Hodgson, Liddell, Hunt, Keegan, Dalglish, Rush, Fowler, Owen, Torres, Suarez and Salah - select your best Reds marksman below
Thursday 7 May 2020 11:36, UK
Liverpool's history is littered with great goal scorers, but who is the best? Former captains Graeme Souness and Jamie Carragher ran their eyes over the contenders in The Football Show and now we want you to pick your favourite frontman.
Gordon Hodgson, Billy Liddell, Roger Hunt, Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen, Fernando Torres, Luis Suarez and Mohamed Salah - the names just roll off the tongue of Liverpool fans, who have been spoiled for strikers over the years.
Each one of those forwards had an incredible record in front of goal at Anfield, but they also had their own characteristics which made them unique.
So with the help of Souness - who managed Liverpool from 1991 to 1994 and gave Fowler his Reds debut in September 1993 - and Carragher - who played with Rush, Fowler, Owen, Torres and Suarez during his Liverpool career - vote for the best marksman below…
GS: People who remembered [Liddell] playing at the football club said he was just another level, while Roger Hunt was just a goal machine.
And Ian Rush (pictured) just always seemed to be in the right place at the right time, he was unique.
GS: Kevin was the best footballer in the UK when he was at Liverpool, he was a superstar.
I've had a couple of conversations with Kenny Dalglish and said: 'How do you think you would have played with Kevin?' And he said: 'I think I would have enjoyed that.'
And I think they would have been fabulous - Kevin always wanted to run forward and get in the box, perpetual motion, a bit like Carlos Tevez in that, if you played with players like that, they would make others run around because they never stopped running themselves.
So, if he had stayed at Liverpool, who were getting stronger in 1978, it would have been very interesting if he had played with Kenny. What a partnership that would have been.
GS: He just saw a different picture to everybody else. In those days, you are fighting to get hold of the ball and if I was winning the ball in the last third and I knew I did not have much time on the ball, then I was just looking for his feet.
I had one intention when I played with him - he would park himself up against the centre-half in the box and then the centre-halves were in desperate trouble. The minute he could feel them with his touch and control, he would wrong-foot them and then get shots off, or dink it round the corner for someone to get a shot themselves.
And one of his biggest assets, which no one ever talks about, is his bravery. He is not the biggest and he was playing against some big men.
JC: There is no doubt we all knew from the year before when he basically won us the Youth Cup almost single-handedly as a schoolboy. So you knew there was a special talent there and it was just a matter of time before he played.
And as I've always said about great players, they always seem to make a mark on their debut, or very early in their careers, and that was Michael - first game, goal.
He was a few years younger than me and I always remember the Youth Cup run we had, we were U18s and did not have great strikers in the team. It was not like academies today where you have players all over the country or Europe. It was basically just lads from Liverpool and we got to the quarter-finals and Steve Heighway said: 'I've got a lad who is still at school and I want to bring him in and play him." And it was Michael Owen.
I did not know who this lad was and he came in and scored a hat-trick against Man United. So I think that showed straightaway that this lad was something special!
He is the one player who if you speak to the youth coaches at that time from Liverpool, and certainly Steve Heighway, I do not think there is ever a guarantee with anyone that they are going to be a top player - there is so much that can go wrong between the ages of 16 and 20, 21.
But with Michael Owen, they already knew at 14 to 15 that this lad would be in the first team at 17 to 18, he was that special and good. And to come in that night against Man United, get the hat-trick when he was two years younger than everyone, you knew he was something special.
JC: Him and Michael Owen were very similar in what happened when they initially came in. They were basically superstars, the best players in the team from 18 to 19.
You see some of the goals Robbie scored, but a lot of the best stuff was in their early careers and their teenage years and there is a long career after that, but I think they were both very unfortunate with injuries.
In terms of finishing, I think you could possibly make an argument that Robbie was possibly the best finisher we've ever seen in the Premier League because his finishes were so different.
In terms of finishing, I think you could possibly make an argument that Robbie was possibly the best finisher we've ever seen in the Premier League because his finishes were so different
We associate certain goals with certain players, but it is difficult to do that with Robbie because yes he was left-footed, but he scored so many goals with his right foot and for such a small player he was brilliant in the air as well. He took penalties and scored free kicks.
So I'm not sure there has been a striker who has had so much variety with the goals they scored in the Premier League as Robbie Fowler.
