Liverpool have been countdown down their 100 greatest players this summer and here our Chief Liverpool FC Correspondent Ian Doyle provides his selections
Liverpool legends Steven Gerrard and Kenny Dalglish
Liverpool legends Steven Gerrard and Kenny Dalglish(Image: Gavin Trafford/Liverpool ECHO)
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Social media is rarely in agreement. And Liverpool have prompted a bit of a stir among fans this summer with their countdown of the 100 best players to represent the club.
Their Liverpool's Greatest reaches a conclusion on Sunday with a live show across club channels at 7pm to reveal the top five and who eventually will top the list.
The placings are based on statistics combined with the votes of fans, former players, journalists and a club panel earlier this year. A total of almost 1.5 million picks were submitted, with voters asked to make their selections based on the ability, impact, legacy and success of a player while at Anfield.
Yours truly - a scribe of certain vintage now well into his fifth decade of observing Liverpool - was among those invited to take part, and here is the ranking of the top 25 players submitted. Feel very free to disagree wholeheartedly with the selection (although the top six did end up containing the same six players as the final list).
1 Kenny Dalglish
The King. It's easy to forget how big the shoes were that Dalglish was filling when he replaced Kevin Keegan as Liverpool's number seven in 1977. But that it didn't take long for the Kop to take to their new hero underlines the impact Dalglish made first as a player of unparalleled vision - the creator supreme, don't forget - and then later during two spells in the dugout.
There were medals, goals and glory galore. But what perhaps makes the Scotsman stand out from the rest is the dignity and compassion he demonstrated first in guiding Liverpool through the period immediately after the horrors of Heysel and then also following the Hillsborough disaster.
2 Steven Gerrard
A local player coming through the ranks in the Premier League era is always going to be a tough ask. Gerrard, though, not only successfully negotiated the potential pitfalls early in his career, he reinvented himself several times from right-back, right winger, central midfielder, attacking midfielder to a specially-concocted quarter-back role.
Gerrard could do everything, including carrying the hopes of Liverpool supporters and often dragged the team single-handedly during a period when trophies were sporadic and title challenges even more so. Oh, and Istanbul. The Premier League hasn't seen a better all-round midfielder. Just ask all those who played with and against him.
3 Mohamed Salah
The Egyptian King. Salah was viewed with a certain suspicion on his signing having pulled up precisely zero trees during a miserable spell at Chelsea, but 44 goals in his debut season emphatically brought everybody on board. That, though, would become the norm, with Salah reaching the 30-goal mark on four more occasions while racking up record after record after record.
The trophies soon followed on both a team and individual level, the only player to thus far be named PFA Player of the Year three times and a fulcrum for title wins under Jurgen Klopp and Arne Slot. He finished his Anfield career as Liverpool's thrd-highest goalscorer at rate unmatched by almost everybody. Not bad for someone who wasn't even a striker.
4 John Barnes
Barnes wasn't the first black player to feature for Liverpool, but he was most definitely the first high-profile such signing when arriving during the less enlightened times of the 1980s. While dealing with some sadly inevitable issues, Barnes remarkably managed to improve a Liverpool team that had dominated during the decade, providing a new dimension to a new-look attack alongside John Aldridge and Peter Beardsley.
Injury meant he later transformed into a cultured central midfielder, but there has never been a more exciting sight in Liverpool red than Barnes running at defenders down the left wing.
5 Ian Rush
The goalscorer of all goalscorers. To think Rush was close to leaving having failed to net in his first 10 appearances since arriving from Chester City as the most expensive teenager in the world at the time. It took until almost 18 months into his Liverpool career before finding the target, but within a month he had scored another six.
The Welshman didn't look back and during two spells smashed in an astonishing 346 goals in 660 appearances, scoring five goals in FA Cup finals and, of course, a record amount against Everton - the team he supported as a youngster.
6 Graeme Souness
When it comes to skilful midfielder enforcers, there have been few better than the fearsome Scot. Liverpool weren't exactly lacking in hard men during the late 1970s but Souness added silk to the steel and eventually ended up as captain, leading the Reds to the treble of league, League Cup and European Cup on his final game in Rome in 1984.
A difficult spell as manager nevertheless saw the FA Cup lifted, with Souness perhaps being a bit ahead of his time regards nutrition and fitness methods and guilty of changing too much too soon. But it's as a player he will be remembered best.
7 Roger Hunt
No Liverpool player has had quite the career span of Hunt, who helped the Reds finally get out of the second division in 1962 with an astonishing 41 goals in as many league games.
He was Liverpool's top scorer for eight consecutive seasons, helped them win two championships and netted in the first-ever FA Cup final triumph against Leeds United in 1965. There was also the small matter of starring as England won the World Cup the following year. Hunt remains Liverpool's top league goalscorer. Arise, Sir Roger.
8 Alan Hansen
Has there been a classier defender in the English game than the laidback Scot? Hansen was a mainstay of the central defence throughout the late 1970s and the 1980s, racking up more than 600 appearances and every major honour, including eight league titles and three European Cups.
He carved out an impressive career as a pundit after hanging up his boots, but his consistently impressive performances are for what he will forever be best remembered, not least when skippering Liverpool to the double in 1986 and, as club captain, among many to help shoulder the burden following Hillsborough.
9 Luis Suarez
Probably the most thrillingly dangerous player ever to pull on a Liverpool shirt, which wasn't always necessarily a good thing given his lengthy bans for biting and alleged racist comments.
When it came to pure talent, though, Suarez had it in abundance, capable of moments that at times beggared belief and left fans on the edge of their seats, all while featuring in a Reds team that was hardly vintage. That Suarez almost dragged Liverpool to the Premier League title in 2014 says everything. What a player.
10 Billy Liddell
That the club became known as Liddell-pool during his Liverpool career says everything about his contribution. A league title winner in his first full season in 1946/47 - he signed as a 16-year-old in 1938 only for World War II to intervene - winger Liddell was the one shining beacon of hope through the doldrum years of the 1950s when the Reds were relegated and the narrowly failed to gain promotion on a frustratingly regular basis.
Liddell was eventually moved up front and briefly sampled the Bill Shankly era before calling it a day in 1960 after more than 200 goals in almost 500 appearances. How good was he? Ask your grandparents.
11 Ian Callaghan, 12 Kevin Keegan, 13 Virgil van Dijk, 14 Ray Clemence, 15 Alisson Becker, 16 Trent Alexander-Arnold, 17 Emlyn Hughes, 18 Steve Nicol, 19 Phil Neal, 20Jamie Carragher, 21Jordan Henderson, 22 Gordon Hodgson, 23 Ronnie Whelan, 24 Terry McDermott, 25 Robbie Fowler.