Gerrard names ‘ricochet merchant’ that Carra hated playing

Steven Gerrard has named Luis Suarez as his greatest Liverpool teammate and recalled how Jamie Carragher hated training against him.

Gerrard and Suarez played 95 Liverpool matches together across three and a half years, winning 46 and almost delivering the Premier League title in 2014 before the latter’s departure for Barcelona.

When asked previously, Gerrard has always favoured Fernando Torres and Michael Owen as his best attacking partnerships at Anfield.

But in an interview with Gary Neville for The Overlap, Gerrard could not look past Suarez as his greatest overall teammate.

“I get asked this question all the time. All the time. Both phenomenal, but I’d say Suarez, just because he had everything and, I mean, how long have you got to describe him?” he said when asked to pick between Suarez and Torres.

Asked whether he was the best he ever played with at Liverpool, Gerrard simply answered: “Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I played with some top players – you know, your Alonsos of this world, Mascheranos, Torres’ – but Suarez was just different. You just felt, no matter who you were playing, you just had a feeling he was gonna win you the game, every game, didn’t matter who it was.

“Straight away – first session, second session, it was almost like he trained the way he played. I remember walking off one of the main sessions that we’d done with Carra, and me and Carra were like, ‘my God, this fella’s got bundles, plenty’.

Carragher claims ex-Liverpool star was ‘best in the world’ for a few years

“I remember Carra saying to me, ‘I don’t wanna play against him every day in training,’ he was that intense in training, and he could embarrass you. Even embarrass you with stuff that I don’t even think he knew he was doing. He was a ricochet merchant, he’d run over you, he’d dominate you, he’d bully you.

“There were a few incidents that were tough as a friend of Luis. I tried to be a friend to him and advise him. I’m a bit older than him obviously, a bit more experienced. I had a similar situation like when he had a situation with Brendan Rodgers when I tried to be a bit of a go-between, but there’s certain situations where you have to back away and let him and his people deal with it themselves. Not that I didn’t want to help him, but sometimes the situation’s bigger than what it was.

“But the guy I know, and the character I know, is different than the incidents he’s had and I’m sure he’s matured a lot on the back of those experiences.”