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Liverpool F.C.

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Liverpool
Liverpool emblem
Full nameLiverpool Football Club
Nickname(s)The Reds
Founded1892
GroundAnfield, Liverpool
Capacity45,400
ChairmanEnglish David Moores
ManagerSpanish Rafael Benítez
LeagueFA Premier League
2004-05FA Premier League 5th

Liverpool Football Club (usually known simply as Liverpool) is an English football club that is based in Liverpool, Merseyside; the current champions of Europe (2005), they are also statistically the most successful English football team of all time. Since being founded in 1892, Liverpool is the only English team to have won the Champions League five times. The club also has 18 Football League titles to its name, as well as being the English club to have won the most number of UEFA Cups, European Supercups and English League Cups. Despite having won the most number of Football League titles, the club have yet to win the FA Premier League since its first season in 1992/3. The club's home ground is the 45,400 capacity Anfield stadium, which is about three miles from the centre of Liverpool.

The club was founded on March 15 1892 by John Houlding, the owner of Anfield. Houlding decided to form his own team after Everton left Anfield in an argument over rent. The original name was to be Everton F.C. but was changed to Liverpool F.C. (after the F.A. refused to recognise the team as Everton). Liverpool were elected to the Football League alongside Woolwich Arsenal two years later.

The club was involved in two of the biggest tragedies in European football — at Heysel in 1985 and Hillsborough in 1989. After Heysel, English clubs were banned from European competition for a period of five years, six in the case of Liverpool.

Liverpool Football Club is not to be confused with Liverpool (Rugby) Football Club which was formed in 1858 and is now known as Liverpool St. Helens.


New Stadium

On July 30 2004, Liverpool City Council granted the club planning permission to build a new 60,000 seat stadium, nearby at Stanley Park. Despite pressure from Governmental and funding bodies, Liverpool refused to share the new ground with their local rivals Everton and "final" talks on a groundshare failed in January 2005. At that time the club was hoping to start construction in summer 2005 and open the ground in 2007, but finance has not yet been obtained and the likely completion date is not currently known. The old stadium will become a public plaza surrounded by apartments, offices, bars, restaurants and a hotel, and possibly including a memorial garden. Treatment of the old stadium requires sensitivity as a number of deceased fans have had their ashes officially scattered on the pitch over the years.

The plans, originally approved in February 2005, needed to go before Liverpool City Council for a second time some 12 months later to ensure that the proposed stadium complied with new planning regulations. It was reported on 11 April 2006 that the plans had passed without amendment The club now looks for investors to help fund the £160m, 60,000 all-seater stadium.[1].

Honours

¹ More than any other English club

² Title shared

Miscellaneous Facts and Figures

Match statistics

  • Liverpool's first ever competitive game was in the Lancashire League against Higher Walton. They won 8-0. Their side did not have one English player, consisting largely of Scottish imports.
  • FA Cup debut: September 1892 4-0 v Nantwich
  • League debut: 2-0 v Middlesbrough Ironopolis F.C. on 2 September 1893 (Division 2)
  • First Honour: in the 1893/94 season they became the Second Division champions.
  • Liverpool played against Blackburn Rovers F.C. on September 5 1896. Rovers won 1-0, but six goals were disallowed during this game.
  • December 1909 Newcastle United led 5-2 at Anfield, but the reds rallied to win 6-5.
  • In 1910 Liverpool won the first match at Old Trafford beating Manchester United 4-3.
  • The record for most hat tricks is held by Gordon Hodgson who between 11 September 1926 and 2 February 1935 notched up an incredible 17 hat tricks.
  • Biggest defeat: 0-8 v Huddersfield in 1935 and 1-9 Birmingham City F.C. on 11 December 1954 in Football League Division 2.
  • 3 consecutive hat tricks: Jack Balmer 1946-7 (his only hat tricks)
  • Roger Hunt has the most league goals for one season - in the 1961/62 season he scored 41 goals.
  • First European match: on August 17 1964 they played against KR Reykjavik, Iceland, for the European Cup, and won 5-0 away.
  • Only 14 first team players were used in the 1965/66 season, when Liverpool won the League.
  • Biggest win: 11-0 v Strømsgodset I.F. on September 17 1974.
  • Ian Rush holds the record in Liverpool FC for most goals in all competitions for one season - he scored 47 goals in the 1983/84 season.
  • Biggest league win: 9-0 v Crystal Palace F.C. on September 12 1989.
  • Only four people have scored 5 goals in one match. These are:
  • Quickest Premiership hat trick: Robbie Fowler vs Arsenal F.C. 1994-5, 4 minutes, 32 seconds
  • Liverpool's longest distance goal was scored by Xabi Alonso vs Luton Town F.C., 65 yards from goal on January 7 2006 in an FA Cup 3rd Round match
  • Liverpool were the first team to negotiate all three rounds of qualification and reach the Champions League knockout phase (2005/2006)

