Liverpool FC: Picking an All-Time Best XI

30 years after breaking away from Everton, Liverpool had already won three more First Division titles than their Merseyside rival.

Fast-forward to 2011, and it’s the red half of Merseyside with trophies in abundance and countless great footballers that has forged a rich history—to which Everton can only rectify on football manager.

Let’s examine these great footballers who have given the Kop reason to raucously express Liverpool’s greatness to away sides.

Here is my take on Liverpool’s All-Time Best XI and seven substitutes.

Goalkeeper: Ray Clemence

• Liverpool career: 1968-1981
• Liverpool games (clean sheets): 665 (335)

Ray Clemence is often unappreciated by football aficionados without an affiliation to Liverpool.

Perhaps what stifled Clemence’s legacy was Peter Shilton—even though there wasn’t a noticeable gap of quality between the two.

If Clemence wasn’t dominating the goal box and making saves week in and week out for Liverpool, then Shilton would be ahead of Mohamed Al-Deayea as the most capped international player ever.

Instead, Clemence ended his international career with 61 caps compared to Shilton’s 125.

For your information, Al-Deayea finished with 181 caps.

Right Back: Phil Neal

• Liverpool career: 1974-1985
• Liverpool games (goals): 650 (59)

Some football pundits rave about Javier Zanetti’s iron-man-like streak of games for Inter Milan.

149 consecutive games.

Peanuts compared to Phil Neal’s 417 games in a row.

Like Zanetti, Neal’s positional ability was second to none and it contributed to efficient goal scoring from the back.

When Neal was scoring regularly during the 1982-83 season, the Kop regularly chanted Zico, a reference to the Brazilian maestro orchestrating Telê Santana’s flamboyant 1982 FIFA World Cup team.

Centre Back: Alan Hansen

• Liverpool career: 1977-1990
• Liverpool games (goals): 620 (14)

Tommy Smith was a kick-it-till-it-stops defender, whereas his teammate Alan Hansen was more sophisticated, more graceful and more intelligent.

It was Hansen’s couth-like philosophy to playing football that saw him thrive in positional awareness and recovery pace.

The late Bob Paisley once praised Hansen as one of the most skilled defenders ever.

Centre Back: Sami Hyypiä

• Liverpool career: 1999-2009
• Liverpool games (goals): 464 (35)

For me, Sami Hyypiä is one of the best centre backs that I’ve had the pleasure to witness.

So clean and organised in the tackle.

A natural leader, he had a knack for scoring goals, and of his six UEFA Champions League goals, five were in front of the Kop. 

When he was winding down his career with Bayer Leverkusen, Kicker rated him as the best defender during the 2008-09 season.

Left Back: Gerry Byrne

• Liverpool career: 1957-1969
• Liverpool games (goals): 333 (4)

Forgotten.

Rather than go off the pitch for medical treatment (back then there were no substitutions), Gerry Byrne played through the 1965 FA Cup final with a broken collar bone—Liverpool won.

You might be wondering why Alan Kennedy, who will forever be in the annals of Liverpool history, isn’t here.

For me, how can Byrne, a Liverpool legend, be left off so many all-time Liverpool XIs?

As good as Kennedy was, I’ve decided to pay homage to Byrne’s contributions by placing him here.

Right Winger: Steve Heighway

• Liverpool career: 1970-1981
• Liverpool games (goals): 475 (76)

Steven McManaman once discussed how young wingers should watch archived footage of Steve Heighway.

The way he rode tackles, controlled the ball with precision, ran circles around his defender and, most importantly, delivered the goods.

Centre Midfielder: Graeme Souness

• Liverpool career: 1978-1984
• Liverpool games (goals): 359 (55)

I wonder if Graeme Souness does feel a tingle of dissatisfaction in that people seem to remember him as a hard man, when in fact, he was also a virtuoso in midfield.

Why is that so? It’s like people remembering Gérson as a chain smoker yet forgetting he was such an integral link in that legendary 1970 FIFA World Cup winning Brazilian side.

Souness may be one the most complete midfielders ever but, my goodness, was he a horrible manager.

Centre Midfielder: Steven Gerrard

• Liverpool career: 1998-current
• Liverpool games (goals): 561 (141)*

At times, Steven Gerrard can attempt the odd Paul Scholes-esq tackles, but, like Scholes, he is a genius when it comes to manipulating the football.

He will look to win the only major club trophy which has eluded him—the Premier League title.

* and counting.

Left Winger: Billy Liddell

• Liverpool career: 1946-1960
• Liverpool games(goals): 534 (228)

The late great Billy Liddell was said to be a mobile human wall with a shot that would match Ferenc Puskás.

Perhaps what immortalised Liddell was his loyalty to the club, having resisted more lucrative contracts.

Deep Lying Forward: Kenny Dalglish

• Liverpool career: 1977-1990
• Liverpool games (goals): 515 (172)

Liverpool passed up the opportunity to sign Kenny Dalglish when he was 15, presumably because the youngster didn't impress during trials.

