Liverpool FC: 11 Most Disappointing Forwards to Play for Reds in Premier League

Andy Carroll has increasingly come under the spotlight for Liverpool fans and national media alike for his lack of form and goals for Liverpool since his record £35 million move from Newcastle United almost 12 months ago.

But where does he rank amongst Liverpool's all-time Premier League attacking flops?

There are many ways to rank disappointment; Fernando Torres, for example, disappointed Kopites with the manner of his departure.

So did Michael Owen.

Other players have not lived up to their full potential or have let great starts slip away through a lack of application or injuries too frequent to overcome.

Here are the 11 most disappointing forwards Liverpool have signed since the inception of the Premier League.

Leave your comments below on who you think should have made the list, or where those on the list should have been.

11. Jari Litmanen

Jari Litmanen had the potential to be one of the biggest fan favourites at Anfield when he signed from Barcelona back in 2001.

The biggest disappointment of all, however, was the fact that he was criminally left on the bench time and time again under Gerard Houllier instead of being utilised to his full and brilliant potential.

Litmanen made just 43 appearances in his 19 months at Anfield, and many of them were from the substitutes bench. He scored only nine goals in that time.

A class performer—but not at Anfield, and there was the disappointment.

10. Emile Heskey

Emile William Ivanhoe Heskey had the raw materials to be one of the country's most deadly attacking weapons for a decade.

Instead, save for one goal-laden season in 2000-01 (the only season Heskey has ever scored more than 10 league goals in a season), he was a blank-firing striker, bullied into submission by the slightest physical threat of a defender.

Frequently stuck out on the left flank on account of his propensity to miss golden opportunities, Heskey's confidence withered away, and he was sold on from Liverpool without scoring half as many as he should have done, with a final record of 60 goals in 223 games.

9. Erik Meijer

"Mad Erik" Meijer joined Liverpool on a free transfer in 1999 and played his entire debut Premier League season without scoring a single goal.

His only strikes for the Reds came against Hull City in a League Cup tie.

Meijer was a decent and hard-working player, but the disappointment came in his failure to convert any kind of chance in the League in 21 appearances.

8. Andrei Voronin

Another free transfer, Andrei Voronin, followed a similar path as Erik Meijer, though he did at least manage to hit the target in the Premiership.

Voronin was hard-working and, on his day, could pull the strings from a deep role in attack—but ultimately, he was way below the required standard for Liverpool FC and was sent out on loan after losing his place in the squad entirely.

A brief respite came in the following campaign, as Voronin was recalled, but his form was so desperate that Rafa Benitez allowed him to leave the club over the busy Christmas period, before a permanent transfer away from the team was sealed in January 2010.

Voronin netted just six goals in 40 games.

7. Ryan Babel

For a hugely talented player, Ryan Babel never flourished—or was never allowed to flourish—as everybody had hoped at Anfield.

A highly rated player as a youngster, he was expected to wind up a central striker. Having spent much of his early career as a left-sided attacker, Babel instead featured for almost all of his Reds career as a left winger.

Possessed of a thunderous right-foot and pace to burn, Babel had a lot to offer the club but was frequently wasteful in possession and never seemed able to work out how to beat his opposite number with skill if he didn't succeed the first time.

Whether he was let go too early will only be shown in time, but Babel certainly never got a really regular run in the side to show what he was capable of.

Of course, it could equally be argued that such a run in the team is usually merited, not merely handed on a plate.

Twenty-two goals in 146 games was a pretty meagre return for so promising a player.

6. Sean Dundee

Sean Dundee was absolutely rubbish.

His biggest claim to fame as a Liverpool player was that he was apparently quoted as saying he was as fast as Michael Owen, but his bulky frame certainly didn't support that view, and neither did his Reds record of zero goals in five matches.

5. Nigel Clough

When Nigel Clough signed for Liverpool, he was thought to be a key player in the Reds' search for an elusive Premier League title, with his creativity and attacking movement a big piece of the jigsaw that Liverpool, and Graeme Souness, needed.

Unfortunately it didn't exactly pan out that way, as Clough lost his form and his place in the team. He did later get back in the side as an advanced midfielder, but he never really produced the form in the final third that Liverpool had hoped for.

His brace in the famous 3-3 draw with Manchester United was the game he is best remembered for, but in two-and-a-half seasons on Merseyside, it was hardly reasonable fare to expect from one of the country's best attacking talents.

Clough notched nine goals in 44 games for Liverpool.

4. Fernando Morientes

In a year-and-a-half with Liverpool, Fernando Morientes showed flashes of the brilliance which had made him one of Europe's most feared strikers, but not nearly enough to suggest that the Reds had gotten the best out of him.

Twelve strikes in 61 games was well below his usual prolific best, and he struggled to get up to the pace of the English game in general.

A good first touch and excellent vision helped him contribute in part to Liverpool's all-around attacking play, but he never really looked comfortable with what was required of him and soon moved back to Spain.

3. Andy Carroll

You were wondering where he was going to place, weren't you?

Andy Carroll: £35 million, 12 months, 31 games, six goals.

Carroll's saving grace to date is that he was a long time injured and barely recovering for his first half-a-dozen matches at least. The prolonged run he is likely about to get in the starting lineup could really make or break his season.

Should the big Geordie net a few goals in the next couple of weeks, he could certainly make a difference to Liverpool's points tally and aid a top-four push.

Continued failure to hit the back of the net and more of the same lacklustre performances as we saw in the first half of the season, however, will likely see Carroll judged as arguably the worst ever Premier League-era transfer by the Reds, given his massive price tag and the level of expectation placed on him when he joined.

For fans of the Reds, here's hoping that we get more of the former and less of the latter in the next half-a-dozen fixtures.

2. El-Hadji Diouf

Frankly, El-Hadji Diouf should never have been signed by Liverpool FC.

Liverpool were on the verge of truly challenging to win the Premier League back in 2002, and just a couple of players were needed to put the final touches on a talented squad.

Unfortunately, Nicolas Anelka was cast aside as unneeded, and Diouf was brought in.

Lacking the pace, the guile, the finishing ability and the all-around personal humility required of a top standard Liverpool striker, Diouf was a complete waste of money, who never once looked to be forging any kind of relationship with the fans—something that, at the very least, almost every other forward on this list managed to do, despite failing in other ways.

Diouf scored a paltry six goals in 80 appearances before being farmed out on loan and then sold, after more than one unsavoury incident involving fans.

1. Robbie Keane

Speaking of players who failed to add the expected extra dimension to an attack on the verge of challenging for major trophies: Step forward, Robbie Keane.

Keane was seen as an almost perfect foil for Fernando Torres. He was a creative and hard-working yet prolific forward who could work the deeper areas of the final third as well as get in the box and aid the No. 9.

Instead, Keane missed a hat-full of open goals and easy chances, regularly failed to complete 90 minutes under Rafa Benitez and was eventually sold back to former club Tottenham, at a slight loss, after just six months in the No. 7 shirt of Liverpool.

Seven goals in 28 games was not the worst record—but his performances were nowhere near good enough for the Reds, and he should have easily had double that tally given the chances he missed.

Liverpool went on to finish the season in second place—one can only imagine what the difference might have been had Keane lived up to his expectations and not been such a thorough disappointment.