Liverpool missed out on a Premier League title in 2013-14 under Brendan Rodgers
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has claimed that Luis Suarez cost the Reds a Premier League title.
The Uruguay striker is regarded as one of the best to have played in the Premier League, despite spending only four years with the Reds.
The forward joined Barcelona after almost helping the Reds land the Premier League in 2014, however, Carragher believes that him missing games at the start of that campaign cost Liverpool.
Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool might have lost the title with that infamous ‘slip’ from Steven Gerrard, but Carragher also puts some of the blame on Suarez’s antics.
The Uruguay forward bit Branislav Ivanovic in April 2013 during a 2-2 draw at Anfield.
The striker was then banned for 10 matches, which saw him miss six games in the next campaign.
Speaking about that Chelsea game in 2013 where Suarez also scored to make it 2-2, Carragher told Sky Sports that he wasn’t even aware of the incident (h/t Mirror):
“I wasn’t aware of any of this but got back into the dressing room and then word comes in that Luiz has bit Ivanovic.
“Someone asked him and he denied it. I think
on that, that it cost Liverpool the league the next season.”
Dropped points cost the Reds
The legendary defender added that Suarez missed six games, and the Uruguayan was the best player in the competition as he scored in almost every game.
The Englishman claimed that Liverpool’s loss to Southampton with Suarez would have been avoided, and it were such fine margins that cost them the title:
“In the first four games he missed, Liverpool lost 1-0 to Southampton and drew at Swansea. They dropped five points.
“If Suarez is playing, they probably win both of them, but let’s be conservative, you beat Southampton at home.
“You don’t realise at the time, looking back now, and the season he had the next year, player of the year, football writers’ player of the year, I think if he’d been playing in those games it would’ve been different.”
Suarez ended up joining Barcelona where he won several titles but the 2013-14 miss will be painful for the Uruguayan.
After a 3-3 draw with Crystal Palace, the striker was seen crying on the pitch and he had to be consoled by Gerrard.
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Last season they missed out on the title by one point despite losing just a solitary Premier League game all season.