• Premier League

Carragher questions Suarez move to Barcelona

Jamie Carragher has warned Luis Suarez he could suffer the same sort of post-Liverpool slump as Fernando Torres and Michael Owen and believes the striker would have been better off going to Real Madrid.

On Friday, Liverpool confirmed an agreement has been reached with Barcelona for the sale of Suarez, who is serving a four-month ban from football for biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini.

Torres and Owen were both at the peak of their powers at Liverpool but went into decline after leaving the club and Carragher feels Suarez may go the same way if he doesn't receive the same level of support from the Barcelona fans as he did at Anfield.

"During my 16 years at Liverpool, Suarez, Owen and Torres were the three best strikers I played alongside (Robbie Fowler was not at his peak when I was making my way in the first team), but Suarez was top of that all-star list. Luis used to do things on the pitch that were so audacious, you could only laugh in amazement," Carragher wrote in his Mail on Sunday column.

"But now here's the question: will he get the same kind of adulation in Nou Camp as he did at Anfield?

"Or will he end up like Owen and Torres, searching for affection and struggling to replicate the devastating goals-per-game ratio they had in their Merseyside pomp? There was a reason Owen and Torres never recreated what they had done for Liverpool."

Carragher added: "I thought a move to Real Madrid would have been more natural for him. Yes, Ronaldo is the star but Luis is a better player than Karim Benzema and he would have played in his rightful position - straight down the middle."

The former Liverpool centre-back has also warned the club about how they re-invest the money received for Suarez, reported to be in the region of £75 million.

He said: "What they must make sure does not happen is falling into the trap Tottenham did 12 months ago of spending a giant windfall on players about whom nobody is sure where they play or what they do. They have to use this finance to build on the foundations Suarez helped lay last season."

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