Liverpool's 50 Greatest Ever Players - The Vote

[jgw_geneseo]

Now the hard part:
1. Dalglish
2. Souness
3. Gerrard
4. Hansen
5. Keegan
6. Barnes
7. Suarez
8. Rush
9. Beardsley
10. Hyypia
11. Clemence
12. Owen
13. McDermott
14. Hughes
15. Ray Kennedy
16. Fowler
17. Torres
18. Lawrenson
19. Callaghan
20. McMahon
21. Yeats
22. Molby
23. Whelan
24. Phil Thompson
25. Alonso
26. Liddell (I have no idea where to put him, but should probably be on the list, here you go)
27. St. John
28. McManaman
29. Houghton
30. Hunt

Edit: This was hard. Forgot Heighway. And Coutinho. And Jimmy Case.

 

[Dane]

No Stevie G?

Oops

 

[jaffod]

Unbelievably difficult. Decided to just go with players I've seen to narrow it down. Had 33 players on the list so had to drop 3 but in all honesty it's an impossible task to compare Jimmy Case with Alan Kennedy. Some on the list might not be the best in terms of ability but had to be included for their impact on the club's success or their longevity.

1. Dalglish
2. Gerrard
3. Barnes
4. Souness
5. Hansen
6. Rush
7. Fowler
8. Suarez
9. Keegan
10. Lawrenson
11. McDermott
12. Ray Kennedy
13. Beardsley
14. Nicol
15. Heighway
16. Hughes
17. Alonso
18. Coutinho
19. Clemence
20. Callaghan
21. Smith
22. Hyypia
23. Phil Thompson
24. McMahon
25. Carragher
26. Neal
27. Whelan
28. Alan Kennedy
29. Rob Jones
30. Mascherano

Really interesting to see no-one from today's squad get much of a mention despite reaching a CL final, just shows how much we've been spoiled over the years. james Milner and Bobby probably the closest for me.

 

[BigJon]

1)Dalglish
2)Rush
3)Suarez
4)Gerrard
5)Fowler
6)Barnes
7)Alonso
8)Hughes
9)Clemence
10)Hansen
11)Owen
12)Neal
13)Hypia
14)Garcia
15)Firmino
16)McMannaman
17)Keegan
18)Souness
19)Beardsley
20)Hamman
21)R.Kennedy
22)Callaghan
23)Hunt
24)Thompson
25)Coutinho
26)Hypia
27)Torres
28)Highway
29)Johnstone
30)Finnan

 

[geebo]

1) Sir Kenny Dalglish
2) Ian Rush
3) Graeme Souness
4) Alan Hansen
5)Emlyn Hughes
6) Ian Callaghan
7) John Barnes
8) Roger Hunt
9) Kevin Keegan
10) Terry McDermott
11) Luiz Suarez
12) Alan Kennedy
13) Tommy Smith
14) Phil Neal
15) Steve Heighway
16) Ian St. John
17) Ray Kennedy
18) Robbie Fowler
19) Gordon Hodgson
20)Billy Liddell
21) Peter Beardsley
22) Steven Gerrard
23) Ronnie Whelan
24) Phil Thompson
25) Ray Clemence
26) Xabi Alonso
27) Fernando Torres
28) Steve McMahon
29) Jamie Carragher
30) Mo Salah

Spontaneous, without much thought- tried to get a balance between defenders, midfield and attack- tried to get players that represented the successful teams.

 

[AussieLad]

Some very interesting choices going on, but 2 things are jumping out, Those few people not having Sir King Kenny as no. 1 need their heads examined and clearly not enough people voting for Australias' greatest export - heathens the lot of you

 

[Barnestormer]

Some very interesting choices going on, but 2 things are jumping out, Those few people not having Sir King Kenny as no. 1 need their heads examined and clearly not enough people voting for Australias' greatest export - heathens the lot of you

Kewell was always injured mostly

 

[AussieLad]

Kewell was always injured mostly

I was talking about Brad Jones

 

[Barnestormer]

I was talking about Brad Jones

Alright Craig

 

[RedSeven]

