Fourfourtwo magazine - Best and worst players
Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 8:36 pmWORST PLAYER - PHIL BABB
The man who made Alan Hansen realise there was a career in sadly shaking his head. The warning signs were there from the off, when the £3.6m signing made his debut against Manchester United and played his part in a 2-0 defeat. An original Spice Boy and the star clown in the circus troupe that was Roy Evans' three-man defence, Babb is best remembered for whacking his sack on a post in an attempt to intercept a goalbound ball. Needless to say he failed. And that the ball was goalbound in the first place because of his mistake.
BEST PLAYER - JOHN BARNES
Many Kop fans would argue for Dalglish, but Barnes wins the vote as the most exciting, graceful, silky genius ever to grace Anfield. It's hard to understand for those who only saw him struggle for England, but at his peak he was a deadly cocktail of Giggs, Henry and Beckham. He'd glide past players, deliver devilish crosses and plunder goals aplenty, aided by free-kicks of unerring accuracy. Few outside of Anfield can appreciate the raw excitement generated whenever he got the ball and ran at a helpless right-back.
© FourFourTwo
Hmmmm, worst player. In my time there have been a couple of stinkers for different reasons. What about Paul Stewart, a 20 goal a season striker at Manchester City, two years later, couldn't stay on his feet for more than ten paces. Sheer uselessness. Countless Souness signings, and Christian Ziege for different reasons, he didn't know a good thing when he saw one, a quality player who just couldn't be arsed playing in a team (at the time) on the up. A total waste.
Best player, King Kenny, Ian Rush, Robbie Fowler, Barnesy, Billy Liddell (although long before my time),
The survey in FourFourTwo was collated by visiting forums such as this and taking the opinions of the fans.
My personal favourite was Rushie, closely followed by Dalglish although there isn't much in it (because when I was a child, I ran onto the pitch to collect a flyaway ball from Kenny himself in the warm-up and he ruffled my hair....I was 7 years old).
I can remember the player Rushie was before he moved to Juventus, simply how he would score in every game he seemed to play in and that you knew he would always come up with the goods, no matter what.
You would struggle to find a better six-yard box player anywhere than Rushie and that's a commodity which any great side needs.
Your opinions?
The man who made Alan Hansen realise there was a career in sadly shaking his head. The warning signs were there from the off, when the £3.6m signing made his debut against Manchester United and played his part in a 2-0 defeat. An original Spice Boy and the star clown in the circus troupe that was Roy Evans' three-man defence, Babb is best remembered for whacking his sack on a post in an attempt to intercept a goalbound ball. Needless to say he failed. And that the ball was goalbound in the first place because of his mistake.
BEST PLAYER - JOHN BARNES
Many Kop fans would argue for Dalglish, but Barnes wins the vote as the most exciting, graceful, silky genius ever to grace Anfield. It's hard to understand for those who only saw him struggle for England, but at his peak he was a deadly cocktail of Giggs, Henry and Beckham. He'd glide past players, deliver devilish crosses and plunder goals aplenty, aided by free-kicks of unerring accuracy. Few outside of Anfield can appreciate the raw excitement generated whenever he got the ball and ran at a helpless right-back.
© FourFourTwo
Hmmmm, worst player. In my time there have been a couple of stinkers for different reasons. What about Paul Stewart, a 20 goal a season striker at Manchester City, two years later, couldn't stay on his feet for more than ten paces. Sheer uselessness. Countless Souness signings, and Christian Ziege for different reasons, he didn't know a good thing when he saw one, a quality player who just couldn't be arsed playing in a team (at the time) on the up. A total waste.
Best player, King Kenny, Ian Rush, Robbie Fowler, Barnesy, Billy Liddell (although long before my time),
The survey in FourFourTwo was collated by visiting forums such as this and taking the opinions of the fans.
My personal favourite was Rushie, closely followed by Dalglish although there isn't much in it (because when I was a child, I ran onto the pitch to collect a flyaway ball from Kenny himself in the warm-up and he ruffled my hair....I was 7 years old).
I can remember the player Rushie was before he moved to Juventus, simply how he would score in every game he seemed to play in and that you knew he would always come up with the goods, no matter what.
You would struggle to find a better six-yard box player anywhere than Rushie and that's a commodity which any great side needs.
Your opinions?
