[lfc-news] Moran recalls what made the starts so successful - Post

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Liverpool Daily Post, 14 Mar 2005
Moran recalls what made the starts so successful
By Nick Hilton, Daily Post

THE team sheet reads like the dream of a Liverpool fan who finds a
ticket to go time travelling. Many of the greatest players to stride the
turf of Anfield over the past 30 years are united in one, jaw-dropping
line-up.

Bill Shankly's protégés Kevin Keegan and Phil Thompson; giants of the
Bob Paisley era Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, Alan Hansen and Bruce
Grobbelaar; men of compelling talent who followed them such as John
Barnes right up to players still active in the modern era such as Steve
McManaman and Robbie Fowler.

They are all drawn together under the name of a Liverpool legends XI and
in the cause of tsunami Soccer Aid by Jason McAteer, the driving force
behind the charity spectacular at Anfield on Easter Sunday. Not to
mention a footballer who wore the Liverpool shirt with pride on more
than 100 occasions himself.

The dozen players confirmed in the legends line-up have shared 28 major
trophies in the years between 1973 and 1995.

Here, though, we must take a reality check because most of these men are
matured beyond their prime as footballers.

Roy Evans with Chris Lawler, Joe Fagan and Ronnie Moran after winning
the European Cup in Rome in 1984

Most are into their 40s and 50s, their playing powers diminished by time
even if the vivid colour of their deeds will never fade.

They are returning to the field to raise money for millions of people on
the other side of the world whose own lives have been blighted beyond
our comprehension.

They will do it by teasing the memories of those who watched them at the
peak of their powers or by putting flesh on the images of old video
clips viewed by fans too young to have seen them live.

But one man, perhaps more than any other who expects to be in the
audience on Sunday, March 27 will be able to watch these greying heroes
of the past and match them with the young footballers who first walked
into Anfield all those seasons ago.

Ronnie Moran coached all of them, from Keegan to Fowler.

The long-serving member of the Anfield bootroom, who worked under
Shankly, Paisley, Joe Fagan, Dalglish, Graeme Souness, Roy Evans and
Gerard Houllier remembers the impact each of them made on the Liverpool
team of their day.

Here Moran offers his unique insight into a Liverpool team from all seasons.

BRUCE GROBBELAAR: He was tagged as a goalkeeper who made mistakes but
when you consider the number of trophies he won with Liverpool he could
not have made so many of them.

When Bruce made a mistake it tended to be a real bloomer. The important
thing was he never let it bother him. His game did not suffer. And he
always gave you 100%.

Not much has been made over the years of the way Bruce comically wobbled
his legs during the penalty shoot-out in the 1984 European Cup Final. It
put the Roma players off completely. Then again, if Bruce had told us
beforehand he was going to start larking about during a penalty
shoot-out he would have been hit on the head.

PHIL THOMPSON: Phil came through the ranks and I worked with him in the
reserves. From his first training session you could see he had a lot of
talent. Some people worried that he wasn't going to be strong enough to
play in the first team because he was so slightly built.

Shanks said he had the legs of a sparrow. But his heart was big enough,
he was good at reading the game and he certainly knew how to tackle. His
record of success over the years proved we were right to have faith in him.

ALAN HANSEN: When we first brought Alan down from Partick Thistle in
Scotland he wasn't ready for our first team. We needed to get him harder
mentally. But give him his due, Alan learned a lot in the reserves and
once he made the breakthrough he never looked back.

Alan had lots of skill for a centre-back and his brain was working all
the time. That's how he made the game look easy. But you could never
model a player on Alan Hansen or expect anyone else to do what Alan did.

When he started his new career as a TV pundit, a friend said to me: 'He
won't last long in that, he's not the type'.

These days whenever I see my friend I tease him about how Alan is
struggling on TV.

JOHN BARNES: He had great skill. John was an honest lad who tended to
drop back too far when he first came to us. Perhaps it was something he
had to do during his days with Watford.

We had to say to him: Get into the opposition half and let the bloke
behind you do the defensive work. We felt that when he had the ball at
his feet he could do things most other players could not do.

I think John improved as a player by coming to us and of course when he
got a little older he did eventually drop back into a deeper role.

KEVIN KEEGAN: Shanks took Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan up to Scunthorpe on
a scouting mission to watch Kevin in 1971. It was a long journey in
those premotorway days but after half an hour of the game Shanks said:
"Come on we're going home. I've seen enough. I'm signing him."

Kevin played his pre-season games in the reserves with me that year, as
a right midfielder. When we were short of a striker one day I tried him
up front. He proved his ability so quickly that he never played a
Central League game for me. He went into the first team, scored on his
debut against Nottingham Forest and never looked back.

The biggest thing we look for in play-ers was their desire to win and
Kevin had that in abundance as well as lots of ability. He was always
bubbly, never a problem to deal with.

I thought he was very brave in 1976 when he said he was going to leave
at the end of that season, early on one or two fans had a go at him but
he finished off in that season by helping us win the European Cup, the
League title and to reach the FA Cup final. Not bad for a farewell season.

KENNY DALGLISH: Bob's answer to replacing Kevin Keegan. We signed him
from Celtic, a club that had been built up along the same lines as
ourselves. Shanks and Jock Stein were like brothers! They actually
worked on the same system, I found out later. So Kenny fitted in
perfectly at Liverpool.

He wasn't the quickest mover but he was 20 yards ahead of the opposition
in his head. He used to con opponents and leave them for dead. He could
anticipate where the ball was going and there were times when he seemed
to make the ball come to him.

He had a wonderful record of success as a player with us then went out
and did the same as a manager, starting off with the double here in his
first season. He knew an awful lot about the game.

IAN RUSH: Ian could have been Kenny's brother because as players each
one knew what the other was doing. That was the key to the success of
their partner-ship. Kenny would supply the passes and Ian knew when and
where to make the runs into the spaces Kenny picked out.

It's one thing for strikers to get into scoring positions, quite another
to put away the percentage Ian scored. He did not miss very often.

Yet when Ian first arrived from Chester City goals were the problem. He
had been playing in the reserves and getting decent reports without
scoring too often. He got frustrated and went in to see Bob, wanting to
know why he wasn't in the team.

Bob said: "Go out and score some goals in the reserves and I'll put you
in the first team".

That's when Ian started scoring and after that he didn't stop.

ROBBIE FOWLER: When Robbie was coming up through the junior ranks at
Liverpool we knew we had an exceptional talent on our hands. He could
put the ball into the net from positions noone else could.

Yet even with all of his natural ability Robbie always wanted to work at
improving himself.

I remember he scored five goals in a cup tie once and was looking
pleased with himself when he came into the dressing room. I said:
"Robbie, you missed two chances tonight, you could have had seven goals".

He's always remembered that.

STEVE McMANAMAN: Steve says this is going to be his last season before
retiring as a player and watching him now for Manchester City reminds me
that he has not changed the way he goes about the game since he started
at Liverpool.

I remember noticing him as a youngster who walked with a bit of a
swagger when I saw him coming down the passage. When I saw him on the
training pitch and in games you saw that same swagger. He went on to
play for perhaps the biggest club in the world in Real Madrid.

* TICKETS for the Tsunami Soccer Aid match between and Liverpool legends
team and a celebrity XI are available from the box offices at Liverpool
FC and Tranmere Rovers FC.

For further information about supporting the event look on the internet
for www.tsunami-socceraid.co.uk/

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