1)Gerrard
2)Dalglish
3)Barnes
4)Hansen
5)Souness
6)Keegan
7)Fowler
8)Rush
9)Hyypia
10)Alonso
11)Suarez
12)Highway
13)Molby
14)Whelan
15)Lawrenson
16)Beardsley
17)McManaman
18)Torres
19)Ray Kennedy
20)Nicol
21)Mcdermott
22)Carragher
23)Clemance
24)Callaghan
25)Neal
26)Alan Kennedy
27)Hughes
28)Owen
29)Thompson
30)Aldridge

 

[ptt]

Greatest vs best, tricky division that. How do you define greatness over the best footballer? Club loyalty? Performing on the big stage? Medals? There's also the "who I saw play" conundrum. Tricky but will have a crack at it. I'll let Magic Thighs' ancestor know in a few millenia

 

[cardiffpete]

Some very interesting choices going on, but 2 things are jumping out, Those few people not having Sir King Kenny as no. 1 need their heads examined and clearly not enough people voting for Australias' greatest export - heathens the lot of you

Gotta be Craig Johnston, hasn't it. Loved him to bits too. Always wore his heart on his sleeve too. LFC was a team and a very oiled unit too, but always you can maybe make space for one madcap genius, within the mix. Kuyt became known as the Duracell-bunny aka just guaranteed to always work his socks-off, all game long. One moment back in full-defense, next moment joining the attack full. Craig did that stuff too, much earlier too. The most important thing though was that he did it ...with always a smile on his face. To most players and performing the hard grind of unseen work was a heavy burden that just had to done, but he seemed to even maybe like doing it, in some way. I think that in some way, he realized that he was blessed to play for our team and would then help in any way required to even stay knocking-on the doors of first-team play ...but he would also just decide to still go on one or two personal missions per-game too.

He was maybe lucky that if his poor choices failed at times, then his basic game still always delivered for us back-then. On the other hand though and in some very important games too and our teams did then fully require his often totally bit of improvised magic to occur ...so I would put it as win/win in the end. He (Craig) has very publicly stated so many times that he was not worthy of being in our greatest-ever line-ups all-throughout the glory years ..but who truly was? Everywhere you looked on the pitch, and LFC then had world-beaters in about 7~8 positions. Then it is not hard to feel so very humble and Aussies are mostly anything - except maybe being ever described as humble haha. But he (Craig) knew that he was not a main guy in the mix

Craig also so very interesting in so many other ways too. He was a very keen and avid photographer, but no amateur hobbyist here, as-in multiple magazine publications of his utterly top-notch work. Also a very fanatical guitarist (rhythm playing too, also my own stuff as well). Here he was not quite so gifted, but to have a great passion is always good. Then he retired so very early (for family reasons, much respected to do that sorta stuff too), but then designed a range of killer shoes as well. Then sold his interest in that for pennies, then went bankrupt, then re-invented himself as a pro-photograher.

 

[waynejones31]

1 Sir Kenny Dalglish

2 Luis Suarez

3 Steven Gerrard

4 Graeme Souness

5 Alan Hansen

6 John Barnes

7 Kevin Keegan

8 Ray Kennedy

9 Ian Rush

10 Emlyn Hughes

11 Steve Mcmanaman

12 Bruce Grobbelar

13 Ronnie Whelan

14 Michael Owen

15 Robbie Fowler

16 Fernando Torres

17 Mo Salah

18 Terry McDermott

19 Steve Nicol

20 Mark Lawrenson

21 Phil Thompson

22 Ray Clemence

23 Steve Heighway

24 Xabi Alonso

25 Phil Neal

26 Jamie Carragher

27 Ray Houghton

28 Jan Molby

29 Ian Callaghan

30 Peter Beardsley

 

[BigJon]

Gotta be Craig Johnston, hasn't it. Loved him to bits too. Always wore his heart on his sleeve too. LFC was a team and a very oiled unit too, but always you can maybe make space for one madcap genius, within the mix. Kuyt became known as the Duracell-bunny aka just guaranteed to always work his socks-off, all game long. One moment back in full-defense, next moment joining the attack full. Craig did that stuff too, much earlier too. The most important thing though was that he did it ...with always a smile on his face. To most players and performing the hard grind of unseen work was a heavy burden that just had to done, but he seemed to even maybe like doing it, in some way. I think that in some way, he realized that he was blessed to play for our team and would then help in any way required to even stay knocking-on the doors of first-team play ...but he would also just decide to still go on one or two personal missions per-game too.

