Jamie Carragher has suggested that Luis Suarez’s ban for biting Branislav Ivanovic cost Liverpool the 2013/14 Premier League title.
The Uruguayan striker was handed a ten-game ban in April 2013 after biting the Chelsea defender.
That meant Suarez missed the opening matches of the 2013/14 campaign, where Liverpool missed out on the title by only two points to Manchester City.
Having dropped five points in the opening matches of the season that Suarez missed, Carragher believes that his ban may have cost Liverpool the title, inadvertently.
“When he came in the dressing room, Luis (Suarez) actually denied it at first, probably hoping the cameras hadn’t picked it up,” Carragher told Sky Sports’ The Football Show about the immediate aftermath following Suarez’s bite.
“I think it had a massive effect on Liverpool next season because Suarez got a seven, eight-game ban.
“I think he missed the first four or five games the following season when Liverpool almost won the title, Suarez was their best player.
“There was two games that Liverpool dropped points in, I think they lost to Southampton 1-0 and drew away at Swansea so five points dropped in the first four or five games and Luis Suarez didn’t play.
“The form he was in that season, there was a good chance he might have turned one of those games.
“That act and the ban he got probably effected Liverpool more next season as there wasn’t too much riding on that season before.”
He added: “He did it before at Ajax before he came, there was a situation after which pushed Liverpool to move him on, he wanted to go to Barcelona anyway and something happened at the World Cup.
“He gets frustrated, I’ve played alongside him, you know it’s wrong but you come out and defend your player and try to stick together as a club and support him.
“I think it affected him at the time.
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“Having watched him against Liverpool last season, I’m not sure there’s a player who has wanted to win so much…we talk about crossing the line, he does it numerous times.
“Coming up against a former club in Liverpool, he wasn’t bothered about the Kop giving him stick or getting Andy Robertson sent off or antagonising Liverpool players.
“Although it annoyed me watching it, I admired it too because that’s what made him such a fantastic player, he was a win-at-all-costs man.”
Jamie Carragher reveals Luis Suarez reaction in Liverpool dressing room after bite incident - Liverpool Echo
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