Liverpool centre-back Jamie Carragher has hailed his captain, Steven Gerrard as "probably the best player in the world" and believes he can fill the second striker role for England if Wayne Rooney fails to reach match-fitness in time for the World Cup Finals.

Reds defender Carragher is full of praise for Gerrard's inspirational performance, recently scoring two goals to rescue Liverpool from FA Cup final defeat against West Ham.

It echoed the way, in Istanbul last May, he helped the Reds come from three goals behind against AC Milan in last season's Champions League final when he played in the forward position.

Carragher, speaking while at England's training camp in Portugal, said: "We've been involved in a few close finals.

"There's the Alaves one in the UEFA Cup, which people seem to forget was an unbelievable game, and everyone remembers the Champions League final.

"We always get to these finals by keeping it tight and nicking games - and then in the final itself all hell breaks loose!

"It's become like a kid's game in the schoolyard - end to end. You're so desperate not to lose that you probably throw caution to the winds.

"In the last two finals with Milan and West Ham we've conceded the first goal so then you've got to chase things really hard - and that's why quite a lot of us ended up with cramp in the FA Cup final.

"It will be the same in the World Cup especially at the knockout stages. I'm sure in the later stages of games you've just got to throw everything you can at it and really go for it.

"Fortunately, the player who has helped Liverpool to turn around the last two finals is English and will be there in Steven Gerrard."

Carragher continued: "I'd put Steven in the top five or six players in the world. In my opinion, I would say he was probably the best.

"I don't think anyone else could play for Liverpool and do more than he does. Within that five or six top players in the world there's also another England player in Wayne Rooney so that shows there's a lot of quality in the squad.

"Can he play the second striker role? That's where he played in the second half of the Champions League final. We changed the formation, he went up behind the striker and look at the damage he did.

"It's the manager's choice whether he is played there at all this summer but he has played that position before and played it fairly well."

Bookmark/Search this post with:

delicious | digg | google | yahoo | technorati