Now we get to central midfield in my team. As i have mentioned before this is in my opinion the most important position in the team. This is the engine room of any team and needs players with leadership to drive their team forward. Central midfield in my team was easy and two players were never in doubt to make the team.
One of my central midfielders was always going to be my captain. So it came down to two players, Graeme Souness and my second central midfielder to be revealed next week. I decided Graeme Souness would be the best man for the captaincy. His leadership qualities and pure determination to win make him the perfect choice. This decision will also give my second midfielder the freedom to attack more often and play without the pressure of captaincy.
When i think of Graeme Souness, i think of the ultimate midfielder. He dominated games with his ferocious tackling. His footballing ability to pass, shoot and win balls in the air made him a formidable opponent. He was an enforcer who would protect his less aggressive team mates. His defence splitting passes created many goalscoring opportunities for Liverpool.
He was once described as a bear of a player with the delicacy of a violinist. This sums Graeme Souness up brilliantly.
Bob Paisley paid Middlesbrough 350k in January 1978 to capture the services of Souness. He was bought to replace the ageing Ian Callaghan in midfield. That same year he would provide a killer pass to Dalglish to score the winner at Wembley, creating history as Liverpool retained the European Cup.
As time went on Souness became an integral part of a very successful Liverpool team. He would soon receive the honour of captain in 1982 replacing Phil Thompson.
Souness would leave Liverpool for Sampdoria in 1984. He left with a large collection of medals most notably 5 League Titles and 3 European Cups.
Also known as ‘Champagne Charlie’ and ‘The Emperor of Anfield’ , he made 359 appearances for LFC, scoring 55 goals.
I would love to see Souness in his prime back in the Liverpool midfield today. With inflated price tags for players nowadays how much would he not be worth today?
I have great admiration of Souness as a player but not as a manager. He talks sensibly on television after games etc showing great knowledge of football. Allowing this it is hard to comprehend some decisions he made while manager of Liverpool. His tenure at Anfield as manager was nothing short of a disaster. One thing i will never understand was his decision to demolish the boot room. You never change a winning formula, since this we have never been the dominant force we were before.
Regardless of this Souness was an awesome midfielder, he gets my number four shirt and captain’s armband.
Who would be your captain?
YNWA
