Toughest LFC Player Ever?

[Diego]

46 - Gerry Byrne

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDoRn6yAJxU

[mick the click]

Gerry Byrne, then Tommy Smith, then possibly Sooey. Saw them all play!

[desertscouser]

Ruddock. **** but hard.
Broke both Andy Cole legs in one tackle, and it was a reserves game.

That was incredible.

[lfc4ever]

Gerry Byrne, then Tommy Smith, then possibly Sooey. Saw them all play!

Ron Yeats & Larry Lloyd never shirked a tackle either.

[puredale]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt8DOcqCUcQ - 45 - Jimmy Case
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk1QiHaqNfQ - 9 - Graeme Souness

[Los Rojos]

I think you may be mistaken about the abject MacDonald. Useless bag of ****e.

Nah. MacDonald was harder than he was given any credit for. He wasn't as bad a player as you suggest either. Just my opinion though

[Tee]

Souness.

[JRG]

Gerry Byrne and Tommy Smith, all the other so called hard men were like fairies compared to them. Tommy Smith would be sent off just for getting off the team bus these days, he was a recognised hard man in the days when there were lots of hard men playing (see norman Hunter, Chopper Harris, Paul madeley etc)

Vinnie Jones hard? compared with these guys he was a pussy cat..

[Redspin]

Who would it be?
Who's the 'hardest nut' so to speak?
The that goes in all guns blazing, puts his head where some players
wouldn't put there feet.

Tommy Smith is by all acoounts up there, however he was before my time so maybe you oldies are better equipped to answer this one

Of recent times Momo, Gerrard and Carragher are all strong contenders,
Sami can put the boot in but i wouldn't say he's particularly 'tough', Lil Luis's got be up there as well

Momo, Gerrard and Carragher are bloody wimps compared with Tommy Smith. Not only was he a fantastic player at RB or CB - he'd walk into the current team as he was vastly superior to Finnan, Carragher or Hyypia - he was has hard as nails. I saw his entire career and if you saw him play you'd realise that the aforementioned players weren't in the same "hardness" league. He'd have eaten Souness for his breakfast too. But he wasn't just a hard man clogger, he had an exquisite touch and was quite simply one of the best players to pull on the red shirt. In any best XI of the last 40 years he would be in it without a shadow of a doubt. Any other oldies will agree.

[Redspin]

Jimmy Case (oldies will know who I mean)

Case was brought up on a tough Liverpool housing estate close to the docks. He graduated through the schools teams and then joined a tough dockers' side, Blue Union. The physical nature of these early games would have an impact on the rest of his football career.

Just to clarify this: He was from Garston, so it was Garston Docks in the south of the city rather than the tough inner city dockland areas. I lived in neighbouring Speke and went to senior school in south Liverpool (Hunts Cross/Woolton area) where Jimmy's younger brother Frank also went. A sound lad he was too and looked very like his older brother but a bit chubbier

[lfc4ever]

Momo, Gerrard and Carragher are bloody wimps compared with Tommy Smith. Not only was he a fantastic player at RB or CB - he'd walk into the current team as he was vastly superior to Finnan, Carragher or Hyypia - he was has hard as nails. I saw his entire career and if you saw him play you'd realise that the aforementioned players weren't in the same "hardness" league. He'd have eaten Souness for his breakfast too. But he wasn't just a hard man clogger, he had an exquisite touch and was quite simply one of the best players to pull on the red shirt. In any best XI of the last 40 years he would be in it without a shadow of a doubt. Any other oldies will agree.

Was always up for a tussle with the old dirty, dirty Leeds, with Charlton, Hunter, Bremner, Madeley in their team, you had to be hard just to walk on the same pitch.

[Redspin]

Souness from my ERA ie 1971 to present day.

But I am told Gerry Byrne was the hardest player the planet has ever seen

Gerry was a fine player but Tommy Smith was much, much harder. Saying that, Gerry played most of the 65 Cup Final with a broken collar bone, so he was no wimp. No subs in those days so he just soldiered on

[brikkis]

Tommy Smith, Graham Souness

[Slim]

Of the players I've watched it has to be Souey.

[zimbo]

[QUOTE=Redspin;204546]

But he wasn't just a hard man clogger, he had an exquisite touch and was quite simply one of the best players to pull on the red shirt.

That's true. Too many of the self-styled hardmen, both in the 70's and since, were nothing more than cynical dirty *******s whose only contribution was to destroy the opposition's more skilful players. I mean, come on - Ron Harris makes Titus Bramble look like Cruyff.

Smith offered a lot more and could play anywhere across the defence and in midfield too. It's just that he was not to be tooled around with by anyone.

And any judgement of Norman Hunter ultimately rests on the fact that he ran away from Franny 'Mad Dog' Lee like a small girl with spiders in her bed.