Four of his team would now get in Liverpool’s all-time greatest XI
AFTER Liverpool’s Champions League victory over Villarreal, Sportsmail’s Football Editor Ian Ladyman declared Jurgen Klopp’s team to be among the greatest ever to represent the club. It was quite a claim, given Anfield’s rich history. Here, he presents the best Liverpool XI of those players he has seen play live…
THERE ARE several automatic selections. Others have had to fight a little harder to get in. And what about those left out? Alisson, Mark Lawrenson, Ray Kennedy, Terry McDermott, Kevin Keegan, John Toshack, John Barnes, Luis Suarez and Robbie Fowler. It would be some subs’ bench, for sure! Ray Clemence edges Alisson in goal thanks to his longevity and reliability in an age when pitches were more difficult to predict. Across the back, it is impossible to imagine a more elegant central pairing than Virgil van Dijk and Alan Hansen, and Phil Neal has to feature. Rarely in the English game has there been a more dependable full back. Trent Alexander-Arnold is many things but he is not quite that.
Not yet. This formation, meanwhile, demands a lot of holding pair Steven Gerrard and Graeme Souness. Both would have to curb their attacking instincts to allow the gilded front four to play. Kenny Dalglish is arguably Liverpool’s greatest player and he is given licence here to set up the play for Ian Rush — with whom he had such a superb partnership — and the modern geniuses Sadio Mane and Mo Salah. I did wonder briefly whether this team had enough security in it for when it didn’t have the ball, but then I looked at it and asked myself: how often would that actually be?