He was maybe lucky that if his poor choices failed at times, then his basic game still always delivered for us back-then. On the other hand though and in some very important games too and our teams did then fully require his often totally bit of improvised magic to occur ...so I would put it as win/win in the end. He (Craig) has very publicly stated so many times that he was not worthy of being in our greatest-ever line-ups all-throughout the glory years ..but who truly was? Everywhere you looked on the pitch, and LFC then had world-beaters in about 7~8 positions. Then it is not hard to feel so very humble and Aussies are mostly anything - except maybe being ever described as humble haha. But he (Craig) knew that he was not a main guy in the mix

Craig also so very interesting in so many other ways too. He was a very keen and avid photographer, but no amateur hobbyist here, as-in multiple magazine publications of his utterly top-notch work. Also a very fanatical guitarist (rhythm playing too, also my own stuff as well). Here he was not quite so gifted, but to have a great passion is always good. Then he retired so very early (for family reasons, much respected to do that sorta stuff too), but then designed a range of killer shoes as well. Then sold his interest in that for pennies, then went bankrupt, then re-invented himself as a pro-photograher.

He was rejected at first by Middlesboro - came back to Oz - trained his ass off then went back a year or 2 later and got a contract with them. His book is a great read - Shame about the later years pony tail.

 

[Broomy]

Haha, didn't realise how hard this was until I actually sat down to do it myself !!!

1) Kenny Dalglish
2) Steven Gerrard
3) Ian Rush
4) John Barnes
5) Billy Liddell
6) Graeme Souness
7) Kevin Keegan
8) Roger Hunt
9) Alan Hansen
10) Sami Hyypia
11) Ian Callaghan
12) Ray Clemence
13) Gordon Hodgson
14) Robbie Fowler
15) Phil Neal
16) Tommy Smith
17) Steve Heighway
18) Jan Molby
19) Terry McDermott
20) Emlyn Hughes
21) Ron Yeats
22) Luis Suarez
23) Fernando Torres
24) Alan Kennedy
25) Ian St. John
26) Elisha Scott
27) Peter Beardsley
28) Xabi Alonso
29) Chris Lawler
30) Ephraim Longworth

One of the hardest parts was deciding where to put Billy Liddell.... For so many years Liddell would have been regarded as Liverpool's greatest ever players and I grew up in a family listening about so many great stories about Liddell and Alex Raisbeck....

Keep your votes coming in lads... 19 forum members have voted already with 67 players nominated so far....
.

 

[Zinedine Biscan]

I'll be honest up front, my list is heavily weighted towards the players I've witnessed playing for Liverpool, so while I've seen footage of many of our most iconic players there are going to be a lot of names on other's lists that don't make mine because I've simply not seen enough of them to judge... but equally there are a couple of names from further back whose reputation is such that I didn't feel I could leave them out.

1) Steven Gerrard
2) Kenny Dalglish
3) Luis Suarez
4) Ian Rush
5) Fernando Torres
6) Sami Hyypia
7) Robbie Fowler
8) John Barnes
9) Mo Salah
10) Xabi Alonso
11) Pepe Reina
12) Kevin Keegan
13) Alan Hansen
14) Roger Hunt
15) Billy Liddell
16) Ray Clemence
17) Philippe Coutinho
18) Graeme Souness
19) Roberto Firmino
20) Javier Mascherano
21) Didi Hamann
22) Jamie Carragher
23) John Aldridge
24) Emlyn Hughes
25) Michael Owen
26) Steve McManaman
27) Peter Beardsley
28) Terry McDermott
29) Virgil van Dijk (only this low as he’s only been here 5 minutes, one of the best CBs I’ve seen play for us)
30) Phil Thompson

 

[won it at-a-turk stadium]

I saw "Liverpool's 50 greatest players - Zinedine Biscan" when I opened the forums. Thought there was a threat on Biscan for a minute

 

[Barnestormer]

Its very hard to keep it limited to thirty, had to leave many out. In fact you have to put it to one side; the top 10 are easier then it gets real tough! Anyway my tuppence, Ive ranked technical ability first and foremost, and because of how the game has developed, consider many modern trophy-less players, have so much more ability than even the established legends. Sorry:

1. Gerrard
2. Dalglish
3. Barnes
4. Souness
5. Keegan
6. Rush
7. Hansen
8. Suarez
9. Alonso
10. Beardsley
11. Hughes
12. Clemence
13. Fowler
14. Neal
15. Aldridge
16. Kennedy R
17. Heighway
18. Carragher
19. Torres
20. McMahon
21. Lawrenson
22. Whelan
23. Hyypia
24. Grobelaar
25. Kennedy A
26. McDermott
27. Case
28. Callaghan
29. Hunt
30. Hamann

Mentions to Molby St John, Houghton, Mcmanaman, Reina and Dirk Diggler for running his cunt off every game!

