My Favourite Liverpool Team of the Millennium – Part One

Goalkeeper – Pepe Reina

Probably Liverpool’s second greatest goalkeeper in their entire history – behind Ray Clemence. You never felt safer in a penalty shootout than when Jose Manuel Reina was between the sticks!

Bought for just £6m from Villarreal in 2005, the Spaniard was one of, if not the best (considering value for money) signing of the Benitez era.

Spending eight years with the club, Reina won the Golden Glove award for most clean sheets in the Premier League in his first three seasons, cementing his status as one of the very best goalkeepers in the world.

From 2008-2010 he ran the likes of Chelsea’s Petr Cech and Manchester United’s Edwin Van Der extremely close and maintained his extremely high levels even as Liverpool slowly went into decline and into Roy Hodgson.

His final three years at Liverpool were less distinguished as he lost form and confidence, mirroring the entire team. Reina began committing more blunders, such as the last minute own goal against Arsenal in Hodgson’s first Premier League fixture as Liverpool boss in August 2010.

Now at 32 years of age and having left Anfield initially on loan to Napoli and then Bayern Munich in 2014, his best years look behind him. Yet he was a magnificent servant for the football club and has a special connection with the Liverpool fans, always representing the red shirt with honour and dignity and class.

His passing was better than most of the outfield players and is light years beyond the capabilities of Simon Mignolet, with that assist for Albert Riera in 2009 against Aston Villa firmly in my mind.

But his penalty shootout heroics against West Ham and Chelsea will be what lives long in the memory, along with his sprint from end of the pitch to the other to celebrate David N’Gog’s winner against Manchester United in 2010.

Jerzy Dudek has his moment of magic in Istanbul, but no one comes close to rivalling Reina for this spot. His passion for Liverpool, and his quality, are endless.