Criticism leads to England fear factor, says Jamie Carragher

Tenterhooks: Jamie Carragher came out of international retirement when he was selected by England manager Fabio Capello for last year's World Cup campaign in South Africa
11 April 2012

Former England defender Jamie Carragher admits players suffer from a fear factor when they are playing for the national team.

The Liverpool player came out of international retirement when he was selected by England manager Fabio Capello for last year's World Cup campaign in South Africa.

However, England experienced a woeful tournament and crashed out 4-1 to Germany in the last 16, leading to a torrent of criticism for both players and management.

Carragher though claimed players are on tenterhooks when they play for England and feel less pressure when appearing for their clubs.

"One mistake and you could be absolutely slaughtered," Carragher told BBC Radio 5 live.

"At your club, you know you will not be criticised as much and perhaps three days later there will be another game. With England, it could be months before you have another fixture. There is a fear at times when playing for England."

He added: "The intensity of the press does get to the players.

"Sometimes I think players would prefer the press guy to think they had played well, rather than the manager."

Carragher also claimed the players were bored in South Africa where they spent most of their day in a hotel, saying: "You stay in a hotel all day but you are at a World Cup for a long time and should be able to experience different things.

"I wouldn't want players holed up. Take away the boredom, embrace the country we are in more. You never see anything."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in