Liverpool legend and Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher has revealed that he has pleaded to summer signing Xherdan Shaqiri to beat Everton in the Premier League on Sunday.
Carragher caught up with the Swiss international following Liverpool's 2-1 loss in the Champions League to PSG on Wednesday night. Shaqiri was a second half substitute in Paris, but will hope to play a more prominent role in Sunday's crucial Merseyside derby.
"If you want to be popular with the Liverpool fans it's the derby or Manchester United, it's as simple as that."
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Jan Molby on what it means to score against @Everton.
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Since signing for the Reds from Stoke City last summer, he has appeared nine times in the Premier League, scoring twice and assisting twice more. However, Shaqiri will get his first taste of a Merseyside derby on Sunday as Everton make the particularly short trip to Anfield.
Speaking on the All Together Now podcast, Carragher admitted that he met up with the Swiss winger outside the Parc des Princes on Wednesday night. Having participated in this unique derby 30 times himself, the former Liverpool centre-back explained to the derby rookie just how important the three points are in a game of this magnitude.
“I mean there’s not some big speech (tell the non-local lads) you give them just constantly tell them that at Everton you can’t lose,” Carragher said.
“I pulled Shaqiri over on the way out, yeah, I was in the mixed zone.
If Liverpool manage to beat their bitter rivals this weekend, they will move 14 points clear of the Toffees in the league, whose ambitions are somewhat more humble than those of their Anfield counterparts.
Source : 90min