Years: 1963-1978
Appearances: 638
Goals: 48
Trophies: FA Cup (1965, 1974), First Division (1965-66, 1972-73, 1975-76, 1976-77), UEFA Cup (1973, 1976), European Cup (1977, 1978), UEFA Super Cup (1977)
Only seven men have played more games for Liverpool than Tommy Smith – and few have won a greater range of trophies.
The strong, tough-tackling defender earned himself the nickname ‘Anfield Iron’, with his physicality and mentality oppressive to opposition and inspiring for teammates across a 15-year spell in the side.
Smith joined the Reds in 1960 and made a senior debut under Bill Shankly in May 1963, just a few weeks after his 18th birthday.
He did not fully break into the reckoning at Anfield until 1964-65 – a campaign that ended with the Scouser in the starting XI for the FA Cup final victory over Leeds United at Wembley – but never looked back from there.
Three of the next four league campaigns saw Smith feature in every fixture, with the first of those – 1965-66 – bringing him the first of four championship medals he would claim with the club.
Shankly loved him, quipping that the centre-half “wasn’t born, he was quarried”, and showed his appreciation by appointing Smith as Liverpool captain in 1970 during the building of his second great Reds team.
A three-year tenure wearing the armband culminated in a title triumph and UEFA Cup success – the club’s first European trophy – in 1972-73.
Capable of playing at full-back and chipping in with goals – Smith scored just shy of a half-century at the Reds – his honours collection kept growing with the addition of a second FA Cup when Newcastle United were dismantled 3-0 in the 1974 final.
Approaching his 30s by the time Bob Paisley took over the Liverpool managerial reins that summer, Smith’s game time gradually decreased, though the glories did not.
Another double of league and UEFA Cup in 1975-76 preceded the crowning moment of his Anfield career.