The Famous Midfield Shirt Number 5

[fh]

My memory has alarming gaps but I seem to remember Cormack wearing the number 8 shirt

[dorgie]

I don't think there was any trend in this. Some teams' centre halves wore 4 & 6, other teams centre halves wore 5 & 6, other teams wore 4 & 5.

 

Bobby Moore wore 6 through the 60's & early 70's [ Jack Charlton wore 5 alongside him in World Cup '66, with Nobby Stiles wearing 4 ].

Edited April 4, 2006 by dorgie

[Case]

My memory has alarming gaps but I seem to remember Cormack wearing the number 8 shirt

 

I thought Brian Hall played no. 8 when they both played together? I'm old, I'm weary, I'm probably wrong.

[Gravy]

I thought Brian Hall played no. 8 when they both played together? I'm old, I'm weary, I'm probably wrong.

 

I think Brian Hall played 11 when he was in the same team with Peter Cormack, but I don't think they played in the same team much did they?

[monkey puzzle]

I was always under the impression that the numbers traditionally were as follows

 

1. Keeper

2. R Full Back

3. L. Full Back

4. Defensive Centre Mid

5&6. Centre Halfs

7. R Midfield

8. Creative Midfield

9. Poacher/Rush

10. Second Striker

11. L Midfield

 

I'm alot younger than you lot so correct me if I'm wrong/excuse my ignorance.

[Poolfrog]

I was always under the impression that the numbers traditionally were as follows

 

1. Keeper

2. R Full Back

3. L. Full Back

4. Defensive Centre Mid

5&6. Centre Halfs

7. R Midfield

8. Creative Midfield

9. Poacher/Rush

10. Second Striker

11. L Midfield

 

I'm alot younger than you lot so correct me if I'm wrong/excuse my ignorance.

 

An old bloke writes: Strictly speaking, the numbers were

 

1 Goalkeeper

2 RB

3 LB

4 Right half

5 Centre half

6 Left half

7 Right winger

8 Inside right

9 Centre forward

10 Inside left

11 Left winger

[Koogan]

Not us, but the number 4 shirt was definitely often worn by a midfielder.

[Guest Kev]

Stevie Heighway on the wing.....

 

he wore number 9 most of the time didn't he ?

[Gravy]

In the mid-70's we had a midfield three of Hall - Callaghan - Cormack.

 

Kennedy succeeded Cormack as the left-sided midfielder, whilst Case and McDermott fought it out to replace Hall on the right. Eventually, we moved to a midfield four with McDermott playing through the middle alongside Callaghan (and then Souness).

 

Had Cormack not gone by 74?

[floyd]

Stevie Heighway on the wing.....

 

he wore number 9 most of the time didn't he ?

yep sure did

 

1 Ray Clemence

2 Phil Neal

3 Joey Jones

4 Tommy Smith

5 Ray Kennedy

6 Emlyn Hughes

7 Kevin Keegan

8 David Johnson

9 Steve Heighway

10 Jimmy Case

11 Ian Callaghan

 

Sub

12 David Fairclough

[Case]

Peter Cormack started at number 8 but when Brian Hall got into the side in 73/74 Cormack took the number 5 shirt. Prior to this the number 5 shirt was worn by Larry Lloyd and Ron Yeats.

 

Ray Kennedy started at number 10 then wore 9 in his last four appearances in 74/75. In 75/76 Cormack started at 5 with Kennedy wearing 10, 6 and 8 until a home game against Coventry in November. Cormack replaced Kennedy in the side and wore five for four games but in January Kennedy claimed the shirt until the end of the season and for the next five and a half seasons.

 

Whelan, who had been wearing 8, wore 5 against Manchester City on Boxing Day 1981 and kept it for that season's magnificent title run-in. Whelan had prior to this only worn number 5 on his debut against Stoke when Kennedy was not in the side.

 

Pretty conclusive really: the practice of a midfielder wearing 5 started with Peter Cormack.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Source: Liverpool, A Complete Record by Brian Pead.

 

 

Cheers SB, and everyone else who contributed. I thought it was Cormack, just wasn't sure.

[Poolfrog]

aaaaaaaaaaargh

 

our club has a different tradition to all of the others

 

there are other examples in this thread of LFC's peculair numbering system - including the opening post, which the thread is supposed to be about

as for "just one team"...

 

Interestingly we were the first club I can recall who used players in positions not usually related to shirt numbers. In the mid-sixties Tommy Smith came in alongside Ron Yeats (No 5 - traditional centre-half), wearing the number 10 shirt (Inside left). In fact Shanks never gets the credit for this pioneering innovation of playing twin centre-backs. I don't recall any other team at that time doing do, but within a year or two everyone else had copied his formation

[Repington]

Bring back the classic Liverpool numbers:

 

1; 2, 4, 6, 3; 8, 11, 10, 5; 7 & 9.

