Liverpool’s best strikers (Part 3)
Peter Beardsley
Peter Beardsley was transferred from Newcastle to Liverpool under the reign of Kenny Dalgish for a record transfer of 1.9 million pounds.
John Aldridge was already signed to Liverpool at the time and Bearsley’s addition marked the start of a partnership that was feared all over Europe.
Though at the time that Beardsley joined Liverpool football club, Liverpool was ruling the transfer market as the club went on to sign John Barnes.
John Barnes was taken from Watford and signed as he was one of the most reputable wingers available at the time.
Beardley made his goal scoring debut for Liverpool on the twenty-ninth of August 1987 and helped score a four to one victory over Coventry City at Highfield Road.
Beardley scored in the eighty-third minute of the match and he helped Liverpool set a new record for not conceding a single defeat in twenty-nine consecutive matches.
This season marked Liverpool’s league title win with just two losses throughout the season.
One of the best things about Peter Beardsley was that he was very consistent with his game play, and was not prone to injuries and this made Beardsley quickly become one of the most feared players in all of Europe.
During Beardsley’s career with Liverpool, he played one hundred and seventy-five matches and scored a total of fifty-nine goals for the club.
Though it was always the player’s vision, craftiness, style of play that made all of Liverpool love him.
Michael Owen aka the Wonder Boy
Michael Owen was signed by Liverpool as soon as he graduated from Lileshall, the player was only sixteen-years old at the time and he joined the club’s youth training scheme.
Owen was the star of Liverpool’s 1996 FA Youth Cup win, and also scored the winning goal of the tournament, playing against West Ham United. The West Ham united youth team of the time included Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard.
Still Owen won the hearts of all the spectators and the fans. Quickly rising through the rank system, Michael Owen after just four months got signed to the senior team, right after his seventeenth birthday.
Owen made his first team debut for ‘The Reds’ in May 1997 playing against Wimbledon and came on as a substitute and then scored a goal.
When Robbie Fowler got injured and was benched, Owen quickly became a first team regular and he was chosen over the likes of Steve McManaman and playmaker Paul Ince.
Owen scored his first European club in the UEFA Cup in a match against Celtic also made his first professional League Cup hat-trick in the same game against Grimsby Town.
He got his first Premiership hat-trick later that same season against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.
Owen also finished that season as the top scorer for the Premier League and did this side by side with Coventry City’s Dion Dublin and Blackburn Rover’s Chris Sutton, who all scored eighteen goals. Owen was voted PFA Player of the year by his colleagues.
The 1998-9 season was also a rather bright one in Owen’s professional career as in a season with Liverpool having forty-games and a total of forty goals. Michael Owen scored twelve of them and single handily made Liverpool qualify for the UEFA Cup.
(Continued in Part 4 of the article)
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