The debate over Liverpool's greatest ever player has kicked off again this week, with Steven Gerrard once again being touted for the honour by various people, including good friend and team-mate Jamie Carragher. Anfield legend Jan Molby believes there's no way to accurately gauge who is actually the greatest, but he conceded that if he had to choose, his vote would go to John Barnes.
In his column for the Chester Chronicle, Molby argued that fans should 'just be thankful that we’ve been blessed as a club to have so many greats', adding:
"I know those who played with Graeme Souness can’t stop going on about him, while I was very fortunate to play alongside John Barnes when he was at his peak.
"Seeing Barnes flying down the wing was a frightening sight and he was the best player I played with at Liverpool"
Considering Molby also played alongside the likes of Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush, that's an impressive endorsement of Barnesy's ability.
For me, John Barnes is the greatest Liverpool player of my lifetime, superior to both Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard in terms of pure skill, vision, game-intelligence and technical ability.
It's hard to put into words what a joy it was to watch Barnes play; I was privileged enough to see him play live in late 1980s and 1990s, and I've never felt that kind of excitement watching any other player.
Top 5 LFC players (In my lifetime):
* John Barnes
* Kenny Dalglish
* Graeme Souness
* Sami Hyypia
* Ian Rush
Jaimie Kanwar
In his column for the Chester Chronicle, Molby argued that fans should 'just be thankful that we’ve been blessed as a club to have so many greats', adding:
"I know those who played with Graeme Souness can’t stop going on about him, while I was very fortunate to play alongside John Barnes when he was at his peak.
"Seeing Barnes flying down the wing was a frightening sight and he was the best player I played with at Liverpool"
Considering Molby also played alongside the likes of Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush, that's an impressive endorsement of Barnesy's ability.
For me, John Barnes is the greatest Liverpool player of my lifetime, superior to both Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard in terms of pure skill, vision, game-intelligence and technical ability.
It's hard to put into words what a joy it was to watch Barnes play; I was privileged enough to see him play live in late 1980s and 1990s, and I've never felt that kind of excitement watching any other player.
Top 5 LFC players (In my lifetime):
* John Barnes
* Kenny Dalglish
* Graeme Souness
* Sami Hyypia
* Ian Rush
Jaimie Kanwar
I'm sure you only wrote this article because it starts with "Forget Dalglish".
ReplyDeletegerrard has to be the best player liverpool
ReplyDeleteYou forgot Molby.... ;-)
ReplyDeleteI 100% agreed! John Barnes was the greatest.
ReplyDeleteHyypia Really greater than Gerrard
ReplyDeleteFor sheer technical brilliance:
ReplyDelete1 Barnes
2 Dalglish
3 litmanen (Even though he played 3 games? A football crime he didn't play more with owen)
4 Molby (should never have been dropped for Redknapp!!)
5 Mcmanaman (post play boy)
1. Andy Carroll
ReplyDelete2. Charlie Adam
3. Downing
4. Henderson
5. Coates
not even a honorable mention anywere for peter beardsley.
ReplyDeleteSterling could learn from watching Barnes, become more effortless in his approach not to rush his final ball and shot.
ReplyDeleteI agree its a close call.
ReplyDeleteBut Barnes, Rush, Dalglish, Souness and all the other legendary players had equally great players around them.
Stevie Gerrard has only really had Didi and Alonso around him of any real quality.
He's basically carried LFC for the past 10 years, and without him where would we be now, certainly without the 5th European cup and a few other trophies too.
Without SG we would be screwed....FACT.
Mali, I stand Corrected....
ReplyDelete1 Stephane Guivarch
2 Andreas Anderson
3 Jon Dahl Tomasson
4 Nicos Dabizas
5 Paul Dalglish
5 top Kenny Newcastle signings.......all living legends i'm sure you'll agree.
all great players in there own right, molby hit nail on the head about us being lucky to have these greats
ReplyDeleteNever thought of it like that....lol
ReplyDeletethis whole article is a joke !
ReplyDeleteJamie your so anti Dalglish you sure you actually saw Dalglish play ?
ReplyDeleteBarnes was absolutely fantastic for
3 seasons
87-88 88-89 89-90
but better than Dalglish ?
eeeeeeeeer peter beardsley.....a magic-man , just as skillful as barnsy....i went to all those games and he was just as immense, if not more. Barnes used to dig himself into corners a lot, esp later on....peter was under-used and under-appreciated....a great player...
ReplyDeleteBilly Liddell was greater than Dalgish, Barnes, Rush and easily greater than Gerrard, who is far down the list. Liddell was bigger than Dalglish in his time - a player who carried the team, enormously versatile, never injured, always present, modest and loyal to Liverpool, never complaining a great Scottish international, an exemplary citizen and a fine man.
ReplyDeleteIf Gerrard was so great how come we could not attract more world class players to LFC or win the league during his time?
