My Greatest Liverpool XI Part 1 - Red Phil

Article by Red Phil

 

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Over fifty years of watching the Reds and now I’m trying to sort out the best team I can put together from the hundreds of players I’ve seen play with various levels of success in the red shirts of my favourite team.

 

Some positions, forwards in particular, give me a mighty problem as the players I can choose from range from Rodger Hunt and Ian St John, through the likes of Robbie Fowler or Kevin Keegan and John Toshack and Michael Owen or King Kenny and Ian Rush to Fernando Torres and Luis Suarez so to suggest I’m spoiled for choice is an understatement of Biblical proportions. Picking one or two from that lot is,surely, Mission Impossible!

 

However, first things first, let’s concentrate on the goalkeepers and defenders I’ve enjoyed, been in awe of or simply couldn’t abide since I first saw the reds in their first season in the top division in the halcyon days of Bill Shaky.

 

It may sound ludicrous, it may sound absurd, but I strongly believe that after “The Flying Pig”, Tommy Lawrence, and Ray Clemence, we haven’t had a keeper worthy of mentioning when trying to put together a top Liverpool team, or squad, of all the players I’ve seen.

 

I may miss out one or two but Bruce Grobellaar, Mick Hooper, Steve Ogrizovic, Chris Kirkland, Sander Westweld, Jerzy Dudek, Pepe Reina, Simon Mignolet and Co. have not been good enough to even challenge Tommy Lawrence for the second keeper’s role in my squad . . . which gives you an idea as to who my number one choice simply has to be!

 

Tommy Lawrence was a top keeper and played for Scotland, when they had a good team. He was nobody’s fool and was one of the best around in the 1960s. You don’t get a nick-name like “The Flying Pig” without having what you could say are some problems with your girth but Tommy was very spritely on his feet for somebody carrying a few extra pounds. Perhaps he was “big-boned”, as they say? He was no Willie Foulke, the 20+stone keeper (Sheffield United, I think, but not Liverpool!) of earlier times gone by and was very popular with the fans on the Kop. Tommy played a full part in many of our successes during that period and is rightfully my back-up keeper. Nobody could doubt his ability, and nobody did. At that time Gordon Banks was one-of-a-kind, a goalkeeping genius, but Tommy was well-respected by both fans and players alike.

 

Ray Clemence, bought for a pittance, matured into one of the best keepers in the world and, had he not been directly competing with Shilton and Corrigan would have played many, many more times for England. At the time, the only keeper definitely better then Ray, or Peter Shilton, was, in my opinion, Pat Jennings, of Spurs. He was truly superb, with hands like shovels.

 

Ray had that obvious talent that only the best keepers have in that he rarely, if ever, made mistakes and never even gave his defence a moment’s worry. His shot-stopping was exceptional and his catching of crosses exemplary, but he was so dependable that I can’t ever recall worrying about how he would cope. He just didcope, end of story. The same cannot be said of our current custodian, Simon Mignolet, who still looks unsure every time he goes to make a catch. Also, Ray was one of the most acrobatic keepers I’ve ever seen, performing heroics even when the ball looked to be out of his reach. Because of his agility and the way he was so dependable I have no hesitation in making Ray Clemence my number one keeper!

Right full-back gives me at least a couple of top, top players to choose from so the choice is between the two of them. Chris Lawler, our full-back from the 1960s and early 1970s teams is a must in any squad and, remember, he scored an astonishing 41 goals for Liverpool without ever, as far as I can remember, taking a penalty. His trademark was arriving late for free-kicks or rampaging forward when the attacking mists descended on him.

In direct competition with Chris has to be Steve Nicol, our former captain who DID score a lot of penalties for us, but who was a master at reading the game. Also, his blistering pace was truly vital to our defence at the time and he gave the impression that nobody could beat him in a one-on-one. For that reason, with his leadership qualities in the back four, I plump for Steve Nicol as my first choice right-back. He was pure class.

Centre backs leave me spoiled for choice. Ron Yeats, Phil Thompson, Mark Wright, Glenn Hysen, Sami Hyypia, Tommy Smith, Mark Lawrenson, Alan Hansen, Martin Skrtel and Jamie Carragher all merit consideration, as do one or two others, but I need to look at who played together as a unit, the best unit we’ve experienced, out of the players I’m considering.

Rowdy Ron Yeats was simply awesome and all of the Liverpool fans of that era loved the very bones of him, the very BIG bones of him. Phil Thompson was a superb player for both Liverpool and England and Tommy Smith was a legend, and rightly so. Sami Hyypia was simply superb during his tenure in our back four and there are few tributes to Jamie Carragher that haven’t already been made a few dozen times.

