Jamie Carragher thinks reverse psychology is the secret to marking Diego Costa

Tony Adams never had any bother marking Thierry Henry in training.

Why?

Because he gave him a very swift kick in his first training session at the club and the Frenchman stayed out on the wing forever-more.

We're not sure that a similar tactic would work against Diego Costa, but Jamie Carragher thinks if he was playing the Spain international he'd know how to handle him.

The Brazilian is about to start a three-match ban for violent conduct for his part in riling up Gabriel Paulista so much the Arsenal man snapped and flicked his heel at him earning a red card in last week's 2-0 loss to Chelsea.

Carragher faced some of the world's top strikers in his time playing with Liverpool, and he's offered some advice on how players should try and shackle the Chelsea man in future.

In his column for the Daily Mail, the former Reds defender thinks that being nice and polite to the striker is the best weapon against someone who scored 20 goals in 37 appearances last season,

"If I had to play against Costa, I’d treat him the same as I did Didier Drogba. Making Drogba angry was the worst thing you could do, so the first thing I would try would be to make him think that we were friends, shaking hands with him before the game. "

"Once the game started, of course, you would be aggressive and firm in your challenges. If Didier was on the floor, I’d make a point of asking him if he was OK and help him up. The key was to never look for trouble. If you wound Drogba up, he could be unstoppable."

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