See also Liverpool F.C. - Statistics

Premiership performance

  • Liverpool have won 18 Football League championships in the top flight of English Football, more than any other club[2]. They are one of three clubs (the others being Arsenal and Manchester United) that have finished first more often than in any other one table spot in the top division. This table shows their performance in the FA Premier League since its introduction in 1992/93.
  • Liverpool is one of an elite group of 7 clubs that has played in every Premiership season, They are: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.
Season Points Total Position
2004/05 58 5th
2003/04 60 4th
2002/03 64 5th
2001/02 80 2nd
2000/01 69 3rd
1999/00 67 4th
1998/99 54 7th
1997/98 65 3rd
1996/97 68 4th
1995/96 71 3rd
1994/95* 74 4th
1993/94* 60 8th
1992/93* 59 6th

* From 42 games. Successive seasons from 38 games.

Club culture

  • The song "You'll Never Walk Alone", originally from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel and famously recorded by Liverpool musicians Gerry & The Pacemakers, is the anthem of Liverpool FC (and is included in their crest) and has been sung since the early 1960s. The song has since gained popularity among the fans of other clubs, most notably Celtic, Ajax and Milan. Other German, Dutch and Northern Irish clubs have also adopted the song. Claims that the singing of You'll Never Walk Alone was started by fans of other clubs before those of Liverpool are dismissed as untrue. [3] The song's title also adorns the top of the Shankly Gates which were unveiled 26 August 1982 in memory of former manager, Bill Shankly.
  • Liverpool fans, singing "You'll Never Walk Alone," were featured in the Pink Floyd song, "Fearless."
  • Other popular chants include "Fields of Anfield Road" (to the tune of "The Fields of Athenry"), "Poor Scouser Tommy", "Liverbird Upon My Chest", "We've Won It Five Times", and "Ring of Fire".
  • Under Benitez, today's Liverpool F.C. has a strong Spanish influence. As well as having a Spanish manager, there are 5 Spaniards in the current squad and 10 players in total brought to Liverpool directly from La Liga. The six English players he has brought in are strikers Peter Crouch and Robbie Fowler, goalkeepers Scott Carson and David Martin, and youth players Jack Hobbs and Paul Andersons.

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK Poland POL Jerzy Dudek
2 DF Netherlands NED Jan Kromkamp
3 DF Ireland EIR Steve Finnan
4 DF Finland FIN Sami Hyypiä
5 DF Denmark DEN Daniel Agger
6 DF Norway NOR John Arne Riise
7 MF Australia AUS Harry Kewell
8 MF England ENG Steven Gerrard (captain)
9 ST France FRA Djibril Cissé
10 MF Spain ESP Luis García
11 ST England ENG Robbie Fowler
14 MF Spain ESP Xabi Alonso
15 ST England ENG Peter Crouch
16 MF Germany GER Dietmar Hamann
19 ST Spain ESP Fernando Morientes
No. Pos. Nation Player
21 DF Mali MLI Djimi Traoré
22 MF Mali MLI Mohamed Sissoko
23 DF England ENG Jamie Carragher
25 GK Spain ESP Pepe Reina
26 MF England ENG Paul Anderson
27 DF Spain ESP Miki Roque
28 DF England ENG Stephen Warnock
30 MF Netherlands NED Boudewijn Zenden
32 MF Austria AUT Besian Idrizaj
33 ST England ENG Neil Mellor
35 MF England ENG Danny Guthrie
36 DF Spain ESP Antonio Barragán
38 MF England ENG David Mannix
TBA DF Argentina ARG Gabriel Paletta (to arrive in July 2006)

Out on loan

Reserves

Liverpool's reserve team plays its home games at the Racecourse Ground, the home stadium of Wrexham A.F.C..

See also List of Liverpool F.C. players

Staff

Manager Rafael Benítez
Assistant manager Pako Ayesteran
First team coach Alex Miller
Reserve team manager and coach Paco Herrera, Hughie McAuley
Goalkeeping coach Jose Ochotorena
Chief scout Paco Herrera
Scout Ron Yeats
Academy director Steve Heighway
Assistant Physiotherapist Mark Browes
Club Masseur John Wright
Masseur Paul Small, Stuart Welsh
Club Doctor Mark Waller
Kit Manager Graham Carter

Noted Players

1892 to 1959:

1960 to 1990

1990 to present

See also List of Liverpool F.C. players

Managers

W. E. Barclay 1892 - 1896
Tom Watson 1896 - 1915
David Ashworth 1920 - 1923
Matt McQueen 1923 - 1928
George Patterson 1928 - 1936
George Kay 1936 - 1951
Don Welsh 1951 - 1956
Phil Taylor 1956 - 1959
Bill Shankly 1959 - 1974
Bob Paisley 1974 - 1983
Joe Fagan 1983 - 1985
Kenny Dalglish 1985 - 1991
Graeme Souness 1991 - 1994
Roy Evans 1994 - 1998
Gérard Houllier 1998 - 2004
Rafael Benítez 2004 - Present


Official Websites

Other Websites

Template:Champions League 2005/06

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