[Kvarme Ate My Food]

Bring back the classic Liverpool numbers:

 

1; 2, 4, 6, 3; 8, 11, 10, 5; 7 & 9.

 

[Scally Bob]

Interestingly we were the first club I can recall who used players in positions not usually related to shirt numbers. In the mid-sixties Tommy Smith came in alongside Ron Yeats (No 5 - traditional centre-half), wearing the number 10 shirt (Inside left). In fact Shanks never gets the credit for this pioneering innovation of playing twin centre-backs. I don't recall any other team at that time doing do, but within a year or two everyone else had copied his formation

 

That's wrong. Smithy played as an inside forward early in his career. He really moved to right half-number 4-after Gordon Milne lost his place.

 

The twin centre halves came about after we were outplayed over two legs by Red Star Belgrade in 74/75 and was one of the main reasons we were the best team in Europe for years.

[nitski]

4 & 5 were the centre halves when I were a lad. 2 and 3 were the full backs. 6 was a central midfielder. There were two midfielders - 6 & 8. Defensive midfielder?! Just to central midfielders. 9 & 10 up front with 7 and 11 on the wings. Always played a strict 4-4-2 pretty much... although for some bizarre reason occasionally we used to play with a sweeper sometimes behind 3 defenders.

[fyds]

An old bloke writes: Strictly speaking, the numbers were

 

1 Goalkeeper Lawrence Clemence Grobelaar

2 RB Byrne Lawler Neal Nicol

3 LB Lindsay Byrne A. Kennedy Cohen Staunton Beglin Ablett

4 Right half Smith Strong Melia Milne Thompson

5 Centre half Yeats Cormack, Lloyd R. Kennedy Whelan (Baros)

6 Left half Hughes Hansen Irwin Ablett

7 Right winger Callaghan Keegan Dalglish (Smicer. Kewell)

8 Inside right Stevenson, Ross, Graham Cormack, Hall, Case Aldridge, Souness

9 Centre forward St. John, Arrowsmith, Evans Hateley Heighway Toshack, Rush, Aldridge

10 Inside left Hunt, Stevenson, Wallace, MacDermott, Toshack, Barnes

11 Left winger PtrThompson, Wallace, Heighway (Smicer)

 

Is correct - I've put in a few who wore those numbers (not exclusively as shown) off the top of my head to illustrate the point, sometimes they were all over the shop.

[fred milne]

That's wrong. Smithy played as an inside forward early in his career. He really moved to right half-number 4-after Gordon Milne lost his place.

 

The twin centre halves came about after we were outplayed over two legs by Red Star Belgrade in 74/75 and was one of the main reasons we were the best team in Europe for years.

That's not right at all.

 

We were playing with 2 centre-halves (Yeats & Smith and then Lloyd & Smith) well before 74/5.

 

The Red Star Belgrade tie was key in that it led to a greater emphasis on building up moves patiently from the back and roughly coincided with Hughes & Thompson starting to play at centre-back.

 

Is correct - I've put in a few who wore those numbers (not exclusively as shown) off the top of my head to illustrate the point, sometimes they were all over the shop.

 

8 Souness

Eh?

[Scally Bob]

That's not right at all.

 

We were playing with 2 centre-halves (Yeats & Smith and then Lloyd & Smith) well before 74/5.

 

The Red Star Belgrade tie was key in that it led to a greater emphasis on building up moves patiently from the back and roughly coincided with Hughes & Thompson starting to play at centre-back.

That's what I meant to say. Yes we played with two centre halves but they were traditional stopper type centre halves, although it was Teats and Smith to start with then Yeats and Hughes with Smith at right half.

 

The Red Star games were the catalyst for us abandoning the idea that centre halves were just stoppers. After that we wanted ball-playing footballers (e.g. Hansen, Lawrenson) rather than fifties throwback hoofers (e.g. Butcher, Bruce). Ferguson still hasn't worked that one out, hence the Munsters are pants in Yerp.

[fred milne]

Ferguson still hasn't worked that one out, hence the Munsters are pants in Yerp.

I'm not sure that's their biggest problem. After all, Pallister was a decent footballer, as is Ferdinand these days (although he's not as good as he think he is.)

[Fenderbaum]

but Liverpool's just one team. I was brought up watching everyone and playing for teams as a kid as well and that's how numbers go. From what i can see it's mainly just keegan and dalglish who wore 7 out of position. Mcmanaman had 7 as did smicer and Kewell and they all played in a variety of positions. i don't know which numbers Houghton and beardsley had.

 

Beardsley was 7

 

Houghton was 9 for some reason as Aldridge wore 8.

[fyds]

That's not right at all.

 

We were playing with 2 centre-halves (Yeats & Smith and then Lloyd & Smith) well before 74/5.

 

The Red Star Belgrade tie was key in that it led to a greater emphasis on building up moves patiently from the back and roughly coincided with Hughes & Thompson starting to play at centre-back.

Eh?

Oops?