Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher made 739 appearances for Liverpool as a defender - but that wasn’t always the case.
The 43-year-old from Bootle joined the Reds’ academy as a 10-year-old, before attending Lilleshall, the FA’s school of excellence, as a teenager.
Michael Owen, Sol Campbell and Jermain Defoe were others who turned up at the footballing school in Shropshire throughout the 1990’s, but when Carragher arrived he was on a different career path.
One of Liverpool ’s greatest-ever defenders, he spoke about how he spent his younger days occupying centre-backs and was late adapting to his more natural position.
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“I was a centre forward until the age of 16, 17. My first game for Liverpool reserves was as a striker,” he told the Football Cliches Podcast .
“When I was a kid I was a number nine, I was quick, I was a goalscorer, broke all the records," he said.
“Then I went to the national school at Lilleshall at 14 as a centre forward and I was a late developer physically so I couldn’t run away from anyone or beat people with pace, strength, whatever.
“So I then took up the between the lines role as it's now called, so I was a hold up player, so I was always coming to feet then.”
Carragher admitted that he would have had no long-term career as a goalscorer, as his position gradually changed over time before settling into defence.
His early striking instincts weren’t on display very often in a Liverpool shirt either, scoring just four goals for the Reds.
However, Carragher revealed that he did manage to keep one of his future team-mates out of the England youth side.
“This is a feather in my cap by the way. I was keeping Emile Heskey out of the England under 16s team,” he said.
“There was no way I could have carried on as a centre forward because I just didn’t have the pace or the sort of dribbling ability.
“I could hold the ball up, bring people into play but I was just slowly getting further back.”
