Carragher identifies two Liverpool signings who were "really poor" from day one

Jamie Carragher has recalled how a couple of former Liverpool midfielders overcame difficult starts at the club to eventually win over the squad and the fans with their performances.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Carragher said the squad were less than impressed with £5.6million arrival Mohamed Sissoko when he signed from Valencia in 2005, shortly after Liverpool had won the Champions League in Istanbul.

When asked about players improving after a period of settling in, Carragher said: “More often than not at Liverpool the top players settled really quickly, but I can think of a couple. I think Momo Sissoko was one.

“He ended up being a really good player for us in midfield. A destructive type of player, not great technically.

“But in his first few training sessions he looked really poor with the ball.

“People always wonder what it’s like when new signings come in, and pro footballers at the top clubs, or at any level, we’re all the same as when you’re with your mates at five a side.

“If someone comes in new, and the first few passes they give it away or they’re struggling with the ball, you’re all looking at each other thinking ‘oh what have we done? What have we got here?’

“I think that was definitely the case with Momo Sissoko.”

Sissoko went on to play 87 times for the Reds, picking up the FA Cup in 2006, and was something of a fans’ favourite at Anfield prior to a 2008 move to Juventus.

Prior to his arrival, Carragher says German midfielder Dietmar Hamann took a while to settle into life on Merseyside following an£8million move from Newcastle in 1999.

“I think Didi Hamann was one as well,” continued Carragher.

“It’s not that the looked a poor player, but what he did at Liverpool… his first season it did take him a bit of time to show why we’d spent that money on him and what job he was going to do in the team.

“Then obviously he became a revelation and was part of that successful era of Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez.

“But in the first season you were sort of looking at it and thinking that you needed a little bit more, and that’s what Didi provided.

“But I’d say Sissoko was the big one where you think, within six months you think ‘wow. he looks a good powerful Premier League player.”