Reds left to fill big gap at back

Liverpool 1 QPR 0

Local boy Carragher, who played 38 times for England in a career that spanned 16 years, will not be wearing the familiar 23 shirt when Brendan Rodgers’ side kick off their Premier League campaign in August.

Instead, the Bootle-born centre-half who became a firm Kop favourite, will be in his suit in a television studio, imparting his football knowledge to a new army of armchair fans as Sky’s newest pundit.

While he will long savour the memory of his moving send-off, the modest centre-half would have liked to have left with a farewell goal, but his second-half shot from 30 yards cannoned off a post with England goalkeeper Robert Green beaten and the crowd holding its breath.

Carragher, who scored only five goals in a brilliant Anfield career that took in a Champions League, a Uefa Cup and two FA Cup wins, recalled: “I scored at the Kop end on my debut and I’d have loved to finish it off with a goal!”

His manager, who must fill the yawning gap in Liverpool’s defence next season as he bids to improve on the club’s final seventh placing, took Carragher off five minutes from the end so he could enjoy a huge personal ovation from the sell-out 44,792 crowd.

They had already serenaded him with their tribute song We all dream of a team of Carraghers” and now the whole of Anfield rose to salute the man seen by many as the perfect club servant.

Rodgers said: “He’s one you don’t usually want to come off, and I was frightened in case I forgot to do that!

“He’s an incredible player, a colossal player and still fit and strong at 35. My biggest regret is not having longer to work with him, I would have liked that.

“I don’t think there’s many about like him, what he’s got is unique, but all great players come to the end and time moves on. We need to find a good one to come in and it won’t be easy.”

Even Rangers boss Harry Redknapp, long resigned to his team’s fate as they made bottom place their own, weighed in, saying: “He’s been fantastic — a great pro, a great fella, and a great player. He’s everything that this football club stands for, he’s top class and he deserved all that today.”

The 35-year-old defender ran out to a guard of honour from Liverpool and QPR players and received a memento in a presentation from Rangers’ Liverpool-born captain Clint Hill, as well as a club award from ’60s idol Ian Callaghan.

Callaghan, a winger under pioneering manager Bill Shankly, is the only player with more Liverpool appearances than Carragher’s 737 total. He called the Liverpool captain “a legend, one of the greatest players ever to play for Liverpool. He’s been a fantastic ambassador for this club and besides that, he’s a fantastic guy”.

Liverpool, already assured of seventh place, threatened goals — Philippe Coutinho had a header over the line that wasn’t given, Stewart Downing smacked a shot against the outside of a post — but finally had to settle for Coutinho’s perfectly-placed 30-yard shot after 22 minutes to secure the points, with Carragher’s final flourish thwarted by the woodwork.

Rodgers, who had the bonus of a fine debut from 17-year-old winger Jordan Ibe, added: “Because of Jamie’s warrior spirit, a lot of his technical quality gets overlooked. A goal would have been a lovely touch to round off the day.”

Redknapp, whose unhappiness with some of his players has been well documented, faces a hard summer of recruitment and readjustment for the Championship after his team were relegated with only three wins all season.

The former Tottenham and West Ham manager warned: “It won’t be easy getting out of the Championship, there are a lot of big, quality clubs down there, the Leeds Uniteds and others.

“The squad wasn’t good enough this season, we never had any strikers. There was a big gulf against Liverpool. I just want to get a group in who are pleased to play football and take pride in what they do. But it won’t be easy to shift some players.”