My Top 16 Liverpool European Players

Here, in my view, are the top 16 players who have impacted Liverpool's history through their emphatic European performances...

16. Jerzey Dudek.

His double save against A.C Milan's Andriy Shevchenko in extra-time & saving the winning penalty by imitating Brucy's "spaghetti legs" that won us number four in 84, handed Liverpool the European Cup for the fifth time! 21 years later!

15. Sammy Lee.

Played in two finals (81 & 84) & scored a decisive goal in the first leg of the semi-final at Anfield against Diamo Bucurest in 1984! 

14. Ian Rush.

Although owning two European medals, our all time top goal scorer played a vital role in the 1984 final in Rome leading our front line.

13. Tommy Smith.

Was part of the starting 11 in the 1977 final, scoring the 2nd goal to regain Liverpool's lead against the Germans. Hard tackling Smith also won two UEFA cups at his time at Liverpool.

12. Alan Hansen.

The solid centre back won three European Cups during his successful career at Anfield. Hard as Nails was old Alan!

11. Bruce Grobbelaar.

If it wasn't for Brucy's heroics in 84 would Jerzey have been able to stop them two penalties in 2005? who knows.....what we do know for sure is the bald headed Fella with the funny tash is a Kop Legend!

10. Jamie Carragher.

Bootle Boy Jamie has two European medals to his name & both won in two dramatic finals. Jamie also holds the record for the most appearances in European competitions for Liverpool with an incredible 150!

9. Emlyn Hughes.

Emlyn Captained the Liverpool sides that won the maximum competition in European football in 77 & 78.

8. Graeme Souness.

Graeme won three European cups in his time at Liverpool. He was also our influencial captain in the 1984 final.

7. Steven Gerrard.

Lifted our 5th European Cup in Istanbul. Our Captain fantastic, as said by many, single-handedly drove us on to achieve one of the greatest comebacks in Football history. Stevie is also our record goal scorer in Europe.

6. Jimmy Case.

Won the European Cup 3 times and the UEFA cup once in 1977 scoring a cracker in the final!

5. Ray Clemence.

Our most successful goalkeeper of all time winning an astonishing 6 European trophies with the Reds, including 3 European Cups.

4. Terry McDermott.

Terry Mac! One of the most succesful Liverpool players of all time. A strong member of the 70s/80s team that won 3 European cups.

 

3. Kenny Dalglish.

The King of 3 European Cups! The ultimate player. Kenny Dalglish is number my number 3!

2. Alan Kennedy.

Has two European Medals to his name and became the first player to score winning goals in two European Cup finals which isn't bad for a left back! This puts the lad in 2nd place in my list!

1. Phil Neil.

The only player in Liverpool's History to have won all 4 European cups in the 70s/80s. It's an extraordinary achievement to win one in your career, however, to win 4 is just out of this world!

Brendan's "20 thing's to do list" to kick start our season.

1. Lock Mario in a room & play him every single Liverpool DVD that exists to show him what it should mean for him to play for our club.

2. Get hold of Bill & Ted's time machine, travel back and call off the Danny Agger Deal.

3. Treat the lads to an evening at the Pen & Wig.

4. Stop having favourites & play Kolo at the back he will make us dance!

5. Ban José Enrique from FIFA!

6. Don't give Glen Johnson a contract extension, slash his wages instead.

7. Catch a flight to Lille to bring Origi home.

8. On the way back stop off in Germany & pick up Reus.

9. Become Ian Aire's boss.

10. Play the diamond formation with two up top.

11. Offer Stevie G a new deal.

12. Apologise to Mr Henry for wasting his money, then ask for another 50 million!

13. Get us to a cup final and release an updated version of the Anfield Rap with Kolo as the new Jonny Barnes! 

14. Get Flano back involved.

15. Buy Dan Sturridge some Popeye spinach for crimbo!

16. Recite this 100 times to the lads "For a player to be good enough to play for Liverpool, he must be prepared to run through a brick wall for me then come out fighting on the other side." Shanks Said.

17.  Instead of filling the bench with underperforming squad players put some of the academy lads on there.

18. Start listening to people on Twitter a lot more, they are never wrong!

19. For instant happiness, film Colin Pascoe singing his song.

20. Don't get sacked!

A week of Change?

Building on success is easier said than done, we are now loosing more than we have won. 

    Is Brendan Rodgers solely to blame? and what is the solution to this great shame?

Goal machine Suarez is now truley gone, However, still in our hearts, his passion, his song.

    When will the goals start raining again? Maybe Daniel Sturidge will heal our pain.

The current defence is failing to gel,

give Kolo a chance, what the hell!

    Danny Agger, what a man!

should never have gone, a Liverpool fan!

Mario Balotelli isn't making the Kop smile, His wayward shooting is off by a mile.

    He's famous for asking "why always me?" let's just get rid, even on a free!

In training, Colin Pascoe will set out the cones, doing his bit to silence the Anfield moans.

    What quite possibly could be the key, is having back the old Stevie G!

As a Liverpool team we'll always bounce back, but please dont give brendan the sack.

   Sooner or later he will get things right, climbing back up the table passing the blue shite!

Dan the man will get off the mark,

starting on sunday down at Selhurst Park,

   Not an easy place to go to get a result, but failing to do so would be a massive insult.

Us the fan's will be there with no fear,

singing & dancing with our belly's full of beer.

    Now it's time to turn things around!

