Liverpool have been blessed by many special players over the years but Rafa Benitez’s former assistant manager Pako Ayestaran has picked the four standout players during his tenure at Anfield.
The 59-year-old said (via Planet Football): “The special players show themselves from minute one. Apart from their quality as players, the mental one makes them standout from others.
“It’s not easy to get to the level of Steven Gerrard. But every player who has been able to establish themselves at a high level at top European teams for many years can feel very special.
“Ones like Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano, Didi Hamann, with different characteristics all of them, have been able to establish themselves at big clubs like Liverpool, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.”
It’s not a great surprise to hear the likes of Steven Gerrard, Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano and Didi Hamann be hand selected by the Spanish coach and their influence on our club is not a hard case to argue.
It would also be interesting to hear which players the former Valencia boss would pick from today’s squad under Jurgen Klopp, as his mental and technically best players at our club.
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The club has changed a lot since the days of the former Everton boss but we had a great period of success and were very unlucky to not add another Champions League medal, nor a first Premier League trophy for the club.
We have gone through many periods of change but today’s experiences of success and silverware was most closely matched in recent memory by the Spanish duo, who were at the helm of our club.
It would be nice to have the quartet of players mentioned in our current roster but thankfully, we have more than enough options in our ranks to challenge at the highest level.