My choice though, concerns a partnership that was almost telepathic in nature, with both height and pace with both of them, tackling ability and the ability to both read the game and defend as a unit. Of course, I’m talking about Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson. It was said, many times, that Alan Hansen could leave the pitch at the end of a game with his shorts still pristine as he hardly ever did ‘proper’ slide tackles, preferring to remain on his feet to shepherd attackers to places of lesser danger for the Reds, or whatever else was required. His reading of the game was always exemplary, he rarely panicked. Mark Lawrenson, on the other hand, a guy with incredible pace, who was always hurtling into last-gasp tackles but, magically, they gelled together like no other centre-back partnership I’ve witnessed.

Two different players but players who contributed so much by having that knack of playing well together as a unit. With reference to Alan Hansen, and this might sound strange coming from a confirmed Liverpool fan, the only other players I’ve seen with as much poise and control, in one-on-ones, or whatever, were Bobby Moore and – wait for it! – Martin Buchan of United, who used to make attackers look inept if they tried to take them on. Believe me, it was pointless to even try! To be in the same category as those players is high praise indeed and, just perhaps, Alan Hansen is the best defender I’ve seen since Bobby Moore and Martin Buchan retired . . . and that takes in a lot of years of watching football.

Because of their uncanny ability to read each other’s mind, almost, THEY form the basis of my central defence. I’d love to have seen Sami Hyypia play alongside Phil Thompson, which would have been my second string pairing. Sami’s height and heading ability and the organizational skills of Thommo on the ground should be a decent combination, all things considered. When I look at how bare the cupboard is at the moment, Martin Skrtel exempted from criticism, of course, I want to sob, really!

Now, left-back! I’m in a quandary here because I need to get one of my two favourite players into the team and he played, occasionally or a bit more often than occasionally, at left-back. The other options for me to choose from are Alec Lindsay, the lad we got from Bury, and Gerry Byrne, a great servant to Liverpool FC and who was in the squad for the 1966 World Cup win! You don’t play as many games for Liverpool as Gerry Byrne did without being a seriously good full-back!

Alec Lindsay’s game was based upon poise and pace. He was phenomenally fast and cultured with a superb left foot. I actually work with his nephew but that hasn’t tainted my views, honestly!

The player I’m desperate to get into the team is Emlyn Hughes, old Crazy Horse, the guy with the biggest smile in football, signed from Blackpool! Because of his passion for the game and his athleticism his rampaging runs and barnstorming strikes were the stuff of legends. Depending upon what I end up doing with my midfield selections I may plump for Emlyn Hughes as the left-back or, and this is still in the melting pot as my midfield isn’t formulated yet in my mind, I may go for cultured Alec Lindsay! You’ll have to bear with me on that, I’m afraid. For those of you who haven’t seen Emlyn Hughes, go on to You Tube and watch him in action. All action and passion doesn’t do him justice. He was our captain and was a superb leader. He was best suited to midfield, because of his energy and passion, but when you are competing with the likes of Souness, Gerrard, Barnes, McDermott, Kennedy, Callaghan and so many others it is difficult to get in in that role and and he did play numerous times at full-back for England whilst also captaining the national team. He died horrendously young, from cancer.

That defence, with Hughes or Lindsay in at left-back, has an exceptional record for error-free play and they could be relied upon to do what was necessary. None of this falling apart-lark that we regularly see when poor teams lump high balls into our box to terrify the life out of a dodgy keeper and defenders who can’t head a ball to save their lives. Without an ability for the keeper to be TRUSTED by the defence, you don’t have a defence as far as I am concerned. With Ray Clemence the defenders knew that if he came for a ball he’d get it and he rarely failed year after year. He was dependability personified and, like the centre backs I’ve chosen, oozed confidence. We once conceded 16 goals in a full season of league matches, a record for a 42-game season. Somebody else, I’ve forgotten who, conceded ONE less, I think, but in a 38-game season so that doesn’t count as far as I’m concerned! The defence I’ve chosen could possibly beat that record, or could certainly challenge it, and some or most of them may have played whilst we got it, although I think Phil Thompson partnered Alan Hansen that year?

Have you noticed how I detest defenders and keepers who aren’t almost totally error-free? Really TOP players make very few mistakes and, here, we should be talking about TOP, TOP players in a best-ever Liverpool team.

Even my ‘second-string’ defensive unit (Lawrence, Lawler, Hyypia, Thompson and Lindsay or Gerry Byrne) are many times better than the rubbish we’ve got in our back four at the moment. Seems we can bid for and buy players for midfield and up front but, defensively, we look as if we are going to struggle next year as we did last year due to a manager who thinks Sakho and Toure are worthy of places in our first team squad, alongside Martin Skrtel who must wince every time he sees which of the two walking nightmares are playing with him that particular week! Don’t ask me why, I’m only a fan!!! I’d prioritize a new keeper and central defender over more midfielders any day of the week!

Right, time to get my thinking head on for the midfield area and goal-scorers . . .

Keep an eye out on e-Football for part 2 of Red Phil's Greatest Liverpool XI!

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