Achievements
In spite of the side only winning two trophies during his time with Liverpool, McManaman's achievements at the club were exceptional for a player in a side often labelled negatively. McManaman finished alongside Nick Barmby as joint runner up to Giggs in the PFA Young Player of the Year awards in 1992, was named in the PFA Team of the Year for four consecutive seasons from 1994–95 to 1997–98, and also made the five man shortlist for PFA Player of the Year for three seasons from 1995–96 to 1997–98, with the PFA website describing him as one of the most gifted players of his generation.
For a time McManaman held the record for most consecutive Premier League appearances as an ever present at Liverpool for four seasons including a club record for most appearances, and at the time of leaving the Premiership had the second highest ratio of Premier League assists per game, with 112 assists in 274 appearances, with a total of 142 assists for the club; an average of one assist per two and a half games. As of 2011/12, McManaman holds the 14th position on the Premiership's All Time Assists charts. Until 2011, McManaman held the record for greatest number of assists in Liverpool history, ahead of Steven Gerrard, who has since overtaken him. On 5 September 2006, Steve McManaman was named #22 in the official Liverpool website's "100 Players Who Shook The Kop" list, in which Jamie Carragher described McManaman as "the best midfield player in the country for three or four years" running. Both Rob Jones and Robbie Fowler gave two interviews in 2012/13 in which they stated McManaman was the greatest player they ever played alongside, with Fowler saying: "I've played with many, many great players. Paul Gascoigne was fantastic and I could sit here all day and talk about Liverpool players - John Barnes, Ian Rush, Jan Molby, Ronnie Whelan and Steven Gerrard, who is an unbelievable player. He would probably be my number two. The best player I've ever played with is Steve McManaman...he really was that good."
When Mark Lawrenson and Jim Beglin named McManaman in their team of the 1990s, they said that most managers in the league used the same tactic of marking McManaman to stop Liverpool and whilst it was a tremendous compliment to McManaman, the opposition could stop Liverpool because the tactical system of 3-5-2 or 3-4-1-2 was too dependent on McManaman and would fail if McManaman was off form, or if the team was not complemented by a quality defence (players who could play both wingback and centre half to cope with onslaughts), or the presence of a steely defensive midfielder, which was what happened with the team of that time. Nevertheless, McManaman was voted in on the official Liverpool FC website as the club's midfielder of the 1990s, was named by Ruud Gullit as one of his top two players from the entire Premier League era, and despite Liverpool fans' disappointment over the nature of how McManaman conducted his departure, it is believed that many fans still regard McManaman (along with Fowler) as the two players who carried Liverpool through the 1990s.
In 2012, as part of the FA Premier League 20 Seasons Awards, Steve McManaman was named on the shortlist for the award of best right midfielder, which was eventually won by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Read more about this topic: Steve Mc Manaman, Club Career, Liverpool
Famous quotes containing the word achievements:
“Like all writers, he measured the achievements of others by what they had accomplished, asking of them that they measure him by what he envisaged or planned.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)
“Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements, and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. We see our past achievements as the end result of a clean forward thrust, and our present difficulties as signs of decline and decay.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“There are some achievements which are never done in the presence of those who hear of them. Catching salmon is one, and working all night is another.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)