(Guardian Unlimited) Jamie Carragher is the supporting actor who keeps stealing the film. And yet the Academy refuses to acknowledge him in an appropriate fashion. No matter how many times Carragher defies the world's greatest attackers, the praise he receives remains resolutely patronising and faint - as if the only reason he excels is because Liverpool's defensive nature means he is given a showy role as the backs-to-the-wall hero.

If it was that easy, everybody would be doing it. All evidence gathered over the last three seasons of the Champions League, football's most relevant genre, suggests that Carragher is a defender of the truest substance. Paradoxically, he is one of the best defenders in Europe and yet only the fourth-best in England, behind John Terry, Rio Ferdinand and Jonathan Woodgate (or, before him, Sol Campbell). Carragher has always lurked in the shadow of Terry, apparently the Stuart MacGill to his Shane Warne; even in 2005, when he inspired Liverpool to the Champions League, it was Terry who was won Uefa's Best Defender award. Yet his performances against the very best sides have been of a consistently higher standard.

Labels: Carragher, Liverpool FC