ReplyDeleteWell done Mali lol
ReplyDeleteOur greatest goal scorer behind Sami Hypia???? No Steven Gerrard?? Deluded mate!!!!!
ReplyDeleteBarnes by a mile.
ReplyDeleteSeen them all play from Biily Liddle to Steven Gerrard.
The guy was pure football genius for the Reds.
Peter Beardsley must be up there somewhere . . Whenever he got the ball you knew something good was about to happen.
ReplyDeleteAlan Hansen must be another, you could always relax when he had the ball, you knew he would bring it out without a fuss and begin yet another attack.
Bs.
ReplyDeleteMascherano Torres hyppia Bellamy Owen fowler hamann glen Johnson and carra are all more than decent players(the latter ones might be just decent) but you can't say he was the only world class player with Torres hyppia Alonso and masches
I haven't really seen Kenny, Barnes, Souness or Rush play so can't really tell how good they were. For me the best players i have seen play for Liverpool are
ReplyDelete1. Gerrard
2. Hyypia
3. Torres
4. Owen
5. Alonso
Owen despite him being a cunt was one of our greatest finishers of all time. He won the Ballon D'or with us lest we forget. He was fantastic. Robbie Fowler was so lethal in front of goal too. I also don't think we can rate players as a whole but rather by position.
ReplyDeleteTop 5 strikers:
1.Rush
2.Dalglish
3.Fowler(First spell)
4.Owen(01/02)
5.Torres(07/08, 08/09)
Top 5 midfielders:
1.Barnes
2.Liddell
3.Callaghan
4.Souness
5.Gerrard
Top 5 defenders:
1.Hansen
2.Thompson
3.Neal
4.Carragher
5.Hyypia
Top 5 keepers:
1.Clemence
2.Grobelaar
3.Reina
4.Dudek(Istanbul heroics)
5.James(There's literally no one else.)
Honorable mention to:
-Ian St John
-Kevin Keegan
-John Toshack
-Roger Hunt
-Emlyn Hughes
-Peter Beardsley
-Ron Yeats
-Steve Heighway
-Jimmy Case
-Steve Nicol
They were simply ALL great players but what was important was that they played for us!!
ReplyDeletegood list and hard to beat my list is
ReplyDeleteDalglish
Barnes
Hansen
Gerrard
Rush
To be fair the players everyone has sadi, imagine if that was our current squad!!! I would hate to be the manager as I would have to draw names out of a hat.
Chi Bai lu, me Chi Bai says Lucas is the greatest Liverpool player! Me Ashfah loves Lucas.
ReplyDeleteDalglish was not only one of the greatest players history but also one of the greatest of all time
ReplyDeleteHe could finish, drop deep and had amazing vision
Molby's comments should be qualified slightly, Molby never played with Kenny when he was in his prime
1984 / 85 season, Molby's first season, he made 22 appearences, Dalglish made 36 appearences and at the age of 33/34 was well past his prime as his decreasing goals tallies might suggest
Dalgish took over as player / manager at the end of the season
Dalglish then signed John Barnes in summer of '87, Molby only made 7 league appearences in '87 / '88 season, just 13 in '88 / '89 and a slightly more respectable 17 in '89 / '90 - He missed most of Barnes best years too!!!
jamie get a proper job you attention seeking cunt, every day
ReplyDeleteI linked into your pathetic headlines by newsnow.co.uk and I cant avoid it
because your attention seeking headlines draws people in, but as soon as I read
your complete nonsense, pointless stories I regret it because I know its a load
of fucking crap.
Jan mobly would never say something like forget Dalgish,
So Stop being a attention seeking prick and stop writing
these fucking useless stories ya cunt
Emlyn Hughes seems to be over looked
ReplyDelete1. phillip degen
ReplyDelete2. igor biscan
3. djimi traore
4. titi camara
5. diouf.
ian callaghan
ReplyDeleteGoal keeper you haven't included Tommy Lawrence , first of a kind , and so very underrated , better than Dudek and James , and The Mighty Emlyn would be in any top 5 defenders , and any top 5 midfielders when the blues had Harvey Kendall and Ball , we had Emlyn and The Saint , young Emlyn was a lot like Stevie awesome " you'll not see nothing like the Mighty Emlyn " then he basically invented a new way to play at centre half , oh and played left back and centre half for England . Absolutely great footballer . But to be fair there must be at least 20 / 30 players that would have to be in best ever 11 , if you know what I mean , but for me Stevie the best , then Kenny , never thought I would see better than Kenny , but think STEVEN GERRARD Greatest ever Liverpool Player
ReplyDeleteThe players that have given me some of the best moments in my LFC football life.
ReplyDeleteBarnes
Dalglish
Gerrard
Keegan
Fowler
Just outside (Mcmanaman, Souness, Alsonso, Hansen, McDermott, Clemence)
Has to be Barnes for me. Kenny next, Gerrard after that. Then Keegan, then Souness.
ReplyDelete