Liverpool have an illustrious history of strike partnerships. No doubt the best would have to be the partnership between Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush who had such a great understanding, it almost seemed telepathic. Not far behind them in terms of greatness though would be the partnership between John Toshack and Kevin Keegan. Liverpool’s deadly strike duo was nicknamed “Batman and Robin” by Shoot magazine and during their 6 year partnership from 1971 to 1977 when Keegan departed for Hamburg, they developed an understanding which was unsurpassed in English football.
It was the classic big man-little man partnership with Keegan playing just off the target man centre forward Toshack. A typical Liverpool goal from the pair would see a cross from the Reds wing for Toshack to knock down into the path of Keegan to score. The partnership seemed to click from day one and Keegan remarked on the partnership:
“Tosh was a wonderful player to play alongside. He aerial ability was fantastic and I always knew that he was going to win the high balls. From then on it was just a question of me reading which way the ball was going to go and from those situations we created many chances. I always admired Tosh’s honesty as a player. He was a nice approachable lad and he did a really great job for the club during his time here.”
Now, I don’t really have to point out the parallels between this pair and our new £57.8million strike pairing which the Reds bought yesterday. It has been commented on already that £35million striker Andy Carroll is a classic British style centre forward in the mould of Toshack. The big Welshman could play at bit too and Carroll certainly is very useful as well on the ground, although his primary threat is in the air. Certainly the 22 year old Geordie has a lot to live up and there will be pressure on him to score goals. However I believe the partnership between him and Suarez to be crucial.
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This week it is even more of Liverpool WAG Alex Curran!
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I cant wait for the summer to see the team get a new look. I really hope for Turan. Adding a good left back and a holding midfield players would bring us back amongst the strongest teams in the league.
the team that he enjoyed such scuecss with was not entirely “his” team – Liverpool had been driven into a position to succeed by the work of his predecessor, Bill Shankly. Totally disagree with this statement. Paisley was as much behind building Liverpool behind the scenes as Shankly was. It is often said that he was the tactician and the man who meticulously researched opposition teams. The majority when Liverpool won their first European Cup in 1977 were Paisley’s signings. He actually famously took apart Shankly’s team when he took over which saw a lot of criticism come his way at the time, selling Kevin Keegan which a lot of people thought was ridiculous at the time, he then went and replaced him with some Scot named Dalglish.Not to mention Shankly didn’t actually build the club at all. When Shankly took over, although Liverpool were in the Second Division, they were still one of the biggest clubs in the country getting attendences that the majority of the First Division couldn’t match and only Arsenal had won more league titles than Liverpool up to that point. And they were hardly amazing under Shankly either. They won a couple of league titles and that was it. Also, why do people say if Shankly hadn’t built Liverpool, they wouldn’t have won everything they did under Paisley as if it should add to his reputation? What does that have to with Shankly? If the manager following him had been shit they wouldn’t have won everything they did either.Also, look at Shankly’s record before Liverpool when he didn’t have the man who would go on to become the arguably most proflific manager in English football: it is absolutely abysmal with about 5 different clubs. He relegated Huddersfield, turned Grimsby from promotion chasers to relegation battlers and stood still everywhere else he went. Then in the only scuecssful job he ever did he had one of the most prolific managers the world has ever seen in his backroom staff who he famously discussed football with endlessly in his boot room. Coincidence? I think not. Honestly, this idea that Shankly built the house and Paisley built the roof is just inaccurate for a whole heap of reasons. It should be more like Shankly and Paisley designed the house together, then Paisley built it. I honestly believe Shankly gets vastly overrated by his personality and his endless quotes and going on about how working class he was and Bob Paisley gets underrated for being a shy, retiring man. If their personalities were reversed, Paisley would have his rightful placement in the top 5 of this list and Shankly would have been a long forgotten footnote in English football.