LFC'sTeam of Macs and the Scottish Influence

Every Liverpool fan knows that Liverpool Football Club has a strong connection with Scotland. Bill Shankly forged the modern Liverpool and Kenny Dalglish was probably Liverpool's greatest player. Liverpool's most successful period during the 1960s, 70s and  80s (when 13 titles were won) was shaped by Scots.

But this Scottish influence goes way back, to Liverpool's first season. Liverpool were literally made in Scotland. It is unlikely that Liverpool would have won their first league title in 1900-01 without the Scottish contingent.

The First Team of Macs

In my article about Liverpool's creation I described the situation in 1892 following an almighty bust up with Everton where John Houlding, Liverpool's founder, was left with the Anfield stadium and no team to play in it!

John McKenna travelled to Scotland to find talented players for the new Liverpool team. Heading north in search of players wasn't a radical new approach. Preston North End's 'invincibles' had won the first ever league title in 1888 with several Scots in the team.

In 1892 Scotland didn't have a professional football league but it did have many skilful footballers with limited job opportunities. And Liverpool FC had an ambitious owner who was determined to build a team that would challenge for the title. It isn't a surprise that so many Scots took up McKenna's job offer.

The graph below shows the number of Liverpool squad players, with their country of birth, from 1892 to 1907. Liverpool won their first 2 league titles during this period, with Tom Watson as manager. The coloured dots show the number of players in the squad in each season for a particular country. For example, the blue dots show the number of Scots in the squad in each season. And the blue line shows the trend in the Scottish player numbers over the seasons.

 In their first season in 1892-93 Liverpool's squad was 75% Scottish. In the away match against Blackpool, 9 of Liverpool's starting 11 were Scottish, the match was billed as 'Lancashire against Scotland'. Liverpool were known as the 'team of Macs'.

Being Liverpool Manager

Earlier this evening Liverpool Football Club announced that Brendan Rodgers has had his contract terminated. The full announcement is here.

"At a football club, there's a holy trinity - the players, the manager and the supporters." Bill Shankly

I've been watching Liverpool since the early 70s. I stood on the Kop and watched the end of the Shankly era and the beginning of the Paisley era. I watched the best team in the world defeat all before them. This was the time when, to paraphrase Shankly, the bond between fan, team and manager was strongest. I grew up giving the manager my full support and I was richly rewarded. Support for the Liverpool manager is in my DNA. At least it was until Roy Hodgson. I was uneasy with that appointment and I was carrying a metaphorical pitch-fork by the end. I'm saddened that Brendan Rodgers has been sacked. He is a talented coach who gave his all to the cause.

From Rafa To Rodgers

LFC Data Analysis of Seasons 2004-05 to 2014-15

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."  Benjamin Disraeli

This post describes Liverpool Football Club's premier league performance in seasons 2004-05 to 2014-15 with graphs generated from publicly available data. The seasons cover 11 years, from Rafael Benitez' first match of season 2004-05 in August 2004 to Brendan Rodgers' final match of season 2014-15 in May 2015.

Hopefully the graphs and narrative will make you think about the highs and lows. It's hard for any Liverpool fan to look back over these 11 premier league seasons without some trauma. Just think about Istanbul if it get too difficult ;-).

The analysis also places Rodgers' performance in context. It remains to be seen if he will survive the run of poor results in the final quarter of 2014-15, culminating in the Stoke debacle.

In his final season in 2014-15 Steven Gerrard was Liverpool's top league scorer with 9 goals. This is equal to the lowest ever total by a top scoring Liverpool striker since Liverpool were founded in 1892. Steven joins 2 other top scoring strikers with 9 league goals: Milan Baros in 2004-05 and Jack Cox in 1903-04.

Whoever is in charge next season it is clear that Liverpool must do what they should have done in the summer of 2014 following Suarez' departure - take a risk and invest in a quality striker.

This article was first published on 26th May 2015. It was also published here on lfchistory.net on 3rd June 2015.