Carragher has faith in England´s youth

Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has backed England’s young players to fill the void left by the likes of Rio Ferdinand and John Terry.

Carragher was a member of the ‘golden generation’ – a tag he referred to as ‘silly’ – of players that travelled to Euro 2004 and the World Cup in 2006.

The 34-year-old has not played for his country since 2010 having stated that he would prefer to concentrate on club football, and while Ferdinand has similarly faded out of the national team picture, Terry announced his retirement earlier in October.

“The big hitters have moved on now,” Carragher said. “Rio and John Terry have been the mainstays for a long time. They will be missed. I was part of that squad and group of players with the silly tag of the ‘golden generation’.

“I don’t think we have the players to replace them just yet but there are young players coming through who will hopefully fill that role.

“The job of (manager) Roy (Hodgson) and those players is to get to Brazil and take it further when we get there. I’m sure at this time next season there will be a player for England we haven’t thought of right now. That is how quickly things change.”

Carragher identified Tuesday’s World Cup qualifying match against Poland in Warsaw as one of England’s key qualification fixtures.

Having been held to a draw at Wembley by Ukraine, the veteran says it is now vital that the Three Lions pick up points against the teams likely to challenge them at the top of the group on the road.

“The Poland and Ukraine away games were something you looked at when the draw was made,” he said.

“You would like to get three or four points from those after drawing against Ukraine at home.”