Dalglish was a genius of a player, a forward who wasn't your conventional number nine, but more in the makeup of a number 10 who, at the same time, wasn't a midfielder.

Hence the term deep-lying forward entered football lingo.

Not only was he so talented, but he was gritty and willing to work for the team.

I believe Daglish sees a lot of himself in Luis Suárez.

Centre Forward: Ian Rush

• Liverpool career: 1980-87, 1988-1996
• Liverpool games (goals): 660 (346)

There was Roger Hunt and then there was Ian Rush.

The greatest goal scorer in Liverpool history (so far).

Oh, and that partnership with Kenny Dalglish was something.

Poor old Rush can never live down that line he made describing his short and failed overture at Juventus:

"

"It was like living in a foreign country."

"

Rush later rebutted the quote saying it was an in-joke between Liverpool players and that he had never said it.

Substitutes: Pepe Reina

• Liverpool career: 2005-current
• Liverpool games(clean sheets): 321(147)*

Pepe Reina enjoyed a meteoric rise at Liverpool conceding only 29 goals in his first 50 games.

A truly outstanding goalkeeper, there is no doubt he has done his father, Miguel, a goalkeeper for Barcelona, proud.

I guess Barcelona fans must be wondering how management chose Víctor Valdés over Reina.

* and counting.

Substitutes: Emlyn Hughes

• Liverpool career: 1967-1979
• Liverpool games (goals): 665 (49)

Emlyn Hughes was an extremely versatile player, and the modern day comparison would be Javier Zanetti.

The nickname "Crazy Horse" is an interesting one because it was meant to be a derogatory chant after he hauled down Newcastle forward Albert Bennett.

Though, during his Liverpool career, Hughes was horse-like charging down the flanks when he was on the left side of midfield or at left back.

Substitutes: Steve Nicol

• Liverpool career: 1982-1994
• Liverpool games (goals): 468 (46)

Maybe that workman like mentality he had gained as a labourer allowed Steve Nicol to play as hard he could in a variety of positions—he even played forward a few times.

Nicol was so good at centre back that his teammate, John Barnes, named him as the starting centre back in his dream XI.

Nowadays, Nicol spends his time as a pundit on ESPNsoccernet Press Pass alongside Tommy Smyth.

Substitutes: Ian Callaghan

• Liverpool career: 1960-1978
• Liverpool games (goals): 857(68)

This is what the great Billy Liddell said upon hanging his boots:

"

"There is a 17-year-old called Ian Callaghan who looks like taking over from me."

"

Prior to a knee operation in 1970, Callaghan was a nippy and tricky winger. However, as he aged and the injuries took effect, he moulded himself into a clever central midfielder.

A true professional in that he was only booked once in his entire career. 

Substitutes: John Barnes

• Liverpool career: 1987-1997
• Liverpool games (goals): 407 (108)

In his pomp, John Barnes would dink past opposing players like a Brazilian, in fact, he took Brazil to school in a 1984 friendly when he danced past five Brazilians.

Barnes later recounted that he believed the Brazilians didn't think Barnes would do something so outrageous, something so Brazilian, but he did.

Substitutes: Robbie Fowler

• Liverpool career: 1993-2001, 2006-07
• Liverpool games (goals): 369 (183)

God!

Robbie Fowler may not have been the quickest, but he certainly had a PhD when it came to finding ways to score goals.

A lovely finisher.

What's odd about him being so good in positional and tactical awareness was that he'd do some of the most stupid things I've ever seen on the football pitch.

Everyone remembers the cocaine snorting celebration, especially in an era where society was turning against drugs, not to mention the family valued approach the Premier League was aiming for.

Fowler sat on the sidelines for four games for "snorting".

If he kept himself in top shape, if he trained hard day in and day out, he would have had such a better career.  

Substitutes: Fernando Torres

• Liverpool career: 2007-11

Pace, control, strength and clinical finishing.

It was so obvious that this young prodigy at Atlético Madrid called Fernando Torres would transition into one of the best footballers in the world.

Real Madrid wouldn't have minded El Niño, but he stayed loyal to Atlético by moving overseas.

Torres expelled the myth that foreign forwards needed time to adjust—he exploded in his first season.

He defined explosive and made defenders look like pub footballers a la Nemanja Vidić.

So enamoured with Torres was Roman Abramovich—clearly the billionaire hadn't been watching recent football—that he gave Liverpool £50 million in one of the inflated transfers of all-time.

Aside from Liverpool, the other benefactor of this transfer was Steve Daley, who has to live with his £1.43 million transfer since 1979.

Chelsea fans can only hope and pray that Torres somehow...maybe miraculously, emulates the form of 2007-08.

Please read Carlos Tevez, Roberto Mancini and the 5 Most Frivolous Football Lawsuits.