LIVERPOOL MANAGER BRENDAN Rodgers praised Jamie Carragher after the defender’s final Merseyside derby at Anfield on Sunday.

Both Liverpool and Everton had chances in a hard-fought 0-0 draw but neither team could find a breakthrough, leaving Rodgers to applaud Carragher for his part in an impressive defensive display from the home side.

“He is  colossal in terms of his performance, he turns up every single day prepared to work. His motivation has never dampened, he’s a top professional,” Rodgers said.

“I’m very fortunate to have had the chance to work with him this year. He’s been absolutely incredible and today his performance level was outstanding. We will miss him when he goes.”

However, Rodgers stressed that he was slightly frustrated at his team’s overall performance in what was a relatively-even game.

“It was a little bit frantic – I thought in particular for ourselves first-half – we never had any fluency in our game. We had some little spells but we weren’t as good in the first-half,” he added.

“I thought second-half we were much better, we were on the front foot a lot more and we created a couple of chances, but both teams were competitive and if you can’t win it you’ve got to make sure you don’t lose it.”

Everton were left to rue their luck after Sylvain Distin had a second-half header controversially ruled out, but the Liverpool boss feels referee Michael Oliver made the correct decision.

He explained: “When I’d seen it initially, the referee had blown up while the ball was in the air, so I don’t think it was a case where he’s (Distin) made the header and then it was disallowed. I think you see it clearly on the images that when the ball is on it’s way he’s blown for the foul so it was obviously not going to be a goal.”

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