We're Liverpool Football Club, ok lads?..... sound?

Time's up for "kop favourite" Lucas.

To begin with, has Lucas Leiva ever been a fans' favourite? or have his abilities constantly been criticised among the Anfield Faithful since he joined the club? Personally speaking, I reckon he's had one or maybe two "good" seasons at Liverpool since he signed from Gremio in 2007, as a 20 year old, long haired brazilian with a lot to live up to after arriving on the back of winning the young player of the season award in the Brazilian leauge.

Secondly, is it time for him to move on, in search of first team fooball? At the age of 27 he is now considered to be amongst the second string of Brendan's team and keeps slipping down the pecking order as the season goes on, especially with the arrival of Emre Can. Although he started and put in a solid performance against Real Madrid which wasn't enough for him to keep his place in the starting 11 for the crucial Premier leauge fixture against Chelsea last Saturday. 

My personal view is, now is the right time for Lucas to make that important career move. If he goes now he would leave Anfield with his hands held high after proving many critics wrong since his first couple of years at the club were dubbed as disappointing, a probable flop signing. 

Expectation was probably the main reason for him underperforming. Nevertheless, he stuck with it, and for a young lad he took his criticism on his chest and worked hard in training to break into Rafa's midfield. His shifts were always hardworking and he nearly always wore his shirt on his sleeve.

However, the problem with Lucas is that he is not a technically gifted footballer. His passing is somewhat wayward, his shooting isn't the best (apart from his finish against Steaua). Furthermore, how many times have we seem him give needless free kicks away in dangerous positions?

Therefore, starting against Madrid wouldn't have done anything for Lucas's confidence as he knew that Rodgers was resting other players and he wasn't really in the starting 11 on merit. 

Lucas Leiva is the last of his generation of players yet to move on. Socially, Lucas was very much connected to the "South American Quartet" which consisted of himself, Luis Suárez, Coates and Maxi Rodriguez. He also had strong friendships with Dirk Kuyt and Pepe Reina who are no longer at the club.

To sum up, there are two ways of looking at this; on the one hand, from the point of view of Liverpool Football Club and on the other hand taking into consideration the players future. Lucas has been a fine servant to the club, but being too inconsistent has meant the manager and the fans have lost confidence in him. 

He has proved us wrong before so he could do it again but with three or four other players favored in his position, a January move would be the most sensible for the lad. YNWA

Building on Success is Easier said than done.

I think it's frustrating or even despressing how money is ruining football; international ownership, wages, agents, transfers, tv deals, sponsership. Obviously, these factors have always existed in football but not to this excessive greedy extent, measures need to be put in place to save it.

Talking from Liverpool's presective, Brendan Rodgers is the only Liverpool manager to spend over a£100 million. An amount which really would have given us a chance this year as Fenway Sports have provided us with the correct funds to compeate in the Champions League and the Premiership. 

Has he blown it all on totally average players? Since Brendan took control of Liverpool we have signed 25 players for £212,380,00m with no trophies won. Therefore, no fan can complain that the owners aren't supporting us and are doing their bit towards the cause.

I don't agree that our squad needed improving so much as we finished 2nd last season. A couple of £40 million stars would have replaced Suárez & made us stronger. I do expect things to improve significantly once Daniel Struridge is back (hopefully next week). However, to sell Luis Suárez and not prioritise a decent enough replacement was negligent in the extreme. Let's just hope Balotelli is a stop-gap until January because with all due respect to the lad, he is not a Liverpool player.

"Squad players" my view is our squad should be made up of lads from the "academy" that's why we invest so much into it, but when will they get a chance? when players like José Enrique and Lucas Leiva aren't even making the bench these days. Therefore, the young kids will get nowhere near the bench due to the wages these players are earning automatically puts them before the academy lads.

Needless signings such as: Borini (10m) Alberto (6.8m) Aspas (7m) Llori (7m) Sakho (15m) Assaidi (3m) Lambet (4.5) Allen (15m) Markovic (20m) is about £80 million just in itself. How many of the above are realistically going to have successful careers at Liverpool Football Club?

In Rodger's defence he shouldn't be blamed entirely for the bad buisness made over the last 3 years. For me, Ian Aire & his team are incompetent in sealing the big deals.

I feel our Midfield is wrong. No balance, little tempo, no fight & desire. I'm Still undecided about Joe Allen's abilities. Im sure the 15 million we paid for Joe Allen was like a thankyou/goodbye present for Swansea, leaving them with a bit of cash after allowing Rogdrers to leave. I know we have made changes to the team and the players need time to settle in and adjust, but with the money spent we should be seeing possitive changes to our play. At the moment we are seeing no evidence of this happening.

To be honest though, all Liverpool fans have been made to feel worse due to the fantastic exciting way we played last season, best football we have played since the 1980s! 

Presure is on more than last season. Liverpool need to be in the position where we are finishing in the top 4 every season,we all know this; it's where Liverpool Football Club should be.

To sum up, I'm not a massive Rodgers fan on a personality level, but I think he is a good coach. However, I'll stick by my point that many of his signings have been uneffective. As Shankly once said  "This is a team of skill and character, with men eager and ready to do any job if it's for the benefit of the club" Brendan Rodgers should read this to the team before every game. 

I'll always defend Liverpool Football Club as "a club" but not the people, they come & go, apart from us, the fans, and WE aren't going anywhere far soon! YNWA