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    Personal Top Liverpool Managers (in your lifetime as a Red)

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    6. typejfsebastian on

      In no particular order. Chronological I suppose as I got older.

      Roy Evans was when I fell in love with the club, watching them with my dad.

      Houllier helped us transform in to a modern team and I got to see them winning trophies. Understanding the emotions in the game and life like when he came back after surgery against Roma.

      Benitez showed me a kind of ruthless discipline. We all felt so together because of Istanbul. Thinking of my dad running at the tv screen still makes me laugh.

      It wasn’t so much Rogers. More just what we saw with Suarez in the team.

      Hodgson. Sometimes things have to go wrong for us to learn which way to go.

      Kenny. Mr. Liverpool. Our guide.

      Klopp made us feel completely as one. Solid in love and motivation. I don’t think we’ll ever feel quite like that again. That togetherness and telepathy is what’s missing at the moment.

    7. Sorbicol on

      Shankley, Paisley, Daglish (first time around), Klopp. I always think Joe Fagan gets a bit overlooked. I’m quite fond on Houllier and Benetiz but they weren’t nearly as good as the others.

      Hodgson the worst by some distance – not the worst manager, but he just didn’t fit Liverpool at all.

    8. pominsydney on

      It’s interesting how few managers we have had over all that time. Chelsea could fill this screen in about 2 years

    9. LungeBKA on

      Houllier was my first manager too:

      1. ⁠Klopp
      2. ⁠Benitez
      3. ⁠Houllier
      4. Slot
      5. ⁠Rodgers
      6. ⁠Dalglish (also not lucky enough to witness his first stint)
      7. ⁠Hodgson

      I’ll look back at Slot as a manager with some of the biggest highs and some of the biggest lows, but I feel overwhelmingly negative at the moment. The longer he stays in the role, the less favourably I consider him – he can’t turn it around imo

    11. Visual_Ad_8332 on

      Started with Paisley. He and Kenny win on success. Rafa, thanks for the memories. For sheer fun and excitement, it has to be Klopp.

    12. EmileDorkheim on

      I have a soft spot for Evans because he was manager when I started watching Liverpool in the Spice Boys era

    15. julesharvey1 on

      1.Dalglish by a country mile
      2.Paisley
      3. Benitez
      4. Klopp
      5. Slot
      6. Houllier
      7. Fagan
      8. Moran
      9. Evans
      10.Souness
      11.Rodgers
      12. Hodgson.
      Taylor & Shanks before my time

    16. UnFitUnderstanding95 on

      Paisley

      Shankly

      Klopp

      Dalglish

      Fagan

      Slot

      Benitez

      Houllier

      Souness

      Evans

      Rodgers

      Hodgson

    19. Rade888 on

      Paisley Daglish Klopps
      Special mention for Fagan who for me, doesn’t get enough recognition.

    20. mysevenyearitch on

      Kenny’s first stint for me. Not just for the football but for the statesman aspect to it too. Followed by klopp then Rafa. I was too young for shanks and Paisley but you’d imagine they’d be challenging for top spot.

    21. YDdraigGoch94 on

      It’s actually kinda staggering that we’ve had so few managers in the space of 60 years.

    22. Cooper2085 on

      Klopp, Benitez, Houllier, Evan’s, Rodger’s, Slot, Hodgeson…. In that order.

    23. FantasticVast01 on

      1) Paisley 2) Dalglish 3) Fagan 4)Klopp

      Fagan is massively underated. Really humble guy who didnt want the job but did it because he loved the club.
      In just two seasons he won the league, the European club and the league cup and was runner up in both the league and Europe.
      Can only imagine what he might have achieved had he stayed

    24. Deckard_Red on

      1. Klopp

      2. Benitez

      3. Houllier

      4. Slot

      5. Dalglish 2.0

      6. Rodgers

      7. Evans

      8. Hodgson

    26. waisonline99 on

      I started with Paisley, but Klopp gave me the best buzz.

      Also his team played the best football imho.

      Sadio, Bobby and Mo were electric.

    27. yogurtslayer23 on

      For all of them?

      My list goes like this

      1. Bill shankly. Without him this club doesn’t exist today and won 10 major titles with us. I think he’s undisputed number 1 in my opinion.

      2. Bob paisley. Our most successful manager. 20 trophies and carried on from Shankly. These 2 are undisputed again unless someone surpasses paisley’s trophy count for me.

      3. Jurgen Klopp. My first Liverpool manager and what a guy. Basically our modern shankly who restored back to the elite club we are and won us our first league title and a European cup. And what a personality!

      4. Kenny dalgish. Only going off his first term as his 2nd one wasn’t anything to write home about despite the league cup win and a final. But he won 9 majors with us and led the club through a very difficult time with hillsbrough. Highly respected legend as a player and manager.

      5. Joe fagan: won a treble with us and 5 trophies in 2 seasons. Maintained our dominance.

      6. Rafa Benitez. Gave us the most iconic moments in our history and a memorable FA Cup final. It’s a shame we couldn’t just do better in the league otherwise a league title would’ve put him up higher perhaps.

      7. Gerard houllier. Brilliant 2001 season with a treble and 6 trophies. But we were wank as always in the league.

      8. Arne Slot. Won us number 20 but is having a difficult 2nd season. Slot has a lot of potential but I think it’s way too early to rank him properly. If he’s sacked he doesn’t leave much of a mark on Anfield since he’d only have 2 years with us. Hopefully he can turn it around but that league title and great football he played carries him above the rest.

      9. Roy Evans. Ahhhh the spice boys era. We played good football under him but despite our still strong team failed to win the league. He bagged a league cup though.

