Replacing Jamie Carragher -- Over 17 seasons, a Liverpool record, Carragher made 737 appearances for the club including 150 in Europe, another Liverpool record. Such a pillar of the team is hard to replace. Liverpool signed three central defenders last summer after he retired; only one, Kolo Touré, has played substantial minutes.
Yet in one area where Carragher holds the club record, Liverpool has done a very good job of replacing his numbers this season.
Carragher scored more own goals than any other player in Liverpool history. His total of seven is also second in Premier League history -- behind Richard Dunne's 10 -- but it works out at less than one every 100 games.
On Sunday against Swansea, Martin Skrtel deflected a tame header by Wilfried Bony into his own net. Skrtel will hope the dubious goals panel rules that, since the header was on target, the goal should be credited to Bony, even though it almost certainly would not have gone in. If it is classified as an own goal, it will be Skrtel's third this season, in 25 starts. And none of those have been quite as spectacular own goal Touré scored in Liverpool's previous league game at Fulham. All in all, the Reds are shooting themselves in the net.