 

[Zinedine Biscan]

I saw "Liverpool's 50 greatest players - Zinedine Biscan" when I opened the forums. Thought there was a threat on Biscan for a minute

Man it was so hard to leave him off my list. Needless to say, he was #31

 

[jgw_geneseo]

I struggled with comparing a defender to a striker to a mid and saying whoever is better, they're all great. It would be easier but against the theme of the thread to rank greatest ever by position. At least that would be apples to apples. Thoroughly enjoying the thread though, looking forward to the results.

 

[Retro Helix]

1 Kenny Dalglish
2 Steven Gerrard
3 Graeme Souness
4 John Barnes
5 Ian Rush
6 Luis Suárez
7 Robbie Fowler
8 Kevin Keegan
9 Ray Clemence
10 Xabi Alonso
11 Roger Hunt
12 Fernando Torres
13 Jamie Carragher
14 Sami Hyypia
15 Peter Beardsley
16 John Aldridge
17 Steve McManaman
18 Dietmar Hamann
19 Nigel Clough
20 Bob Paisley
21 Dirk Kuyt
22 Ray Kennedy
23 Jan Molby
24 Ian Callaghan
25 Alan Hansen
26 Mark Lawrenson
27 John Toshack
28 Phil Thompson
29 Javier Mascherano
30 Pepe Reina

 

[jaffod]

He was rejected at first by Middlesboro - came back to Oz - trained his ass off then went back a year or 2 later and got a contract with them. His book is a great read - Shame about the later years pony tail.

I did a car boot sale about 7 or 8 years ago and I had Craig's autobiography, hard-back and in good condition, only wanted a quid for it. Some bloke offered me 50p so I said nah, it's got to be worth a quid of anybody's money. He wouldn't give up though, must have stood there for a good 10 minutes flicking through it and offering me ten bob over and over again, I kept telling him it was a quid and he'd get hours of pleasure reading it. In the end he gave up and lashed it back onto the table and stomped off, the fucking mingebag. Mad thing was he had a coffee which he must have paid at least a quid for but wouldn't pay the same for a good quality hardback book he obviously wanted. Some strange people.
Thought about putting Craig into my top 30, great little player who truly 'got' us unlike some who have come in later years. He'd be in my 'top blokes' first eleven for sure.

 

[Commando]

This is so hard. Just trying to work out what greatest means is hard enough. Is it what they won while at the club? Longevity? Technical ability?
As I say, it's hard. For me Joey Jones was the greatest left back I've seen playing for us. If say Keegan was fouled, the Kop would start singing 'Joey's gonna get ya' and sure enough before very long the culprit would be on the ground with Joey stood over him.
But just in the left back position we've had Alec Lindsay Alan Kennedy and JAR in my time watching, who could be classed as great IMO.


This list is going to take some thinking about.

 

[shachart]

Some very interesting choices going on, but 2 things are jumping out, Those few people not having Sir King Kenny as no. 1 need their heads examined and clearly not enough people voting for Australias' greatest export - heathens the lot of you

I started the list from the number 2 choice since the king was the obvious number 1. but then it got me thinking, Kenny is the undoubtedly Liverpool greatest ever, but is he the best ever player ? I will not be in the same room with a person who will say something negative about him, but that is not due to his exploits as a Liverpool player, but for everything he has done as a player, manager and just as a human being. Was Kenny a better player than Gerrard, Barnes, Keegan or Souness ? I guess that can be debatable.

My other problem is how do you compare players from different positions ? Souness was probably the best in the world for his position, won pretty much everything that can be imagined, how do you compare him to Kenny or Rush who played with him on the same team ?
FYI - in 81 Paisley decided to make Souness captain and not Kenny.

