Elevenses: Best Liverpool XI Diminished By Injuries

A new series on TTT looking at various different famous - and infamous - Liverpool XIs

Many years ago I posed a version this question:

What does this relatively modern Liverpool XI (okay, X as there’s no keeper) have in common?

Steve Staunton, Gary Gillespie, Jan Molby, Steve Nicol, Graeme Souness, Yossi Benayoun, Maxi Rodriguez, Mark Walters, Ronny Rosenthal and Milan Baros?

They all scored at least one hat-trick for Liverpool – even if they weren’t necessarily in their more usual position at the time of their hat-trick.

(Molby did play quite a few games at centre-back, but was obviously more of a midfielder, but the other three of the back four played a lot in defence; and obviously penalties were involved, and even goalkeepers can score penalties if given the chance. Others may remember more about the hat-tricks themselves.)

Since then, Alisson Becker has managed to outscore outfield Reds who have 200+ appearances, so for him, a goal is as good as a hat-trick. He can be the de facto keeper.

(For the record, the defenders’ hattricks, via LFCHistory.net: Gary Gillespie, 26.04.1986, 5 - 0, Birmingham City; Jan Mølby, 26.11.1986, 3 - 1, Coventry City; Steve Nicol, 20.09,1987, 4 - 1 Newcastle United; Steve Staunton, 04.10.1989, 3 - 0, Wigan Athletic. And Yossi Benayoun, a wide midfielder, scored three hat-tricks.)

Thinking about this, I wondered if I could come up with other XIs, both serious and silly, and over the summer managed about 100 different criteria for distinct XIs (that wouldn’t just eleven players but with a recognisable team structure).

I thought it would make a good series, if I got the other TTT writers to contribute to the selections, and then leave it to subscribers to add their own favourites, regarding those who would qualify for that specific XI. So, for the hat-tricks one, there are countless other players, albeit maybe none as surprising as that ten.

So for the first one proper, I thought of getting the gang to create an XI of Liverpool players whose effectiveness was dimmed by injury, even if it didn’t immediately end their careers.

Where possible, interesting reasons were chosen; albeit we didn’t go with Michael Stensgaard, who dislocated his shoulder while trying to set up an ironing board.

So, here we go...

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