, in response, said Newcastle could challenge if 'PSR allowed them to spend like the others have been able to', which was the cue for Sky to cut to an advert break.
"People say I'm biased towards Liverpool," Carragher told the Overlap fan debate. "But I can assure you if you look at my social media, I have a lot of Liverpool fans say, 'No he goes the other way to prove he's not biased'. You're like, 'You can't win'.
"If you look at social media, no matter who the co-commentator is, and you have two sets of supporters, say it's [Aston] Villa v Newcastle, they're both convinced you're against their team. You can't win.
"As a co-commentator, the best bit about it is a last-minute goal. You've got to reflect the stadium. You've got to go mad. So I do a lot of Liverpool games and Liverpool score a lot of late goals. They did under [Jurgen] Klopp and they win most of the time.
"Liverpool don't lose that often and if they do have a spell, I'll be getting accused of being too critical maybe by Liverpool supporters. So I've got to the stage where I did think about it where I was like, 'Am I too far the other way sometimes? Am I too hard on Liverpool if they're not doing well?'
"In the end, I've just thought, 'I'm just going to say what I think and if subconsciously I am biased to Liverpool on something or I maybe get more excited with a goal, it's me. That's the way I am. I don't get bothered by social media now.'"
Although Carragher did not tip Newcastle to better last season's seventh-placed finish in his season preview, and even backed West Ham to be a European contender ahead of the black-and-whites, the 47-year-old has since revised his predictions. Carragher has now backed Newcastle to qualify for the Champions League.
Newcastle are in the middle of a Champions League push and fans can watch the big games with Sky Sports' discounted TV bundle.
The Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle is now £35 and includes more than 1,000 live matches each season across the Premier League, EFL and more.
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