Before the likes of Gerry Byrne, Ron Yeats, Tommy Smith and Jamie Carragher, the defender who had his opponents shaking in their boots was Liverpool's original hard man, Walter Wadsworth from Bootle. After reading through several match reports at the time it becomes quite evident that Wadsworth was the quintessential...
Anfield | Sunday 24 May 2026
| Liverpool | Brentford | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | - | 1 |
Profiles of every player named in a Liverpool matchday squad since 1892/93 — from legends to one-game substitutes.
Full results, line-ups, appearances and goals from every official match — covering every season from 1892 to today.
Complete head-to-head records, results and key stats against any opponent.
"Horace Yates of the Liverpool Daily Post was standing in the foyer of a Budapest hotel prior to a European fixture against Ferencvaros. Horace had clearly written something that had made Shankly angry. Shankly walked up to him and bellowed: 'I'm not talking to you or your paper again, the stuff you write is crap, it's bloody rubbish.. I wouldn't wipe my backside with it. So don't ever come to me again. d'yer hear?' At that moment a Hungarian tapped Shankly on the shoulder. Shankly wheeled round and boomed: 'Will you bugger off! I'm talking to a friend of mine.'"
The change has come quickly for Liverpool. In April 2025, Arne Slot's men defeated Tottenham 5-1 at Anfield to claim the 20th league title in England with four games to spare. Just 13 months later, Slot had been sacked, Liverpool finished in fifth place and the champions were in for another big shake-up.
Liverpool's approach to signing players has shifted more times than most clubs care to admit. From the shrewd domestic raids of the Shankly era to the global scouting networks of today, each decade has brought its own philosophy, its own risks, and its own triumphs. The club that once built dynasties from British talent now scours South America and Eastern Europe for bargains that fit a specific tactical blueprint.
Cody Gakpo's situation at Liverpool has turned into one of those debates where the numbers and the mood in the stands seem to belong to two different players. Seven league goals last season, which marks his worst return since arriving from PSV, and yet Tottenham are apparently circling, with Roberto de Zerbi reportedly viewing him as exactly the kind of forward who could unlock his front line. So which version of Gakpo is the real one?
Liverpool's 2026 pre-season has taken the club coast to coast across the United States, with fixtures against Sunderland in Nashville, Wrexham at Yankee Stadium in New York, and Leeds United at Soldier Field in Chicago. It is the club's second US tour in three pre-seasons, and it comes at a moment when Liverpool's commercial presence in America has never been bigger.
