How good was Jari Litmanen?

[RedReet]

Agreed. Only Gerrard Houllier could have sold Robbie Fowler. I mean WTF? He may have won the trebble but he didn't win much after Fowler went.

I suppose he needed that £11 million to secure the services of El-Hadj Diouf

A lot of managers would have sold Fowler. He wasn't the same after his injuries and it was a very good deal for us. Similar to Torres, we cashed in at the right time. How the fees were spent is another argument...

[Tee]

Rafa brought Fowler home. What a little golden era that was.

[fah-q]

My favourite memory of Litmanen was his utter bewilderment at being stuck in Andy Townsends Tactics Trucktm

[Mostar]

Litmanen fun fact: He is the only player to have played international matches in 4 different decades! 1989-2010

Love that fun fact

[souliv]

I disagree he could've been a real player for us if used properly.
GH didn't know what to do with him, absolute genius of a footballer up there with the King Kennys, Bergamps, Cantona's etc etc..
It's been said he virtually won the CL on his own for Ajax.

Agree with this , GH has no clue where and how to play him

[Kenneth]

I disagree he could've been a real player for us if used properly.
GH didn't know what to do with him, absolute genius of a footballer up there with the King Kennys, Bergamps, Cantona's etc etc..
It's been said he virtually won the CL on his own for Ajax.

[saj]

I recall Litmanens best performance was against Villa away.

[Leyton388]

He was fantastic but never used correctly under Houllier.

[frank the tank]

GED was brilliant at the start for us but then lost the plot ****in big time - to the point where his reputation went tits up.... The summer where he bought Cheyrou, Diouf and Diao keeps getting mentioned (particularly since we could have had Anelka and Duff that summer instead) but when you had the 4 strikers he had at the time and to be playing Owen and Heskey ahead of Fowler and Litmanen, he shouldn't have lasted a fockin minute after that....

[Leyton388]

GED was brilliant at the start for us but then lost the plot ****in big time - to the point where his reputation went tits up.... The summer where he bought Cheyrou, Diouf and Diao keeps getting mentioned (particularly since we could have had Anelka and Duff that summer instead) but when you had the 4 strikers he had at the time and to be playing Owen and Heskey ahead of Fowler and Litmanen, he shouldn't have lasted a fockin minute after that....

Jari is honestly one of my favourite players of the decade and not just becuase of his time at liverpool but also for Barca and Ajax. He was pure class and used correctly could have been and should have been our Bergkamp.

[Tee]

Jari is honestly one of my favourite players of the decade and not just becuase of his time at liverpool but also for Barca and Ajax. He was pure class and used correctly could have been and should have been our Bergkamp.

Problem is Houllier made us play anti football. No room for any artists on the pitch.

[Imy]

Tbf Fowler after his ligament and ankle injurys was not the same 30 goals a season master marksman.
Was he better than Heskey, well of course but unfortunately he didn't gel as well with Owen in comparison to big Emile.
I at the time certainly thought we did the right thing selling him.

[Leyton388]

No doubt Fowler had become stale due to his injuries but not playing Jari ahead of Heskey was crazy. Bar his first season with us Heskey was terrible. Bale stays on his feet more than heskey ever did. Jari Feeding Owen would have been wonderful IMO.

The thing that got Fowler out the door was when he booted the ball at Thommo's head during a training session after the two had words.

[Imy]

Yep certainly agree Jari should have played instead of Emile, bloody Houllier
I was also in some ways quite happy to see the back of Owen, with him in the team we could only play that one style, counter attacking Gerrard to Heskey to Owen.

[Patricks_Berger]

Yep certainly agree Jari should have played instead of Emile, bloody Houllier
I was also in some ways quite happy to see the back of Owen, with him in the team we could only play that one style, counter attacking Gerrard to Heskey to Owen.

Owen had the technique to play more than one way, and I remember at the start of his career he scored some spectacular goals, all different types of goals, from different positions. It's as if Houllier coached it out of him over time- he became so robotic - same finish every time, low and to the keeper's left. No wonder his conversion rate dropped so much it must have been obvious to keepers what he would do!