by azriahmad » Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:44 am
I would put Paisley first and Shanks second, only because Bob Paisley was our most successful manager ever even though Bill Shankly is widely credited for building the foundations.
Bob had ingeneously rebuilt the successful Liverpool team after the 1976/77 season with the astute purchases of the "jock trio" of Dalglish-Souness-Hansen and propelled the team to even greater success. His team also kept it simple but pressed the opposition out of the game and which then became the inspiration to Arrigio Saachi at AC Milan in the mid to late 80s.
As for Souness, he was a great player with a never-say-die attitude, vision, skills and leagership few could match. I believe that as a player, even Gerrard with his tremendous natural abilities sitll have a long way to reach Souness' level. It's a shame that he turned out to be such a poor manager. I grew up watching Souness bossing the Liverpool midfield like no other Liverpool player since. If you can capture his desire and will to win and can then divide it among the present players, 10% or 20% of it would be enough to turn Kewell into a world beater.