Carra's 5 reasons for title wait

In an interview with The Daily Mail, Jamie Carragher selects a variety of 'top fives' including dinner party guests, teammates and reasons why Liverpool haven't won the league since 1990.

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Carra took an individual approach to his lists, often picking fewer than five so as to not dilute his answers. We've picked out some of his best lists below:

Top five reasons why the Liverpool music scene is better than Manchester...

I don't need five to explain this: we've got The Beatles. That's it. No 1, finished, argument over. It can't be beaten, can it? No matter what they do, they'll never beat that. No matter how hard they try, they'll never top that.  

Teammates who have had the biggest influence on you...

Paul Ince, John Barnes, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard.

Paul Ince was someone I looked up to. He was England's vice-captain and played in my position when I got in the team. I was in awe of him, as I was with John Barnes.

Michael had the same fire in his belly as I had at that age when we were coming through. Michael has had a lot of knocks and people criticised him an awful lot at the end when he was with Liverpool. He had such a desire to prove them wrong. He had that winning mentality.

As for Stevie, what can I say about him that I haven't already said? They'll build a statue of him outside Anfield when he finishes because he's done that much for the club.

Defenders you have ever seen...

Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, John Terry, Roberto Ayala, Marcel Desailly.

If you're surprised that I have included John Terry in my five, don't be. John Terry is just an unbelievable player. He gets a lot of stick but I would have him in my team all day long. He's got everything as a defender: strong, brave, brilliant on the ball, commanding, fearless, great passer. What a player!

Dinner party guests...

Paul McCartney, Tony Blair, Jose Mourinho.

I just think McCartney is brilliant. He is funny, he's the best musician in the world and he's from Liverpool. I've never met him but I'd love to.

Tony Blair gets a lot of criticism over what happened with Iraq. I'm not clever enough to go into detail about what happened but I've read his books and the pressure on him to make decisions at different times was absolutely astonishing.

Mourinho? He used to love winding Liverpool up but when you take a step back and look at it, what he was doing
was very funny. To hear him talking about football, his ideas and methods, would be fascinating. He's been that good and achieved that much, you'd just have to ask him "What's the secret?" It would be great to have him talking football.

Key factors why Liverpool haven't won the title since 1990...

Alex Ferguson, Roman Abramovich, Arsene Wenger, lack of killer instinct, the transfer market.

It's not just about us. You have to pay tribute to others teams. Alex Ferguson taking over Manchester United has to be a factor. He's so good at his job.

Other teams have probably had a better overall transfer record and then there is Abramovich.

I've got great respect for those Chelsea lads and John Terry and Frank Lampard are top, top players. But before Abramovich came, they were in a similar boat to us, just picking up cup competitions but never really threatening in the league. It was always Arsenal and Manchester United. But Abramovich took them up to a different level.

Suddenly, two teams had money - United and Chelsea. Since Abramovich came, Arsenal haven't won the title.

People criticise Wenger but before, you only had to beat one team with more money. Now you have to get the better of two, even three.

You used to be able to get the better of one if they had an off season but for two to get it wrong with their signings and poor form, is not going to happen.

The Manchester City situation is going to make things more complicated.

What gives you hope that Liverpool won't end up a backwater team, then?                             

You have just got to have that belief. We have always got ourselves back into it. But you just look at things now, it's harder. City are eventually going to get into the top four. I always thought that someone would have to make way and I felt it would be us or Arsenal. At the minute it is us.

I'd like to think we are a bigger club than Arsenal yet they are the ones still challenging United for the league. Wenger is undoubtedly another reason for us not winning the title.

When people talk about Liverpool not winning it in my time, it's important to point this out: we have been competing against the best-ever Manchester United with their best-ever manager. The best ever Chelsea with their best-ever manager and the best-ever Arsenal with their best ever manager.

I have been competing against the best those teams have ever had; they haven't been competing against Liverpool's best. There was a stage when Rafa was manager that we were in the top four or five teams in Europe. The only problem was that three were in the Premier League.

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