      10. Graeme souness. The man responsible for tearing our team apart and killed our dressing room identity. This man killed our discipline and Winning edge and he’s lucky there are worser managers on here otherwise he’d be very bottom. 1x FA cup under him though.

      11. Brendan Rodgers: now probably a very controversial opinion that Rodgers is below souness but I am taking trophies into account and unfortunately souness did win something. I’ve never been a big fan of Rodgers at all but that 13-14 Liverpool side was so special with Suarez, Gerrard, sturridge, counting and a money sniffing raheem £terling Rodgers took us closer to the title since rafa’s 2009 season. However Rodgers had a very bad defense to deal with and then next season is where it all falls apart. Brendan had clashes with ownership over control of transfers, Suarez got sold and Brendan brought in absolutely terrible replacements which showed Rodgers could not lead the club long term. In the Rodgers collapse led to one of Liverpool’s best ever era.

      12. Roy Hodgson. Wank. Wank. Wank. He was so fucking wank. This doesn’t need an explanation worst era under Liverpool and worst manager. That’s all.

    35. -mister_oddball- on

      Bob,Joe,Jürgen,Gerard,Rafa, Kenny( first stint) in that order.
      Left out shanks because he was before my time, would have been number one though…

    36. VadersMentor on

      For those of you who witnessed it, what was the atmosphere like when Dalglish returned to the dugout? I missed it by nearly a year

    38. doktor-frequentist on

      My soft spots are for Houllier and Benitez. They represent such a great combination of managerial flow. On modernized us, and then, the other took over and brought us back to European prominence. I truly believe that they lit the embers of belief that Klopp fanned into a roaring fire.

    39. PicadillyJim on

      Rafa was my first. I’ll rank them 1. Klopp 2. Benitez 3. Rodgers (i think he is underated did a lot with the Team he had) 4. Dalglish (would obviously be higher if i included his first run) 5. Slot 6. Hodgson

    40. dirtybubz on

      My late father always drilled into me how important shankly was to Liverpool’s foundations for success.

      1. Shankly
      2. Paisley
      3. Klopp

    41. ScreenOld on

      Klopp for all the things he did for us. It’s very underwhelming in terms of silverware. But only who watch Klopp team know what we can achieve if it’s not for mancheating city. Probably the best Liverpool side ever. Rarely a weakness to exploit while almost unstoppable in attack.

    42. dreadtomax on

      Go on then, nice to have a trip down memory lane … I started seriously following football in ‘92, first games I remember are the Liverpool Portsmouth FA Cup semi-finals (we had replays for a draw back then) that year.

      1. Klopp 10/10 – I said at the time I’d happily have him manage us forever and never win a trophy, I loved watching his teams play, and I care more about enjoying 90mins week-in week-out than the trophies I see us lift. The fact he also delivered the trophies as well, and oversaw the rebuilding of the club after the near total collapse under H&G was just the icing on the cake.
      2. Houllier 8/10 – The man who built the modern Liverpool, the transition away from the boot room boys into modern football was difficult, but it was Ged who laid the foundations all who came after him benefitted from. Played generally negative football, but there was definitely some beauty in it still. Sadly feel like if he’d been able to be a bit more adventurous then we might have been a little more successful in the pitch, despite that it was a fun time to be a supporter
      3. Rafa 7/10 – Massive highs obviously, CL was an incredible achievement, but my lingering emotions over rather are generally of what could have been; how his team at their peak didn’t win a title I’ll never know – no, that’s a lie, I do know – he took my gripes about Houllier’s safety first approach and cranked them up to 11. A game against Birmingham stands out in my memory as the game that broke the camel’s back for me, I don’t remember any details of the game, just an overriding sense of “what are you doing man, we needed to win this and that’s how you set the team up”.
      4. Slot 6/10 – Won the league, took over from the greatest Liverpool manager of my time and made it look easy (at first anyway), he made me dream that maybe, just maybe, the departure of Klopp wouldn’t see the end of an era but rather an extension. The less said about this season the better, and I don’t put as much of the it on him as many here seem to because there are so many mitigating factors well beyond his control. Despite the attempts of many, no matter how bad this year has been no-one can take away what he achieved last year.
      5. Evans 6/10 – objectively not a good manager perhaps, but football was so much fun in his time. The team felt young and English and exciting, and tbh it’s the most connected I ever felt to the team in my life – even still today. His “crazy” ideas with 3 at the back, and the surprise when I read the news (back in the days when football news came in newspapers) of the double signing of Phill Babb and John Scales for whatever reason is one of the most vivid memories of my teenage years.
      6. Rodgers 4/10 – what a glorious football team he put together, such a shame he was completely incapable of organising anything resembling a defence to give them any chance of success. The end of that 13/14 season broke me.
      7. Hodgson 2/10 – Put in charge at a time when the entire club was in freefall under H&G, he was by no means the cause of the problem, but he was the face of it.
      8. Souness 1/10 – Unlike Hodgson, Souness actively participated in harming the club. He dismantled a squad of proven players who I would go on to watch doing their thing for other teams for years while “enjoying” the likes of Paul Stewart and Mark Walters in their stead. I was too young to really know much about the good times that proceeded Souness’s arrival, but I got to see Beardsley, Staunton, Houghton and co for many years after they were sold and it never made sense.

      I’ll be honest, that second Kenny stint, I look at it more as a caretaker role than a full time managerial appointment.

      I’ll give it 10/10 because at the time it was exactly what we (or at least I) needed. It was a mistake to keep him on beyond the season that he saw out of course, but that doesn’t diminish the job he did in acting as a firebreak between what had been going on before and what was to come after.