Gary Neville causes a stir by omitting Liverpool star from Team of the Year

Jamie Carragher was left stunned by Sky Sports colleague Gary Neville following the former Manchester United defender's decision to omit a particular Liverpool star from his Team of the Year.

As we head into January, it's time for the 2023 Team of the Year vote run by EA Sports, football fans able to select their best starting lineup of players based on last year's performances.

Only certain players are up for selection, with Liverpool's representatives in the vote being Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah.

When selecting their joint Team of the Year, Neville and Carragher disagreed on several selections, including who to pick at right-back.

Carragher opted to choose Liverpool defender Alexander-Arnold, but the former Red was left flabbergasted by Neville's decision to pick Manchester City defender John Stones at right-back instead.

The fact that Stones played almost exclusively at centre-back last season, although he did regularly step into midfield, seemingly didn't play a part in Neville's thinking, with Carragher quick to confront his fellow pundit regarding his decision.

Speaking on Sky Sports, Neville stated: "We are disputing this currently. He's [Carragher] gone for Trent. I mean, to be honest with you, Trent's had a great start to the season.

"But I thought Liverpool conceded quite a lot of goals at the end of last season. I think he conceded 43 goals in the 39 games."

Carragher was quick to interject, forcing Neville to name who he had chosen at right-back, the former Man Utd man eventually saying: "I've gone for a player who was a flexible defender, John Stones, who was moving into midfield, he was pushing back into centre-back, he played right-back a few times.

"He won the treble. City only conceded 17 goals in the 27 games he played. He's had a fundamental part in this year's football with Manchester City and what they've done. So, for me, I just thought that I can't really go for Trent because of what Liverpool have done in the last 12 months."

In fairness to Neville, he had initially wanted to choose Man City's Kyle Walker at right-back, but the defender was bizarrely unavailable for selection in the vote.

Carragher agreed that he also would have chosen Walker ahead of Alexander-Arnold, but opting for Stones when Walker was not available remains an odd choice at right-back.

In the end, the decision was made to choose Alexander-Arnold in Neville and Carragher's combined XI, with Alisson the only other Liverpool player making the cut.

The EAFC Team of the Year vote is open to anyone, officially closing on 17 January.