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10 Liverpool records that will never be broken

The long and storied history of Liverpool FC is scattered with scarcely believable feats and astonishing exploits, including 10 records that will never be broken.

The moments and memories our club have given us are countless. We are lucky to be Liverpool supporters; most football fans’ experiences don’t scratch the surface of what we have enjoyed.

Thanks to the nature of this extraordinary club, there have been several quite remarkable achievements and events down the years, some of which we will never see matched.

Here are 10 Liverpool records that will never be broken.

Ian Callaghan’s 857 appearances

Liverpool Ian Callaghan October 11 1970 Newcastle (PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo) 1970s

Ian Callaghan‘s name will forever be written into Liverpool’s history books as the Reds’ record appearance holder.

His remarkable 18-year Liverpool career coincided with the rise of the Reds under Bill Shankly, as they went from a second-division side to European champions.

Bar the League Cup, Callaghan lifted quite literally every trophy on offer, as he won the Second Division, First Division, FA Cup, European Cup, UEFA Cup and even the World Cup in 1966.

Callaghan sits some way ahead of the second-highest appearance maker, Jamie Carragher, who played 120 games fewer than the boy from Liverpool 8.

For some context, to even come close to Callaghan’s tally, you would have to play more than 50 games per season for 17 years!

1. Ian Callaghan(1960–1978) 857apps

2. Jamie Carragher(1996–2013) 737apps

3. Steven Gerrard(1998–2015) 710apps

4. Ray Clemence(1967–1981) 665apps

5. Emlyn Hughes(1967–1979) 665apps

Phil Neal’s 417 consecutive appearances

Phil Neal, Liverpool - Peter Robinson/EMPICS Sport

While Callaghan is Liverpool’s highest appearance maker, arguably the most impressive record in the club’s history belongs to Phil Neal.

The full-back played every minute of 417 consecutive Liverpool matches from October 23, 1976 to September 24, 1983.

Yes, you read that correctly.

In the world of modern football, when substitutes are constant and ‘rotation’ is part of the game, it simply is not possible.

However, putting this achievement down to just playing in another era would be vastly underestimating the implausibility of Neal’s feat.

For a new Liverpool player in the summer of 2026, they would have to play every minute of every match until at least 2033 to reach Neal’s record!

Oh, and Neal then played another 127 games in a row after just three matches out injured.

1983/84: The 67-match treble-winning season

(Picture by: Peter Robinson / EMPICS Sport) 1980s

Neal was a key part of arguably Liverpool’s greatest-ever season, as they won the First Division, European Cup and League Cup in 1983/84.

Kicking off against Man United in the Community Shield – Liverpool lost, so we’ll gloss over that – the Reds played 42 league matches, 13 League Cup matches, two times in the FA Cup and nine games in the European Cup.

You may think this would be possible to replicate in the modern game, but it actually isn’t for Liverpool.

Jurgen Klopp‘s team played a total of 63 matches during the 2021/22 season, as they reached every cup final.

The lack of FA Cup and League Cup replays rules out a repeat of the crazy scenario from 1983/84, when the Reds played replays or a second leg in every round of the League Cup, including the final.

The newly expanded Club World Cup could take a team over the 67 threshold, but even then, it is a summer tournament really.

2019/20: Winning the league with 7 games left

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Wednesday, July 22, 2020: Liverpool’s captain Jordan Henderson performs his traditional shuffle before lifting the Premier League trophy during the trophy presentation as the Reds are crowned Champions after the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Chelsea FC at Anfield. The game was played behind closed doors due to the UK government’s social distancing laws during the Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

After being denied an invincible, Premier League-winning, centurions season the year before by mere millimetres – see Liverpool’s loss at the Etihad for that – the Reds came back with vengeance the following year.

The team won 26 of their opening 27 matches to race into a massive lead. As we all know, the end of the season had to be played behind closed doors, but it had no bearing on the destination of the title.

Liverpool had their first title in 30 years mathematically secured with seven matches still to play – the earliest any club has ever claimed the top English top-flight.

In the end, Man City‘s inconsistency actually meant that if Liverpool lost all nine of their final matches after the lockdown, they would still have won the league!

Earning 106 points from 108 on offer (2019-2020)

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Sunday, November 10, 2019: Liverpool's manager Jürgen Klopp celebrates after during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Manchester City FC at Anfield. Liverpool won 3-1. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

During that period from 2018 to 2020, Liverpool were unstoppable.

