Former Liverpool duo Jamie Carragher and Xabi Alonso have reunited to discuss their playing days for the club, reliving the first time they had met while playing for the Reds

Xabi Alonso has revealed that his mutual love of watching La Liga helped him quickly become friends with Jamie Carragher when the pair first met at Liverpool.

The duo played alongside each other 199 times for the Reds, lasting from 2004 until 2009, during a time when the club was still rebuilding toward the very top in all competitions. There was some success along the way, most notably the Champions League triumph in Alonso's very first season, as well as an FA Cup, a UEFA Super Cup, and the Community Shield.

That generation of players were clearly all deep thinkers when it came to the tactical side of the game, with the likes of Steven Gerrard and Alonso trying their hand at management, with the latter now in charge at Chelsea, while Carragher regularly uses his own tactical knowledge to dissect games on TV coverage in the United Kingdom.

To get to the point where they can share such knowledge, there needs to be a clear love and passion for the game that triumphs over anything else.

The pair had clearly shown plenty of that in their playing days, as both Alonso and Carragher reflected on the first time they met, and how a mutual love for watching La Liga games made them close friends.

Speaking on Sky Sports, Carragher said on his old teammate's arrival: "I remember Rafa [Benitez] said, 'Oh, we got this player, Alonso.' And I didn't know Rafa too well. He'd only been there six, eight weeks."

"I didn't know you. No. What was... I would be 26 then? You were 21, 22? And he said, 'We got this amazing player coming. He's a real thinker. He understands football.' He's already telling me where we can get better.'

"And I was thinking, 'Who the f*** does he think he is?' This lad from Spain telling Liverpool where they're going."

"So I was aware you were watching and analyzing from a young age, so you were always going to go on, and I would say be a coach or a manager. But what was your thoughts when you came in about me? Because we got a connection really early because we were both big lovers of football."

Alonso responded: "I remember not many English players used to watch La Liga. So you were one of the ones that you were watching La Liga, Barca-Madrid of course, but Atletico or La Coruna, so yeah.

"I think that we could use that, not excuse, but those games of La Liga to talk more about football. And I knew that we started getting to know each other and you were football mad, and I was football mad and I used to watch it great. But I remember you have to earn the respect of the guys that were there."

It's some great insight into how the dressing room dynamics can unfold, with a young Alonso able to quickly find his way at Liverpool to become a key part of the team moving forward.

While his management career seemed inevitable, his potential return to Liverpool hasn't been the case. Now he is at Chelsea, he'll be looking to take the next steps after a bruising time at Real Madrid.