 

[AussieLad]

I started the list from the number 2 choice since the king was the obvious number 1. but then it got me thinking, Kenny is the undoubtedly Liverpool greatest ever, but is he the best ever player ? I will not be in the same room with a person who will say something negative about him, but that is not due to his exploits as a Liverpool player, but for everything he has done as a player, manager and just as a human being. Was Kenny a better player than Gerrard, Barnes, Keegan or Souness ? I guess that can be debatable.

My other problem is how do you compare players from different positions ? Souness was probably the best in the world for his position, won pretty much everything that can be imagined, how do you compare him to Kenny or Rush who played with him on the same team ?
FYI - in 81 Paisley decided to make Souness captain and not Kenny.

You raise some excellent points, I also struggle when it comes to comparing players from different eras. I find the closest player in position and role you could get to King Kenny is probably Suarez. In terms of technical ability and skill, Suarez had everything, but it was his other side which leaves me hesitant to compare him to Kenny. That and also the fact that he didn't stay with us for the same length of time.

 

[Chewbazza]

Bit late to the party. Much harder than i thought apart from the first couple of choices. I had planned on going to bed two hours ago but this quickly became far more important.


1) Sir Kenny Dalglish
2) Steven Gerrard
3) John Barnes
4) Ian Rush
5) Graeme Souness
6) Kevin Keegan
7) Robbie Fowler
8) Alan Hansen
9) Luis Suarez
10) Ray Clemence
11) Emlyn Hughes
12) Peter Beardsley
13) Ian Callaghan
14) Roger Hunt
15) Jamie Carragher
16) Sami Hyypia
17) Steve Heighway
18) Billy Liddell
19) Phil Neal
20) Jan Molby
21) Ray Kennedy
22) Ian St John
23) Terry McDermott
24) Ron Yeats
25) Tommy Smith
26) Phil Thompson
27) Ronnie Whelan
28) Xabi Alonso
29) Fernando Torres
30) Mo Salah

​

 

[indianscouser]

Some very interesting choices going on, but 2 things are jumping out, Those few people not having Sir King Kenny as no. 1 need their heads examined

Haha! One thing is for sure, i don't think anyone can displace them from the top 2 for the foreseeable future!
Maybe salah, Mane, Firmino could be in top 10 if they stay here for 7+ years and gets us the 19th and more maybe!

 

[ubermick]

Alonso so good he gets on twice?

I need a dummy's cheat sheet. I need a list of the top 10 (or around that number) strikers, top 10 wingers, mids, defenders, etc. etc. that I can look over and generate my list from. I'll give it a try

Yikes - I was trying to place Alonso and Whelan. Thanks for catching that.

 

[cynicaloldgit]

1) Liddell
2) Scott
3) Dalglish
4) Rush
5) Gerrard
6) Barnes
7) Souness
8) Hansen
9) Smith
10) Callaghan
11) Raisbeck
12) Fowler
13) Keegan
14) Hughes
15) Clemence
16) Neal
17) Whelan
18) Stubbins
19) Molby
20) Longworth
21) Nicol
22) Hunt
23) Lawler
24) Torres
25) A. Kennedy
26) Hodgson
27) Yeats
28) Byrne
29) Hardy
30) Chambers

 

[shachart]

You raise some excellent points, I also struggle when it comes to comparing players from different eras. I find the closest player in position and role you could get to King Kenny is probably Suarez. In terms of technical ability and skill, Suarez had everything, but it was his other side which leaves me hesitant to compare him to Kenny. That and also the fact that he didn't stay with us for the same length of time.

I agree that in many ways, Suarez is probably the closest player to be compared to Kenny. They both played as a "second" striker ( Kenny behind Rush, Suarez alongside Sturridge ), and both had the benefit of playing with a more than capable striker. Both of them with mad skills, talented and creative. I think Suarez was a bit more "adventurous" for the lack of a better word, while Kenny would keep things "simpler". The one thing that is important to say about players playing in the 70s-80s era is that we had great players in almost every position. The better the players around you, the better you play.

While Torres, Alonso, Riena, Mascherano, were all great players, and at that point in time you can argue they were the best in the world in their positions, accompanied by Gerrard, it is something that will always stand against them that they did not win the title or anything for that matter. I still fail to understand how that happened. I can't position high on the list players who have underachieved in comparison to those who have achieved.