They lost just one league game in 66 from May 13, 2018 until February 28, 2020, during which time they took 178 points from the 198 on offer.

Somehow, even more impressively, that included a stretch that saw Liverpool win 106 points from 108 available (35 wins in 36 matches).

Even if Liverpool assemble some of the greatest ever football teams in the future, they may never reach those levels of consistency.

Ray Clemence’s 16 goals conceded in 1978/79

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - MAY 11: Liverpool footballers (left-right) Alan Hansen, David Fairclough, Emlyn Hughes (1947 - 2004), Kenny Dalglish and goalkeeper Ray Clemence celebrate with the trophy as fans welcome the team back following their European Cup victory in London as they embark on an open-top bus tour parade of the city on May 11, 1978 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Steve Hale/Popperfoto via Getty Images) 1970s

Speaking of great periods to be a Red, the late 1970s weren’t bad!

Having just lifted two consecutive European Cups, Liverpool surrendered their continental crown in 1979 but still won the league comfortably.

Remarkably, legendary goalkeeper Ray Clemence conceded just 16 goals in 42 league matches, racking up 28 clean sheets.

Just four of those 16 goals were let in at Anfield. Four league goals conceded in 21 home matches – ridiculous!

Ian Rush’s 346 Liverpool goals

Liverpool's Ian Rush celebrates after putting his team in front against Everton (Picture by: Peter Robinson / EMPICS Sport) 1980s

Ian Rush is by some distance Liverpool’s greatest-ever goalscorer, hitting the net 346 times in 660 appearances.

Roger Hunt is next on the list, 61 goals behind Rush, while Mo Salah occupies third place with 257.

Salah and Hunt actually managed a slightly better games per goal ratio, but the longevity of Rush’s goalscoring is simply unmatched.

To surpass his tally, a player would have to score 25 goals per season for 14 consecutive years.

Mo Salah’s 44 goals in his debut season

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - Tuesday, April 10, 2018: Liverpool's Mohamed Salah celebrates scoring the first goal to equalise and make the score 1-1 with team-mate Sadio Mane during the UEFA Champions League Quarter-Final 2nd Leg match between Manchester City FC and Liverpool FC at the City of Manchester Stadium. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

Salah scored 44 goals in his debut 2017/18 season for Liverpool – talk about hitting the ground running!

Within months of signing from Roma, the new No. 11 already had several songs and was adored on the Kop as Liverpool really began to turn the screw under Klopp.

Sadly, the season ended in tears as he dislocated his shoulder early in the Champions League final, but contrary to what one journalist claimed, Salah had already proven he was anything but ‘just another Juan Cuadrado’.

Ephraim Longworth’s 370 goalless matches

(Please credit within piece: The Bromilow family) Liverpool squad photo, including Jock McNab, Elisha Scott, Walter Wadsworth, Tom Bromilow, Dick Forshaw, manager David Ashworth, Ephraim Longworth and the First Division trophy, 1922 - 1920s

From one end of the goalscoring spectrum to another, we now look at the longest run for a Liverpool outfielder without a goal.

As we know, Joe Gomez has had a long wait, but Ephraim Longworth’s 370 goalless games blow his barren streak out of the water.

Liverpool’s first-ever captain won back-to-back league titles and played as a right-back until he was 40 years old. Despite his status as an early legend of the club, he never scored a goal.

Only 14 players were used in the 1965/66 season

Liverpool manager Bill Shankly crouches by the trophies that his team won the previous season, including the League Championship trophy and the FA Charity Shield, as his players line up in the background: (l-r) Ian St John, Ian Callaghan, Roger Hunt, Gordon Milne, Peter Thompson, Ron Yeats, Chris Lawler, Tommy Smith, Geoff Strong, Gerry Byrne, Willie Stevenson, Tommy Lawrence. 1966. ( PA Photos/PA Archive/PA Images).1960s

In 1965, a substitute to replace an injured player was permitted for the first time in the top flight of English football.

However, despite the allowance, Bill Shankly used just 14 players throughout the whole of the 1965/66 title-winning season.

They weren’t just competing in the league either; Liverpool also reached the final of the European Cup Winners’ Cup, meaning they played 53 games in total.

In this modern era of squad rotation and five substitutes permitted per match, it will is a feat that will never be repeated.

Cisse, Sonni-Lambie, Chambers, Abe, Bradshaw collage

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