20 September 2023 , 08:39
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Micah Richards hilariously mocked Liverpool's lack of Champions League football this season by savaging Reds legend Jamie Carragher, who instantly hit back.
Liverpool's fifth-placed finish in the English top flight last term means that Jurgen Klopp's side are being made to play in Europe's second-rate competition, the Europa League. Before fixtures get started this Thursday, with Klopp and co-heading to Austria to face LASK, the Champions League has already got underway and Carragher is on punditry duty covering the group-stage openers.
Joining him on Tuesday was regular colleague Richards, who's renowned for his hilarious jibes while also taking a fair few burns. The ex-Manchester City defender's latest came at the very end of CBS Sports' coverage, interrupting host Kate Abdo and turning to former Reds centre-back Carragher to say: "Can I just reference? We've been on air for five hours, and we've not actually referenced you should be doing Thursday nights."
Carragher barely needed a beat before firing straight back at Richards, telling him as the pair chuckled: "Well it'd just be nice if you did Wednesday nights. I'll do Thursday if you do Wednesday!"
Hinting at Richards' absence on Wednesday, when both Manchester United and Arsenal are in action, Carragher will be putting his feet up on Thursday for Liverpool's trip to Linz. Klopp's team are aiming to win the competition as part of a resurgent season, with the final set to be played in Dublin next May.
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The Liverpool boss recently laid out his ambitions for the campaign and told TNT Sports: "First and foremost, I think we all have to make sure that we all respect the competition in the right manner, that we respect the opponents in the right manner. Wherever we go it will be a massive game for the teams, and everybody who comes to Anfield it will be a massive game.
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"In the Champions League [it was] the same but it will be here as well, and we have to be 100 per cent ready for that. We want to go as far as somehow possible.
"I would love to go to the final, obviously, but I have no clue if we can reach that because there will be a lot of fantastic football teams in between us and that target, so we have to make sure we perform."
During the group stage, with the Reds drawn against LASK, French side Toulouse and Belgian outfit Union Saint-Gilloise, Klopp will likely experiment. But the German won't be making changes for the sake of it, saying: "If there will be kids involved that depends on the level the kids can show in that moment.
"We have real talent there, but it is not experimental. I think if we don't get hit by an injury crisis then we should have enough players to field Thursday and Sunday a top team, and that's pretty much the idea. Then we will see how we build a squad."